Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Sep 14, 2009

Kim rated it:

You know what sucks?

When you get 53 (YES, FIFTY THREE) pages into a book and realize that you've read it before. That blows.

You know what doesn't suck?

You really like said book. I mean, it's been a good 8 months, and I was still hazy about the plot throughout the whole book, but it's SUCH a good story that I didn't mind kinda knowing the plot.

Liz is 15 and is a hit and run victim. She wakes up on the S.S. Nile (cute, huh?) and it takes her a b More...

1 comment like (56 people liked it)

May 04, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Stories about the Afterlife have always appealed to me. There are thousands upon thousands of interpretations out there about what, exactly, happens to a person after they die. ELSEWHERE is a new spin on an old topic, but it manages to bring emotion, realism, and entertainment to something that is, in most circumstances, a very depressing situation. To me, ELSEWHERE is a combination of Mitch Albom's THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN and Alice Sebol More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2011

Tatiana rated it:

A rather disappointing book. Having read and liked Zevin's "Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac," I expected "Elsewhere" to be a book of the same high quality. No luck.

"Elsewhere" is not strictly a bad book. It raises an always interesting question - what happens when you die? In the book you move to Elsewhere where you age back (instead of getting older you get younger) while growing up mentally, until you become a baby and then you are sent back to earth to More...

8 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2008

Ashley rated it:

ISBN: 0374320918
Elsewhere by Gabriel Zevin
Do you want to see the latest Picasso paintings? Well you just spring by his gallery and see his new paintings. Maybe you can say hey to Marilyn Monroe at her psychiatric center. Well if you want to do all that you’d take a cruise there. But of course there’s a catch to it all, and Liz Hall knows all about that because under her circumstances she can do all of that because she’s a fifteen-year-old girl and she’s dead.
The curious adven More...

10 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jennie rated it:

Liz is more than confused when she wakes up one morning to find herself on a cruise ship with a girl she’s never met before in the top bunk. But then she starts to remember being hit by a car as she rode her bike to the mall and eventually is brought up to the observation deck to watch her own funeral.

The boat eventually lands in Elsewhere, where dead people get a day younger every day until they are taken down the river back to Earth to be reborn. In Elsewhere, Liz meets up with the More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Melanie rated it:

The whole "relationship" (if you can even call it that) between Liz and Owen frustrated me. How could Owen's marriage have been so happy if after only two weeks of being reunited with his wife he didn't want her anymore? Argh!

The story moves quickly from one event to the next without setting anything up or wrapping anything up. It is hard to care about the characters or events this way.

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2009

Gregory rated it:

Maybe if I were still thirteen I would think differently, but Elsewhere reads like a Hallmark movie of the week. It's sappy and hopelessly predictable. While Zevin's depiction of the afterlife is kind of creative, it's mostly confounding (turns out death is just as routine and dull as everyday life ... except that dogs talk). Her jokes either fall flat or induce a lengthy groan, but are never really amusing. And while Zevin can occasionally turn a phrase in an interesting way, for the most More...

7 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2008

Scott rated it:

What is there to say about Elsewhere? Give me a second and I'll come up with it. Oh, it has a promising premise. It is at times heartbreaking and funny. Mostly it is disappointing. I'd heard good things about this book from another blog I read constantly, it was a YA book, and I couldn't wait to read it. The prologue is amazing, a funny, little dog running around trying to deal with her owners death. Hilarious and strangely touching. And then it switches to Lizzy, the main character of the book, More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 18, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

What is the story? Elsewhere is an idea spun into a book and then left floundering as the author seeks to fill pages. There is no story here - no cohesive plot that moves the thing forward. The main character, Lizzy, dies at fifteen and is transported to Elsewhere, a land where all people who die go. In Elsewhere you live just like on Earth, only you age backward. Cool concept and idea and there are so many avenues the author could have taken this! Instead she enumerates on her world a little an More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 14, 2009

April rated it:

