TITLE: Elsewhere
AUTHOR: Gabrielle Zevin
PUBLISHED: 2005
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: drama
PREMISE: Liz wakes up to discover she died. Now she needs to adjust to a new life in the Elsewhere...
MY REVIEW: I found the concept of this novel fascinating. It's definately a unique take on what happens after you die. If you're a devout Christian who believes in the heaven/hell scenario you may not be on board with the ideas presented in this book. That's okay, it's not for everyone. But I personally liked the unique idea.
However, the unique idea was bogged down by the romance/drama that apparently everyone thinks needs to be in a YA book. I felt this book would have been stronger without these things in it. But because it's YA and everything, there you go.
But that's my only major complaint. For the most part I enjoyed this book. I found the ideas presented interesting, I liked seeing Liz go through character growth and seeing her new life progress and the writing was pretty good as well (despite the ever awkward present tense). This is one of those rare YA novels that make you think about life and how we live it and on a completely random note: how cute were those dogs? Though as a cat person, I kept wondering where all the cats were...But all in all this is a solid book.
WHO SHOULD READ:...not sure really, if you think it's something you'll like I guess...
MY RATING: Four out of Five snowglobes
FOR THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:
12 by 12 in September
One Hundred Plus Books
YA Challenge
I read this a while back myself and did enjoy it too. I wasn't blown over with it, but I thought the premise was a good one and at the time it was unique. Thanks for the great review and sharing it!
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