Elsewhere

Elsewhere

by:

Gabrielle Zevin

"On, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that's not how it works. A human life is a beautiful mess."These are one of the many quotes I have read in one of my favorite novel “Elsewhere”. I read this book on April, 2010 and I was introduced to this book by a friend. With every chapter I read I crave for more and when I finished the book my hungry still lingered and to this day I hunger for novels such as this.

The novel tells of a place where all people go when they die and what the afterlife is and what they do there. The “end” begins when a 15 year old teenager, Liz Hall, was killed in a hit and run accident and she finds herself in a cruise boat with old people believing that she is dreaming. A few days past and she begin to realize that she isn’t dreaming. When the boat arrives to its destination, Liz is met by her grandmother who tries to explain to her what and where she is.

 Liz struggles to understand what has happened to her, grief-stricken at all she has lost, and incapable of seeing the benefits of Elsewhere in. Refusing to participate in this new life, Liz spends her time looking longingly down at the family and friends back on Earth who goes on without her like a spirit who lingers on after death. In this dramatic story Liz tries to find a way to “live” in this new environment and life in Elsewhere.

As you read the book thoughts of what your own afterlife will be and what you will do there. The novel is very motivating it will make you think of how situations get worse before they will become better and overall to never give up on life and enjoy the wonderful things that you have if it be family, friends, or processions, life is something to enjoy and to live it through and not something to waste. I recommend this book to people who loose thought of what life means to you and to both men and women. It is a great book to read and it has something new on each page and great foreshadowing to what the “beginning” will be. I hope that I will read more books with similar genres as this and more great story lines as Elsewhere.