Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin - Review

I have seen so many of my friends rave over Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and I do have it on my shelves, but I haven't got round to it yet. But then I added this to my wishlist and someone bought it for me in a book swap. I was looking at the piles (plural... there's four) of books by the bed and plucked this out. And I'm really glad I did! I really enjoyed the book and will have to pick up Tomorrow quicker than I might otherwise have done. 

I didn't realise this was published in 2005 though! That's decades ago and in Young Adult fiction that really makes a difference. I do think this is a pretty timeless book, though, which is good. YA can date really badly but I'm glad that hasn't happened here. 

So, Liz is fifteen, nearly sixteen, and she wakes up on a boat. Her cabinmate, Thandi, is a little older than her. And they are both dead. They are on the way to Elsewhere, which is a bit like heaven but functions a lot like earth, too. It takes Liz a while to work out that she's dead. She was knocked off her bicycle by a taxi driver and killed. Thandi was shot in the head. They arrive at Elsewhere and Liz is greeted by her grandmother, Betty, who died before she was born. 

But in Elsewhere, everyone ages backwards, until they finally become a baby again, and then they go back to earth to begin their lives again. So Betty, while she died aged fifty, is now around thirty four years old. Liz goes to live with her. She doesn't find it easy to be dead, though. She becomes obsessed with going to the Observation Decks, from where she can watch her family. She misses her mum, dad, and brother Alvy. She needs to have a job - an avocation - but she just feels too much like she's missed out on life - on love, on growing up, on going to prom. 

The book is quite sad, as I'm sure it should be, but it's quite hopeful and lovely too. I liked Liz and found her reactions really believable. I really liked the premise of this book and think it was dealt with well. I'm giving it four out of five.