Book Review-Elsewhere

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Think, just for one moment. Think of the second after you die. Not the second before, or the second it happens, but what about the second after? What happens? Do you see God’s face? A White light? Emptiness? This book is about one girl’s second after. The second Elizabeth Marie Hall arrived in “Elsewhere”. She woke up on a ship heading somewhere, with no memory of falling asleep on the bottom bunk under another girl her age. She wandered about the ship seeing a large amount of old people, and only a few people even close to her age of 15. Every so often she would see someone with a terrible injury, but walking around like they were in no pain. Towards the end of her trip, she was summoned to the Observation Deck, and watched her funeral through a set of sight seeing binoculars attached to the ship. She finally realized she was dead. This was not fair at all. She didn’t get to get married, have kids, go to college, prom, or even turn 16.
When she arrives in Elsewhere, she meets her grandmother that died right before she was born. Liz stays with her for the rest of her days in Elsewhere. Liz has to pick an avocation. This is like a job, but it is something that you just love doing, and it benefits life in Elsewhere. Liz chooses to work at the place where dogs arrive in Elsewhere. She speaks canine, one of the few people who can do this naturally, and quickly learns to love her avocation. She adopts a dog, meets a guy, falls in love with them both, and lives her days in Elsewhere to the fullest.
Her days in Elsewhere were not all sunshiny and pretty though, she had her moments. She was very depressed when she first arrived. There is something in Elsewhere called the sneaker clause. This allows you after spending one year in Elsewhere to go back to Earth early. Not back to your old life, but just away from Elsewhere. Liz wanted to do this, and got about halfway down the river before she realized this is not what she really wanted. Her good friend Owen came to her rescue in a boat after she was missing for three days. When she arrived back at her grandmother Betty’s house, everyone was so happy. Here is a quote from that part:
"We never know what will happen,” Betty says, “but I believe good things happen even when bad things happen. And I believe on a happy day like today, we can still feel a little sad. And that's life, isn't it?” Betty raises her glass. “To Liz!"
At the end of the book, there is an amazing chapter about life. Here is the last part:
“Oh, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that's not how it works. A human’s life is a beautiful mess."
This quote means so much about life, and I think that if I tried to sum it up it would last forever. A human’s life is bittersweet. full of good and bad times, and we have to make the best of what we have here.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It was an amazing read and I think that if anyone loves reading, that they should read this book. It gives you so much more of an outlook on life, and really does make you think so much about everything. It gives new views and ideas that you never would have thought of, and it is a truly amazing experience.



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