Awesome. I love creative renditions of the afterlife, and seeing into the writer's imagination. This was a very whimsical, fascinating take on death and life - I loved the image of the tree: that life and death are like the roots and branches of a tree - neither can see the other, but they are both alive and connected. I loved the message that life after death is still real life, and that things move on, you keep growing, working and building relationships. The characters were great, especiall More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2008

Susan rated it:

In a way, there is something about Zevin's view of the afterlife reminds me of the Florida vacations from my childhood: a leisurely drive through one sunny, pleasant day after another. If that was all there was to it, I probably wouldn't recommend this book so highly, but Zevin's story of a girl's growth after her own mortal life ends is anything but simple. The recently deceased arrive in Elsewhere (as the afterlife is known) with the understanding that they will be aging backwards to the point More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2008

Kassi rated it:

I really enjoyed the premise of the book. However, I didn't like that the writing style was in the present tense through-out the entire book. I thought the characters weren't developed enough and felt very flat to me. Each character had the same manner of speaking and same sense of humor, so they all were basically the same characters but with different names or genders and different backgrounds. But then again, I'm an adult reader and well aware that the book was intended for young-adults. In a More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2011

McKenna rated it:

This book was amazing! It was one of my all time favorite books. Elsewhere tells the story of a fifteen year old girl, Elizabeth Hall, who is hit and killed in a bicycle accident and wakes up to find herself traveling on a ship called the SS Nile. She meets a girl who had been shot in the head and a famous musician who had died of a drug overdose. After watching her own funeral, Liz realizes that she is truly dead and it isn't a dream. Soon afterwards, she and the other passengers arrive in More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

H rated it:

I honestly don't know what to make of this book. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. It's just.. so-so, I guess. Not the kind of book that I would usually read, but I managed to finish it.

I was honestly a little uncomfortable with the premise of the book when I first started, and I think religious people in general would be too. It's a little controversial in that sense, I guess, where it deals with what happens after you die. But that aside, it was an interesting and creative More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2011

Isamlq rated it:

Upon reading the blurb, the first things that sprang to mind were Everlost AND the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Thankfully, reading ELSEWHERE was not the same experience I had when I saw that movie(to this day I do not think I have gone past its thirty-minute mark. I probably have no taste, but you have to admit that Brad Pitt as young/old was a little creepy.)

On to ELSEWHERE, I resolved to avoid making comparisons and simply enjoy the read. Am glad I did that! First, I love El More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Mateo rated it:

Plot: This story starts out when Liz wakes up on a boat. She searches around and finds that she is actually dead. Soon the boat arrives in Elsewhere, a place where dead people go who eventually age backwards until they are babies, and then they are sent down a certain river and are born. Her dead grandmother comes and picks her up from the boat and takes her home. She has a such hard time getting over not seeing her friends or family that she decides to dive to a place called the Well. The Wel More...

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2011

joy rated it:

calm and thoughtful
funny, unpredictable, stand-out original

*be happy now -- don't wait until you're grown-up, or done with college, or the kids move out
*know who you are
*think, think, think
*look both ways before crossing the street

i can see why reader-teens rave about this one, because it asks awesome, deep questions about life in a thoroughly roundabout way

that's a snowglobe on the cover, not a crystal ball, by the way. i didn't pick More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Amanda rated it:

Liz is almost sixteen when she’s hit by a cab and killed. Now, she’s on a cruise boat called the SS Nile, headed for Elsewhere, where she will progressively age backwards until she returns to earth in baby form.

