Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Elsewhere
Book Review: Wow
Summary: 5 Stars
Exellent book, shows you how to appreciate the life(or death) that you have because you never know what will happen.
Liz age 16 ends up in elsewhere,a place like heaven that you age backwards from the age that you died at. On the way Liz meets her grandmother, can review life on earth and almost becomes obsessed with connecting with the life she thinks she is still in but realizes that she need to live her death to the fullest because she may not be back for a long time.
Book Review: Your Attention May Drift Elsewhere
Summary: 3 Stars
This YA title will probably earn 5 stars from girls, especially girls with Lurlene McDaniels-type affinities for the topic of death, because this novel is all about the living end (read: "the afterlife"). In truth, the whole concept of death being life in a mirror world is great, and ELSEWHERE kind of, sort of had me hooked at the get-go, but then it LET go as the chapters wore on.
Don't get me wrong. Author Gabrielle Zevin gets "A" for effort. Her earnest protagonist, Liz, is a likable 15-year-old who gets killed by a hit-and-run taxi cab driver. She "wakes up" on a cruiser heading for an alternate world that looks suspiciously like our world except you can't die there (because you already are) and the dogs talk (more than just "woof," I mean). Lizzie is upset because she missed the prom, misses her best friend Zooey, loves her mom, dad, and brother Alvy, and will never a.) get her Massachusetts driving license (a.k.a. "License To Kill," if you know anything about Massachusetts), b.) lose her virginity, and c.) grow big boobs (you know, all the real important stuff in life).
The catch about Elsewhere is that everyone ages backwards until, on their birthday, they are sent down a river to be reborn as another baby on Earth. The Buddhists are clapping, and it sure beats Hell (with all that smell of smoke), Heaven (with all those harps and angel feathers), or Nothing (with all that depressing "nothingness"), but still, it's a bit too sweet to swallow.
The side characters include Lizzie's grandmother Betty, who takes her in, a girl named Thandi who was shot in the head the same day Lizzie was hit, a drug-overdosed rock star named Curtis "Surely You" Jest, and a love interest named Owen who died at 26 but has "backed in" to being just two years Lizzie's senior. Oh. And the bad news is, all these living dead folk in Elsewhere can pump "eternims" (coinage of the realm) in a binocular-type set up to watch us living alive folk do things like wash dishes, scratch our elbows, and use the bathroom. (Yeesh.)
Not a lot happens in this book, and the large amount of dialogue and short, simple sentences begin to take their toll after awhile. Throw in a few unrealistic plot turns plus characters acting like you wouldn't expect them to act, and you see why some readers' attention might drift elsewhere. Nevertheless, the book's a gamer, quite unique, and recommended for girls of a sentimental drift. Otherwise, my advice is to look both ways before crossing the street...
Book Review: inconsistently applied
Summary: 3 Stars
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.Book Review: this book surprised me..
Summary: 4 Stars
when i started reading the first few pages of the book, i didnt think i would like it. i actually didnt want to read anymore of it, but im glad i did.
this book is really good. its about a 15 year old girl, Liz, who gets hit by a car and dies. when she wakes up she realizes shes in a place called "elsewhere" where instead of aging forward, you age backwards until youre a baby and you go back to earth.
i liked how at first Liz thought there was no hope for her and she hated Elsewhere, but in time she became more open minded and found what she really wanted: love.
my favorite character in this book is betty, who is liz's grandmother. shes so understanding and so patient. even when liz did something bad, betty never yelled or got angry. instead she just forgave her and still loved her. betty is a very warm character that i got to love.
another think i like about this book is how much drama there was. there wasnt a single boring chapter in this book.
even though this book was good, there were still things i didnt like. i didnt like how the author spoke for the characters. i didnt know how they felt, but i was TOLD what they felt. i also had a lot of unanswered questions throughout the whole book.
this isn't my favorite book but this is one of the most unique books i ever read.