Part Benjamin Button, part Dead Like Me. I enjoyed discovering the world of Elsewhere, but the talking dogs were the best part. ( )

Reread June 2019 because I needed a hug and an ugly cry and if possible I love it more. I'd forgotten just how every sentence is worthy of highlighting and so perfectly constructed. And I think I wrote this review in like 2014, but it should be known that I have no fewer than three copies in my office right now, just waiting for some unsuspecting human to come along needing this in their life.

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Elsewhere is my favourite book of all time. I've read a lot of books in my days, and this is the book that I keep coming back to.I'm glad I read it when I was younger, however, as I think if I were to pick it up as an adult it wouldn't quite speak to me the way it did then. Despite no longer being a teenager, however, this book makes me bawl my eyes out every single time I read it. Zevin knows how to make you think without you realising she's doing so. She raises questions of life and death and love, as well as what happens when we age, how we can grow out of love and how experiences and memories really influence our age. Her writing is gorgeous--very precise and never entering the minds of her characters. She shows us what's happening and allows us to make our own inferences and come to our own realisations. This book makes me feel hopeful and in love and naive all over again. I own two physical copies in addition to my kindle edition just so I can force people to read it. It's an easy read, and well worth the time ( )

Teen Lizzie is hit by a car and dies. Lizzie wakes up in Elsewhere. A place where one can sort of regress and grow younger and have another start. Lizzie gets to meet her grandmother in Elsewhere. Lizzie has the opportunity to learn a few things in Elsewhere. A very nice, thoughtful YA read. ( )

Basically, the concept of this book is really interesting, but somehow I couldn't classify it as YA because in the whole it sounded too childish and predictable. It's a pity, because I think that it could have been developed better (especially the relationships). Beyond that it has been a smooth read, so I think that 3 stars can be enough. ( )

Sometimes when you read a book you come across one that changes the way you see life. In this case, Elsewhere changed my way of seeing death. When I picked up this book I was expecting a light tale of a girl that found herself 'alive' after dying at 15-years-old. But by the end (the ending is amazing and my favorite part) I saw that Gabrielle Zevin had done a wonderful work sending all the right messages about life, dealing with death, love and friendship. Having read her other novel 'Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac' I knew I wouldn't be let down and this book confirms what an excellent author Zevin is. I definitely want to read more of her work.

“But I believe good things happen everyday. I believe good things happen even when bad things happen. And I believe on a happy day like today, we can still feel a little sad. And that's life, isn't it?”

“A life isn't measured in hours and minutes. It's the quality, not the length.” ( )