Cross Benjamin Button with Beetlejuice, minus the wackiness, and you get Elsewhere. I think it was quite bold of Zevin to write a book about the afterlife this way. For some reason, while I’d really looked forward to this book, I hadn’t actually realized what it was about, and t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2009

Natasha rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

20 comments like (13 people liked it)

May 23, 2008

Becky rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 12, 2008

Zaneta rated it:

Have you ever what would happen to you after you died? What would life be like without everything you knew & loved? What if you died in a tragedy, a hit and run situation? Elsewhere, is a captivating wonderful book that really speaks to you. Lizzie the main character of the book is hit and ran by a taxi as a highschooler. What happens when she wants to live and she didn't get to do anything she wanted to do? One day shes alive, and the next day she's dead. All she wanted to do was fall in love a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Ellen rated it:

Oh, to be thirteen again, if only long enough to be able to read this book with fresh eyes. It would certainly have been a favorite, with its blend of teenage angst, magical realism, and humor. Gabrielle Zevin has a pitch-perfect understanding of her audience.

After fifteen year-old Liz is killed in hit and run accident, she finds herself on a boat to Elsewhere. Though she faces difficulty in acclimating, she meets a host of colorful characters who help, including the maternal grandmo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2007

Lily rated it:

This book was about a teenage girl by the name of Elizabeth ( Liz ). She wakes up one day and she thinks she's dreaming, however she's really dead and in Elsewhere. Elsewhere is where everyone goes after they die. In Elsewhere, everyone gets younger. Liz meets her grandmother Betty, whom she never met before. She spends most of her time at the Observation Deck trying to see what is happening with her family back at Earth. She doesn't llike being in Elsewhere and tries to find ways of going back More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

Casey rated it:

I read this because my little sister told me I had to. I am easily influenced.

First, I was completely and totally infuriated by this book because rotting away on my computer is a story I started about a guy who dies and ends up in a heaven that looks a lot like earth, and he discovers that God basically has no control over anything (He feels really bad about it, but just sort of wishes everyone would leave him alone). Well, there are parts of Elsewhere that are eerily similar to More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2008

Emily rated it:

The author has created a beautifully complete afterlife and characters within it. I think it's a beautiful imagined world, making me think of the tv shows Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, as well as Susan Cooper's Seaward. It's also an important reminder that living is the journey, not the destination.

This is a character rather than plot-driven story, enhanced by the world created for the characters. If you expect the sort of story that is the same as a typical Hollywood movie, you More...

0 comments like

Jul 31, 2008

Kelly rated it:

Well ladies, I finished this books in 2 days flat! That is how much I enjoyed it. See when I really like a book I CAN complete it. Anyhow, I have to disagree with Lenette totally. I think this was not only a very interesting view on the afterlife but a very positive take on it as well. I did not find this book at all depressing but rather uplifting and rather funny at times. The story was so unique. I have also read the book Lovely Bones. I fully enjoyed that book as well, but it was a mu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2009

Adriana rated it:

I read this via an audio CD version. The narrator was great; she really captured the voice and feeling of the main character. The story centers around almost-fifteen year old Liz. It starts out with her death after she is hit by a taxi cab while riding her bike to the mall to meet her best friend for some shopping. Liz ends up in Elsewhere, which is basically a version of heaven, but everyone starts to age backwards until they become babies and are sent back to earth to live out a new life. More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2008

Shannon rated it:

Endings are sad simply because they are endings. This book begins at the end and shows us why endings aren't sad - because they may signal the end to one thing, but they inevitable also signal the beginning to something else. Liz is almost sixteen and she's dead. Dealing with death isn't easy; after all, she's so young and there's so much she'll never get to do. After death she finds herself in Elsewhere, and she learns that being dead really isn't all that much different from being alive. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2011

Lucia rated it:

Well, this book... I feel really awful for saying this because I know that hearing this must be every authors' nightmare, but it really... sucked. I hate to say it and I usually don't, but it really did. Liz was a horrible whiny teenager with no personality at all. No, nobody in this book had a personality! Seriously. Owen was just plain annoying. HOW could they fall in love after knowing each other for like two weeks? And wasn't he all in love with his wife? And then just suddenly (after years More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2009

Ms. Scolaro rated it:

This was one of my favorite books. You would think a book about death would be depressing but this one was not. I especially liked the animals that went to Elsewhere - it was comforting to know that they went there too.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews