so this is pretty much my favorite book on earth. i could read it over and over. it has an acquired taste though. for me, i love reading books about people like trapped in the afterlife or just like dead people in general where they went. i don't know its just my thing. this isn't like a dark book though, it's intended for young people, not to like scare you and cause bad dreams.Anyway, this is Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. I have read other stuff by her too, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac it was good, but this is definitely my favorite because like i said, it's my thing.
Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It's quiet and peaceful. You can't get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere's museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe's psychiatric practice.
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver's license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she's dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward? This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver's license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she's dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward? This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.
What is cool about this is that elsewhere has these like binocular looking things, that are found on ships, that people there can use to look at what is going on on Earth. the only bad part about this is, the main character Liz, because she is so young and left a whole teenage life behind. finds herself constantly there. eventually, she does pull away and enjoys the "life" she is living backward. its a really cool concept actually. when they get to be like newborns, they send them down the river when they are asleep, and when the babies wake up, they are born. i guess that means, the river is sorta acting like the birth canal though...
"On, 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 life is a beautiful mess."
how true is that? no one life is perfect. you think you got your life lined up, stacked in a perfect pile, and someone comes and knocks it down. life is really about taking chances and making that beautiful mess of a life something you love.
Elsewhere is a really great book. i have made everyone in my family read it. i know. it's not a of peoples "thing" to read about people who are dead but this book is actually really funny. i mean i laughed a lot. i'm still laughing today every time i read it.
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