When Elizabeth "Lizzie" "Liz" Marie Hall dies from a hit and run accident, she could not expect what would happen next. Welcome to Elsewhere, a place just like Earth, BUT you age backwards! Lizzie will not only find true love, but the meaning of life itself. Gabreil Zevin outdoes herself in "Elsewhere" ( )

This book actually gives me the creepers, bit it is very very cleverly written. :) It will leave you with a smile on your face, even when you don't get the ending that you expect.

I really liked this book. It's classified as Young Adult, and I think it did a great job dealing with death, what comes after we die, and a whole slew of relationship issues, running the gamut from romantic to familial and multi-generational, with a splash of platonic friendship.

I think this book would be good for anyone in junior high on up. ( )

Enjoyed this book. When I first started reading it, I felt a little disoriented. I wasn't sure what was happening. Yet, by the third or fourth chapter it became clear. This novel has a very interesting and creative premise.

What I liked about the book is humor. For example, when Elizabeth (main character) explains to Paco (chihuaha) abou the is dead and Pete is back on earth, Paco keeps asking her where's Pete. Then she explains to him agand and again. Also I like the part when Elizabeth met Sadie (dog) and Sadie is licking in the toilet bowl and Elizabeth tells her tha humans use it to go to the bathroom, Sadie was so disgusted by it that she hurls in the toilet. AHS/KS

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Stories about the Afterlife have always appealed to me. There are thousands upon thousands of interpretations out there about what, exactly, happens to a person after they die. ELSEWHERE is a new spin on an old topic, but it manages to bring emotion, realism, and entertainment to something that is, in most circumstances, a very depressing situation. To me, ELSEWHERE is a combination of Mitch Albom's THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN and Alice Sebold's THE LOVELY BONES, two other wonderful books dealing with death and the Afterlife. ELSEWHERE goes beyond those two books, however, taking readers on a journey into a land so much like Earth, and yet so very, very different.

Fifteen-year old Elizabeth "Liz" "Lizzie" Marie Hall has found herself in ELSEWHERE after dying in a bicycle-meets-taxi accident. After taking a long ride on the SS Nile, Liz has finally realized that she's not in a dream after all, but really, truly dead. When she arrives on Elsewhere, she meets her maternal grandmother, Betty, for the very first time. A woman who died at fifty from breast cancer, Betty is now a woman in her thirties--one of the first surprises Liz is in for is the fact that, on Elsewhere, lives are lived backward from the age of a person's death. Needless to say, this thought depresses Liz. She'll never be sixteen, never have a Massachusetts driver's license, never go to the prom or graduate from high school or go to college or get married. The only thing she has to look forward to is growing younger, until she returns to being an infant and is sent back to Earth to be born again.

Liz spends her first month on Elsewhere spending all of her time--and her grandmother's eternims, the currency used there--to watch her family, friends, and classmates back on Earth. She's soon a regular at the OD's, or Observation Decks, watching life on Earth pass her by. She's upset that her best friend, Zooey, didn't attend her funeral. Her parents are inconsolable, her younger brother, Alvy, tells jokes to get through the day, and her dog, Lucy, refuses to accept that Liz isn't coming back.

It takes awhile, but Liz finally realizes that spending hours upon hours at the OD's is not helping her adjust to life on Elsewhere. She finds a new friend in Owen, one of the detectives in charge of keeping the inhabitants of Elsewhere away from the Well, where contact with people on Earth is possible, but illegal. She once again befriends Thandi, a young girl killed on Earth by a stray bullet, who was her bunkmate on the SS Nile. She gets closer to grandmother Betty, finally takes a job in the Division of Domestic Animals helping recently departed pets find new owners, and seems to be finding a place on Elsewhere.

I really loved this story. One of the most delightful things in ELSEWHERE is the animals, especially the dogs. Liz, a natural at the language of Canine, is able to interpret for her four-legged friends, and finally understand everything they have to say. I can't truly imagine aging backwards, but Gabrielle Zevin has managed to make a truly believable story that is realistic, entertaining, and emotional, all at the same time. This is definitely a recommended read, and in all honesty, I would love to visit the land of Elsewhere again in the future. ( )

This book was good but it was sad. I don't really like to think about death especially in the fictional since. I hated that in Elsewhere people aged backwards and it was like a never ending cycle of birth and rebirth. Overall I did enjoy the book.

