Elsewhere by, Gabrielle Zevin

Book: Elsewhere                                               Reviewed by, Kareem A

Author: Gabrielle Zevin                                                                          

Ever wonder what it’s like to die at a young age? Well, In Gabrielle Zevin’s novel Elsewhere, Liz is fifteen, looking forward to turning sixteen and getting her driver’s license, when everything changes. She’s riding her bike, only three months from driving a car instead of using her bike as her main mode of transportation, when she is hit by a car. She wakes up on a ship called the S.S Nile, sharing a room with a girl named Thandi. In this “dream,” as Liz thinks it is, things are a little weird. There are no modern electronic devices on the ship, and everyone with the exceptions of herself, Thandi, and Liz’s favorite singer, Curtis Jest, is over 80. Liz has to find a way to except the fact that she’s dead, and realize that a life on an island called Elsewhere is not much different from home.

 I enjoyed reading this book a lot because it seemed to always have an emotion to bring out in you while you read it. Happiness, sadness, and even anger were the main emotions in the book that I felt could happen with its powerful words and importance to a teenage child. This book was nothing like other books because it wasn’t optimistic or pessimistic, but instead the emotions changed throughout the story. It got you attached and able to understand what it’s like to die at a young age. One example of how I was able to feel what Liz was feeling was when she first woke up on the boat and was bewildered about where she was. The emotion she went through is the feeling of being shocked, angry and sad. I would have experienced the same thing if I was in her position and that’s why I really enjoyed reading this book.

This book reminds of when I was only in elementary school and always thought about what would happen once I died. What age would I be? Would I get to see my family ever again? Where would I live? These where some of the questions I thought about and probably what others would think about too. Once I read this book it gave me an interesting idea of what the afterlife would look like allowing me to have a pretty good understanding. This book also reminds me of when my grandmother died because I was wondering if I would ever see her again, just like how Liz was wondering if she would ever see her family again. The theme this book made me realize is to live my life to the fullest because you will never know when you are going to die. For example, Liz was waiting to become 16, when all the sudden she got hit by a car and went to heaven. A different big idea that I realized, is that family might seem annoying at times, but you should always love them because you will only be with them once.