Elsewhere

Elsewhere (2005) by Gabrielle Zevin was a delight! You wouldn’t think that a book that opens with a 15-year old girl, Liz, who dies in an accident on her bicycle would be so uplifting, but Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; The Storied Life of AJ Fikry) is a magician, and this is one of my favorites of the thirty books I’ve read so far this year (as of March 24, 2024).

Liz awakes on a cruise ship with a roommate, Thandi, another teenager. She thinks this is a dream, but eventually she realizes that she must be dead. The ship is headed towards Elsewhere, where people go after they die. Luckily, her Grandma Betty, who died before she was born, is waiting for her. Liz doesn’t take to dying young all that well, as she finds out that people age backwards in Elsewhere. So she won’t ever grow up and get to experience the things that adults do, like have a boyfriend because she’ll just age back to being a “stupid baby.” When the people in Elsewhere have aged backwards to their birth, they are Released back to the land of the living.

People in Elsewhere can keep tabs on the living through viewfinder-like telescopes that they have to pay for time with, which, as you might imagine, some people spend a lot of time doing. In Elsewhere, you don’t have to do the same thing as you did when you were living, so there is a famous singer who becomes a fisherman; and Liz, even though she wasn’t old enough to work when she lived, starts to work in the animal center, where she helps acclimate the animals who come to Elsewhere, because she finds out that she can speak Canine. Dogs speak in Elsewhere and some people can understand them!

She does try to contact her family back on Earth, which is strictly against the rules, and in so doing, meets Owen, who made many attempts himself in the past, since he died young and left his wife, Emily. Owen teaches Liz how to drive, and finally begins to get over her. And Liz has a boyfriend! But what will happen when Emily shows up in Elsewhere?

It’s such a sweet book, and a page-turner. I really wanted to find out how Liz’s life after death turned out–I read it almost in one sitting, and I cried good tears. And it was completely weight-neutral, free from any ant-fat bias.