Elsewhere

Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin
What if dying didn't bring you to heaven or hell or purgatory? What if it brought you somewhere else - somewhere in which they lived a lot like you did in on earth with your family and friends. But that somewhere else, let's call it Elsewhere, wasn't just like your old town. Instead of growing up, you arrived at your age of death and aged backwards until you were a baby and could be sent back to earth.

That is what happens to Liz in this book. She awakens on the S.S.Nile and is soon greeted by her grandmother (whom she had never met) and they begin their trip backwards in time. But she isn't ready to live her death. Instead, she watched her funeral, her prom, her family and friends, all from the Observation Decks around Elsewhere.


I don't think that there are any real questions in this book. Instead of wondering what was going to happen, I felt myself rooting for Liz, wanting her to come out of her funk over dying and start living in her death. It was really strange to think of people aging backwards. For example, if a woman dies when she was 80 but her husband died 30 years earlier at the age of 50, the woman would arrive in Else at the age of 80 and be greeted by her 20 year old husband. Picturing that couple together was something I had difficulty doing. As a teenager, Liz could have met another teen and only to find out that he died when he was 76 and lived another 60 years in Elsewhere. I liked the premise of this book, but I don't know who I would recommend it to.


A-Z Challenge
I think I skipped a couple of book reviews and I've been reading books that I can't fit into the lists because I've already read the letters for the author and title, but my upcoming reviews (should I choose to remember to write them)
Meg Cabot - Airhead; The Boy Next Door
Kyra Davis - Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights
Mindy Klasky - Girl's Guide to Witchcraft; Sorcery and the Single Girl
Lee Nichols - Wednesday Night Witches
Currently Reading: TBD