A very well thought out and well written young adult book about death, dying, the afterlife, but more importantly about doing what is right for you while you are alive. Gabrielle Zevin's other novels also has the sense of a chance to do your life over and make it what it should be, Elsewhere is a kind of It's a Wonderful Life for the afterlife. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and passed it on to several people. ( )

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Publisher: Farrar,, Straus, and Grioux, 2005
Ages 12 and up

Lizzie Hall is fifteen and preparing to get her driver’s license and help her friend pick out a dress for the prom. All of these plans change in the blink of an eye. Suddenly Lizzie wakes up on a ship called the SS Nile. She and her roommate Thandi, dressed in white pajama’s leave the room to find food and explore. Unlike Thandi it takes Liz a while to realize that she, like everyone else on this ship is dead. When the ship finally stops she finds herself in a place called Elsewhere and on the dock is her Grandmother Betty.
Liz tries all kinds of things to find out who she is in this strange place. Just when she thinks she has it figured out and has found someone to love, her luck changes again.
This was an absolutely delightful read. You see the rebellious teenager unwilling to change at first and then you see the teenager who has decided to give her time in elsewhere her best. She finds talents she never knew she had and uses them to help others. This was a fun read. I found myself giggling out loud at times. This book definitely gets a 5 out of 5 for being easy, delightful and fun. ( )

I loved this book. Excellent. I also listened to parts of the audio book and loved the narrator's voice. ( )

Interesting story of what happens to a 15-year-old girl after she dies. ( )

This was an amazing book. Liz Hall, the main character, is dead in the story but she is so full of life and ready to live whatever is left in her. Reading this book gave me a sense of peace of what comes in the afterlife because Liz had such a great experience "living" her death. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I laughed, I cried (especially at the end). It is an interesting take on life after death. I would recommend it. ( )

This is a fresh and whole new angle (for me at least) of looking at death. I loved the details put into describing the book (like how those who just arrived at 'Elsewhere' are given an orientation class, and how binoculars are used for looking in on the living). I love that human can communicate with dogs in Elsewhere!

As the book progressed, it became a little bland, and the plot seemed to lose its steam towards the end.

People who have not experienced lost may find the book a little annoying and pointless, but for those who have lost loved ones, its one of those books that helps a little in our search for "what happens after someone dies?" answers. It gives some comfort, and most importantly hope.

http://sarahbbc.wordpress.com/2009/04... ( )

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is a interesting fiction story about how when everyone dies you go to Elsewhere and you age backwards to when you are a baby. Once you are a baby you return back to Earth and relive your life. Elsewhere got my attention. I kept asking myself do we really live our life to find out that in reality this is what's going to happen? This story makes you imagine alot. You really get into the story. You really get into the characters and you feel bad for the main character because she never gets to live her dream. I loved this story. It's a page turner. ( )

Funny and wonderful. ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blo... ( )

A very strage backwards (literally) book. ( )

The premise of this book is that when we die, we go to Elsewhere where we age backwards until we reach babyhood, at which point we are returned to Earth to live another life. It's an interesting idea that is unfortunately applied inconsistently here, to the detriment of the story. In some cases, the aging backward is portrayed as being only physical level, with emotional maturity at least staying constant, if not increasing as the years go on. As the main characters return to young childhood, though, they are portrayed as both looking and acting their "age." This discrepancy wouldn't have bothered me so much except that relative age becomes an issue in the relationships between some of the characters. ( )

An imaginative and thought-provoking young adult novel about a teenager who is the victim of a motor vehicle accident. Zevin explores some of the circumstances of our own lives (and perhaps specifically concepts such as ‘justice’, ‘fairness’, 'obsession' and ‘letting go’, in their various incarnations) by postulating an imaginary alternate life where we go after we die. ( )

Surprisingly affecting story of life after death. Elsewhere turns out to be like Earth, except that you age backwards, and don't have to go to school. Asks "what if" questions about our attachment to the Earthly life. Would you want to see what life was like for those left behind? Would it be a good or a bad idea to try and contact them. Although it's pretty light-hearted, I was drawn in to the story. I listened to the audio version, read by a voice actor with a believable teen aged voice. ( )

This book was wonderful and different. Its about a girl who dies and in heaven she, along with everybody else, has to go through this cycle that leads to her rebirth. When she died, she stopped growing older and started growing younger. I thought that this book was amazing and I wish I could re-read it again. If I had time I would read it again and again.

You wouldn't expect a book about a young person's death to be happy, but this is one of the happiest books i've ever read. (And that includes Babar the Elephant.) The afterlife is an unwelcome shock to begin with but by the end of the book, having passed the stages of grief (denial, anger, etc), Liz realises it is lovely. Simple and deep as a poem, a beautiful story. ( )

A patron recommended this book to me. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but what I found was surprisingly good. Let me first say that there are lots of inconsistencies within the plot, there are holes that are never quite filled properly, but as with all fantasy novels (and that's what I consider this to be), these can be ignored for the good of the story. The plot is simple: Liz, aged 15 (almost 16) is hit by a car, dies, and ends up in Elsewhere. But what makes Elsewhere so good is what Gabrielle Zavin does next. Instead of the traditional heaven/hell concept, she gives his Elsewhere, the place where people who die go to well, live. But instead of getting older, they get younger. Elsewhere is a moving story about growing up, without growing up at all. Zavin's writing is beautiful and moving, and it's those two features that make up for all the other (minor) problems. Highly recommended, especially for teens coping with the death of a friend. ( )