Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Elsewhere (Gabrielle Zevin)

Summary:
Liz is nearly sixteen, and totally ready for life to come her way. She's on the way to help her best friend pick out a prom dress, but gets forever waylaid by a taxi to the torso. Oops. After she dies, she goes to Elsewhere, where everyone is dead, and instead of existing forever in whatever form they died in, they all age backwards. She meets her grandmother who died long before she was born, as well as plenty of other people who become very dear to her.

Thoughts:
It's a very interesting take on the life-after-death thing. I really like the idea, actually. There are images of elderly people holding hands with their young spouses that died long before they were ready. Sure, it's a little weird. But it's a nice story. Plus there's dogs and cats there in Elsewhere, so it's got to be okay, right? I just have to wonder about who I would be able to see again by the time I got there, if this was how it came about. Definitely a take on the afterlife that I'd never have thought about. I hope this is how it is, because I'd love to see my family in their younger forms.

A couple cool quote-ables that I came across from this book:

"In my humble opinion, love is when a person believes that he, she, or it can't live without some other he, she, or it."

"Love, Lizzie, is when we have irrationally convinced ourselves that we do."

--page 180

and

"A life isn't measured in hours and minutes. It's the quality, not the length."
--page 266

Just thought I'd share those. Definitely recommend this one, for the thoughts this could provoke.

Pages: 277
Genre: General fiction, maybe a little fantasy?
Grade: A-/B+
Would I Recommend?: Absolutely.

36 down, 14 to go!

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