Elsewhere

Reader reviewed by Jocey

Liz Halls friends, family, and even herself are utterly shocked at her unexpected death. Who would have thought that a normal fifteen year old girls life would be ended because she never looked both ways while riding her bike through an intersection. However, instead of floating up on a cloud to pearly gates and streets of gold, Lizzie finds herself seasick and confused on an enormous cruise ship. It takes days for her to piece the puzzle together at which time she arrives, by boat, in Elsewhere, the world of the dead. She struggles to accept the sad but true fact that she will never again go back to her previous life and never be that same person on earth again. She cannot let go of her life and becomes addicted to watching her family and friends down on earth through mysterious binoculars. She closes up too her grandmother, who had died before Lizs birth, refusing to listen to her optimistic views or advice. Gabrielle Zevin brilliantly captures the frustration of a teenager that will never turn sixteen, never graduate high school, and never fall in love. Zevin does a fantastic job developing the character throughout the book in a very short amount of time. Liz learns to carry on with her death and eventually improves her attitude. This fictional novel entertains you with new possibilities and potentials that you have never even dreamt of. It is fairly fast paced and a great quick book to read that will not take you very long. I would give this book to teenagers especially, but mostly anyone for that matter because it teaches us to make the best out of all situations we find ourselves in.

Reader reviewed by Allison

A girl dead at sixteen finds herself in a new kind of afterlif,e in which you live life backwards until you are reborn. However interesting the plot may be, I found this book horrible. From the first three pages, you knew exactly how the book was going to end. And you guessed corrctly, there were no twists inthe plot. Also, the wording of the book made it seem as though a ten year old wrote it. Interesting plot, but any one of us could have written it just as well, or even better..