Promotional posts, comments & flairs, media-only posts, personalized recommendation requests incl. Please use a civil tone and assume good faith when entering a conversation. All posts must be directly book related, informative, and discussion focused. If you're looking for help with a personal book recommendation, consult our Suggested Reading page or ask in: /r/suggestmeabook Quick Rules:ĭo not post shallow content. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres or publishing in a safe, supportive environment. Subreddit Rules - Message the mods - Related Subs AMA Info The FAQ The Wiki Join in the Weekly "What Are You Reading?" Thread!.Check out the Weekly Recommendation Thread.New Release: The Last Caretaker by Jessica Strawser.I say this fully aware that Elsewhere isn't intended to be the same as The Five People You Meet in Heaven, yet even young adults can read and will benefit more from the latter than from this book. Skip this and read The Five People You Meet in Heaven instead. The entire concept of Elsewhere is interesting, yet its full potential is never properly explored, and I'm not convinced that Elsewhere as an allegory has much to offer to anyone, regardless of age. Mildly amusing, Elsewhere will entertain young adults, but doesn't have much to offer older readers. Yet in the course of the entire story, Elsewhere never manages to answer the most pressing question in my mind: why do people even age backward? Why don't they get reborn immediately after dying? What's the point to having a secular cosmic waiting-room where everyone goes on living, in reverse, until they are born again? Why is death exactly like life, and if we get to live after death, what's the point to life anyway? The denouement became a lengthy postscript showcasing the rest of Liz's life up until her rebirth suddenly the focus of the book had shifted from Liz's attempts to acclimate to how interesting ageing backward must be. Nevertheless, Zevin's characters are attractive on the surface, but few have any depth.Īfter the predictable resolution to the predictable climax, the plot seems nicely tied up, and I was ready for the book to end. My opinion of Liz vacillates between "spoiled teen" and "poor girl", but again, I'm no longer a young adult, and I suspect that a teenage girl reading this book will empathize with Liz somewhat more than I could. I did not like Liz's love interest, who is shallow, insecure, and spineless. Unfortunately, few of this people are interesting or remarkable. For the most part, I enjoyed the characterization and dialogue in Elsewhere Zevin has a knack for quickly turning minor characters into fully fleshed-out people. Liz goes through the five stages of grief, then gets on with her "life", falls in love, and experiences a few more tribulations. This may not be the case for younger readers. The moral of Elsewhere seems to be that a life without conflict can be rewarding, and I don't see how that can be the case.Īs far as the characters and story go, Elsewhere is predictable. Yet if Elsewhere itself is an allegory for growing up and leaving behind adolescence, what does that say about life in general? This is jarringly inconsistent with adolescence, adulthood, or any other period of life. Everyone lives in a nice house, has a nice job, and is nice to people. On Earth, it would be called Suburbia, which I suspect would make it closer to Hell than Heaven. As a place, Elsewhere doesn't seem very interesting. But there's nothing wrong with dressing it up once and a while either. Not that I have a problem with allegory-it's entirely appropriate to the story. Rather than a fascinating depiction of a potential afterlife, this bare-bones description of Elsewhere does little to disguise it as the allegorical environment it really is. Very little about Elsewhere is actually explained beyond what affects the protagonist Liz Hall. Elsewhere ducks the question of souls and religion in general, giving us a throwaway line that "God's there in the same way He, She, or It was before to you. Because who we are is determined by our memories, and if we're reborn without our memories, we aren't us anymore. The concept hinges on the idea that everyone has, ultimately, some form of "immortal soul" that remains constant across lifetimes. If I had a choice, reincarnation would not be my first choice of afterlife. Fortunately, the eponymous afterlife known as "Elsewhere" is a pleasant, non-threatening environment where dead people age backward and then are born again as babies. Is it just me, or are books about dead characters living in an afterlife increasingly common? There must be something innately fascinating about making one's protagonist already dead.
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