Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin | Berg’s Book Club

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is a book that deals with grief in a way that children can understand; it has an interesting take on the afterlife. I found Elsewhere a quick read, one that can be finished in half a day or less. Perfect for people who struggle reading larger books, or dense books.

I also feel that this is a great concept on death – returning to earth has been done before – some religions believe resurrections after all, but I love the idea of getting younger again. However, Liz (Elizabeth Hall) who is close to being able to learn to drive and graduating high school doesn’t like the idea of ageing backwards!

Showing Verse Telling

While I love the story and find the use of language ideal for children, I do feel that Zevin tells too much of what the characters think. There are parts of the narrative where this works really well, like when the story is told from the point of view of Lucy, Liz’s pug on earth, but there are times when it is too much and tells the emotions of the human characters rather than shows them.

The book is targeted to eleven— fourteen-year-olds and so I feel a little more showing would have made the writing more interesting. However, I feel the book can still be enjoyed despite this.

Believable Characters

Zevin makes believable characters with dynamic range and a lot of conflict.

Liz Hall

Liz Hall struggles to accept that she died at the age of fifteen and now has to live ‘elsewhere’. In fact, during the transition period, where all the recently dead are on the SS Nile, she believes that she is dreaming.

She spends most of the ship journey in a sort of trance, waiting to wake up. It is only when the ship stops that she finally accepts that it is not a dream. Still, she clings to earth, her family and the life that she should have had… If anyone has read the Lovely Bones, it has a similar feel.

This lingering lasts some time and even becomes an obsession as she learns she is able to contact the living.

Liz faces challenges such as addiction. The addiction is to binoculars that allow her to see the living for five minutes an eternium (the currency in elsewhere) and this leads her to needing 24 coins a day. The binoculars hinder Liz more than help her as they hold her link to earth and allows her to use the binoculars to live her life through the lives of her friends and family the first month she is there.

Eventually, Liz accepts that she is dead and lives her life in Elsewhere. As a character, Liz grows and matures despite ageing backwards, she even experiences her first love – something she thought wouldn’t happen after she had died – and gets a job as a domestic pet counsellor, the animals can talk in Elsewhere, which leads to the adoption of Sexy Sandie.

Grandmother

Liz’s grandmother worries but tries to give her space until she expects that Liz is going to make contact with the living. She has all the experience of her parenting when she was alive to keep her on her toes, but even then, Liz is able to pull a few strings. Despite this, the grandmother struggles to connect with her granddaughter and must try to find the right balance between friend and grandmother.

Minor Characters

Owen Welles is her love interest. He died around ten years before Liz at the age of twenty-eight, leaving behind Emily, his wife. Liz dislikes him at first because he stops her second attempt at making contact with the living and shows her the consequences of her actions.

Sandy and Lucy are both dogs, both are unique. In elsewhere, dogs that die can communicate with humans, although on earth, we hear Lucy’s thoughts when the story is told through her perspective.

Elsewhere

Elsewhere is the name of the land the dead go to and I feel that it is well chosen. A mystery, just like death and it’s ambiguous, it can mean anything, anywhere, anytime.

The name really helps bring the world alive jus as much as the characters.

Thoughts

I won’t tell you what happens – it’s a great and lovely book and I recommend you read it. There isn’t really anything I can fault it for apart from maybe a tad too much telling.