Dying To Go Elsewhere
The cover art of Gabrielle Zevin's novel "Elsewhere".
The age old question has always been: Where do you go when you die?
For fifteen-year-old Liz Hall, she found out her answer sooner than she thought. After being hit by a speeding taxi driver, Liz Hall ends up on a cruise to Elsewhere. While in elsewhere, you cannot get sick or age. Instead, you age backwards until you reach one year old and are sent back to Earth as a baby without any memory of your previous life.
Liz is greeted by her grandmother that had died before she was born. Liz is faced with grief and denial that she cannot go back to Earth. To create a happy median, Liz visits the observation deck every day with her grandmother's money. As soon as Liz's grandmother realizes that Liz is using her money for the observation deck instead of clothing, she cuts Liz off and makes her get a job for herself.
Liz finds that she can talk to different animals, so she is hired for a job at the vet. While at work, Liz adopts a dog and meets a man named Owen. Liz and Owen find love with each other, but after Owen is re-united with his wife in Elsewhere, he immediately breaks off the relationship, leaving Liz with a broken heart.
After many days of planning, Liz decides that she will try to use a forbidden well to sneak back to Earth despite the many warnings of her peers. After failed attempts, Liz finally accepts being dead and lives her life backwards until she is released back to Earth as a baby.
Gabrielle Zevin adds humor into a rather dark subject, and also creates many suspenseful chapters that make a reader never want to put down the book until the very last page. I recommend this book to any reader looking for a light read.
