Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Release Date: September 9, 2005
Pages: 271
Rating:💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Elsewhere is where 15-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. Here Liz will age backwards from the day of her death until she becomes a baby and is returned to Earth.  Liz spends her hours mourning for what, and who she has lost. But is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward? And can Liz ever find peace in a world so different, yet so similar to her own?

This book wasn't what I was expecting, and I'm still not sure if that is a good thing or not. I am a big fan of books about life after death, with one of my favourite books being The Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant, so I was very excited for this one. I think I went in with a strong pre-conceived idea about what the content of the book was going to be, because I read this book feeling let down.

The premise of this book was actually really interesting. The idea put forward in this book was like a mixture of the Catholic and Muslim belief system, with people getting to experience both Heaven and reincarnation. The idea that humans are recycled throughout the years is genuinely a very interesting thing and it fascinated me. Imagine being friends with someone who used to be Marie Curie or Charles Darwin; even if you didn't know it would be so cool.

However, the plot of overshadowed by several romance plots and a lot of teenage drama. Even the romance was questionable when you consider the fact that much older people end up falling in love with much younger people, because they have aged backwards to be the same age. It is the standard Benjamin-Button phenomenon, which makes you question what love actually is. (For reference, this a 15 year old girl who ends up with a 35 year old boy (who was married) because he looks 17).  Although the romance was sweet, it felt uncomfortable to me in a way that it might not for a younger reader. On that note, a lot of the jokes fell flat or just weren't recognisable as jokes. I didn't actually realise some of the passages were meant to be jokes until I read them in people's Goodreads reviews.

I don't want to seem like a Debby-downer, but another thing I didn't like about the book was the fact that animals could talk. I thought it could have been a cool concept, especially as it seemed that the animal languages were actually things that you could learn, rather than just generic English for all(!). However, any talking down by an animal was jarring and actually seemed to take away from the plot, rather than add anything important, especially as the animals were constantly talking in broken English. I think this concept would have flowed better if they could construct complete sentences and speak English, rather than the broken tongue they were given in this book.

It felt almost like a book for 10 year olds, with talking animals and mermaids that swam in the oceans, rather than the Young Adult book it is advertised as.  The ideas were all presented in a young way, as if it was a simple book to introduce children to the concept of philosophy. I'm kind-of upset that I din't read it when I was younger, because this book actually had quite a few gems in it, and had a interesting perception of mortality. Definitely give it to you child or younger cousin because it was quite lovely and is a good introduction into the concept of death.

"A life isn't measured in hours and minutes. It's the quality, not the length.”