Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Here’s a bit about Elsewhere from the Macmillan site: Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.


Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

I really enjoyed this book. The fact that it is in third person, tends to leave the writing somewhat stilted sometimes. A lot of “Lizzie did this” and “Lizzie did that” which made for choppy reading. I did love thinking about the whole concept of aging in reverse and returning to live out subsequent lifetimes. I think there’s something to be said for fearlessly opening one’s heart and moving forward (or backward) through life, embracing whatever comes your way. Like Don Henley sings “There’s just so many summers babe, just so many springs.” Heavy stuff for a 15 year old to ponder. I find myself thinking over this book long after I’ve finished with it. The cover is pretty decent. I’ll give this one 3 ½ flowers but list it below as 4. After all, who wants to chop a flower in two.