Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Alexandra

Fifteen-year-old Liz has just died, and she's not exactly thrilled about it. Now she is in a strange place called Elsewhere, which looks like Earth, but isn't really like Earth. In Elsewhere, you have an avocation, not a job, and most people don't continue the same profession they had in life. You can watch people on Earth from the Observation Decks, but Contact is strictly forbidden. Most noticeably, you age backwards from your age of death, until you are a baby, at which time you are sent back to Earth for your next life. For Liz, this is not appealing at all. She is unhappy that she will never reach sixteen, and she thinks she missed out on too many things in life that she will now never get to experience. Most importantly, she thinks she will never fall in love. However, Liz learns to love her new life (or death), as she learns to be open to new experiences. And, she is happy to learn, in Elsewhere, very little is impossible, even falling in love. Gabrielle Zevin's first young adult novel is well-written and moving, and a true coming-of-age story, though age may be regressing.