Elsewhere

LS 5623 Book Review
Fantasy & Science Fiction

Bibliography
Zevin, Gabrielle. 2005. ELSEWHERE. New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 9780374320911.

Plot Summary
Liz, a fifteen year old girl, is hit by a taxi and killed. At the beginning of the story Liz wakes up on a cruise ship and tries to figure out where she is. We follow Liz on her boat trip and subsequent landing on Elsewhere, then Liz finally realizes she is dead. Now Liz has to choose how to spend her time in Elsewhere. Who will she befriend? What will her avocation be? What does the future hold?

Critical Analysis
In this book's gripping opening we learn through the eyes of Liz's dog, Lucy, that Liz is dead. After that intriguing opening we are introduced to Liz who is righteously upset at being dead. "I'll never go to college or get married or get big boobs or live on my own or fall in love or get my driver's license or anything? I can't believe this!" After this emotional outburst from Liz the readers are in for the ride, we empathize with Liz's loss and wish to console her; Zevin has made Liz so endearing that she becomes anyone we have lost in our lives, and we want Liz to find happiness in Elsewhere.

The setting of the book is what drives the story forward but it does not overshadow the characters. Zevin does a good job of making the rules for Elsewhere simple: people can get hurt but no one dies, people age in reverse (for example, next year Liz will be 14), and when anyone reverses to a few days old they are placed in a river to be reborn on earth. These simple rules are followed throughout the book and makes this story true to it's own rules. Zevin has created a deceptively simple reality that can spark some very complex discussions about the afterlife.

This book is a quiet and gentle but, at the same time disturbing and thought provoking. There is not a lot of action in Elsewhere, Liz moves through the book slowly adapting to life but, this is what makes this novel both compelling and believable. Booklist says, "Although Zevin's conception of the afterlife will inevitably ruffle many theological feathers, the comfort it offers readers grieving for lost loved ones, as well as the simple, thrilling satisfaction derived from its bold engagement with basic, provocative questions of human existence, will far outweigh any offense its metaphysical perspective might give. Far more than just a vehicle for a cosmology, this inventive novel slices right to the bone of human yearning, offering up an indelible vision of life and death as equally rich sides of the same coin."


Connections
* Have students create a journal entry about someone they are no longer able to see.
* In the story Liz wanted to tell her Dad one last thing, have the students imagine if they died today what one thing would they want to do?