LYRE Review

Current Activities

Faculty

LYRE Programs

Book Collection

Useful Websites

LYRE Home

Spring 2006 Review

Book Cover Elsewhere

Gabrielle Zevin

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

© 2005

        Liz is a teenage girl who tragically dies at a young age. She wakes up on the boat to elsewhere, a place where you go after life and only get younger. Her afterlife requires her to be the person she was meant to be, if she was still alive on earth. When she first arrives in elsewhere, she is hurt and confused. She doesn't believe she has passed away. She wants to be a normal teenager again, with family, friends, and school. Once she becomes aware of her surroundings, she starts to make do with what she is given and live her afterlife in elsewhere.
 
        I felt the book was rather boring at the beginning, but got better toward the end. Liz was an interesting person. She was stubborn and high-tempered, pretty much your average teenage girl. She had a short life on earth that was overshadowed by her life in elsewhere. Toward the end of the book, the best of her afterlife came from the woodwork. Liz discovered what it truly means to live and was ready for her next life. Overall, I felt the book was fulfilling and would recommend it to mature teenagers.

~ Darla Conti, grade 10, Struthers High School

To Top