Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2005)

Starred Review Narration from beyond the grave has been cropping up with some frequency in YA novels this year, including Chris Crutcher's The Sledding Hill and Adele Griffin's Where I Want to Be (both 2005). But this example, Zevin's second novel and her first for the YA audience, is a work of powerful beauty that merits judgment independent of any larger trend. The setting is an elaborately conceived afterlife called Elsewhere, a distinctly secular island realm of surprising physical solidity (no cottony clouds or pearly gates here), where the dead exist much as they once did--except that no one dies or is born, and aging occurs in reverse, culminating when the departed are returned to Earth as infants to start the life cycle again. Having sailed into Elsewhere's port aboard a cruise ship populated by mostly elderly passengers, 15-year-old head-trauma victim Liz Hall does not go gently into Elsewhere's endless summer. She is despairing, intractable, sullen, and understandably furious: You mean I'll never go to college or get married or get big boobs or live on my own or get my driver's license or fall in love? She rejects her new existence, spending endless hours keeping tabs on surviving family and friends through magical coin-operated telescopes, and refusing to take the suggestions offered by a well-meaning Office of Acclimation. Eventually, though, she begins to listen. She takes a job counseling deceased pets, forges an unexpected romance with a young man struggling with heartbreaks, and finds simple joy in the awareness that a life is a good story . . . even a crazy, backward life like hers. Periodic visits with an increasingly youthful Liz, concluding with her journey down the River to be reborn, bring the novel to a graceful, seamless close. Although the book may prove too philosophical for some, Zevin offers readers more than a gimmick-driven novel of ideas: the world of Elsewhere is too tangible for that. A human's life is a beautiful mess, reflects Liz, and the observation is reinforced with strikingly conceived examples: a newly dead thirtysomething falls in love with Liz's grandmother, who is biologically similar in age but experientially generations older; fresh arrivals reunite with spouses long since departed, creating incongruous May-December marriages and awkward love triangles (as Liz experiences when her boyfriend's wife suddenly appears). At one poignant moment, four-year-old Liz loses the ability to read. The passage she attempts to decipher, which comes from Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting, is another meditation on the march of time and change. Although Zevin's conception of the afterlife will inevitably ruffle many theological feathers, the comfort it offers readers grieving for lost loved ones, as well as the simple, thrilling satisfaction derived from its bold engagement with basic, provocative questions of human existence, will far outweigh any offense its metaphysical perspective might give. Far more than just a vehicle for a cosmology, this inventive novel slices right to the bone of human yearning, offering up an indelible vision of life and death as equally rich sides of the same coin.

Horn Book

In Zevin's afterlife, "everyone...ages backward from the day they died." When they're seven-day-old babies, they return to Earth from Elsewhere to begin a new life. Lizzie Hall, almost sixteen, struggles to adjust to her death and to the idea that--as Lizzie Hall--she'll never reach adulthood. With an intriguing premise, thoughtful characterization, and refreshing style, Zevin's poignant novel celebrates the rich complexities of being alive.

Kirkus Reviews

An unusual premise and a thoughtful treatment make Zevin's first effort at writing for young adults a success. Liz Hall is 15. She's looking forward to getting her license, enjoying helping her best friend plan for the prom and anticipating a long, full life. Her sudden death in a hit-and-run accident puts an end to her life on earth—and that's when the story begins. Zevin's creation of a believable, intriguing afterlife and her depiction of Liz's struggle to adjust to her new situation will captivate teens ready for a thought-provoking read. Love, jealousy, grief, commitment, frustration and friendship all exist "Elsewhere," making death not that different from life after all. Personal choices still make a difference and characters continue to learn and grow, despite the fact that they age backwards from the moment of their deaths. Zevin's smooth, omniscient third-person narration and matter-of-fact presentation of her imagined world carries readers along, while her deft, understated character development allows them to get to know her characters slowly and naturally. Hopeful and engaging. (Fiction. 12+)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Even readers who have strong views on what happens after death may find themselves intrigued by the fascinating world of "Elsewhere," the place 15-year-old Liz ends up after she is killed in a bicycle accident. A surreal atmosphere permeates chapter one as Liz awakens on a ship (mostly occupied by elderly people), unaware of its destination. Her situation gradually comes into focus after she arrives at the island of Elsewhere and is greeted by her grandmother, who died before Liz was born. Liz learns that the aging process works differently in this land of the dead: instead of getting older, humans (and animals) grow younger. When they reach infancy, they are sent down the River to be reborn on Earth. In other ways, Elsewhere resembles the world Liz left behind; residents work at jobs (although here, everyone has a chance to pursue an "avocation... something a person does to make his or her soul complete"), celebrate holidays and form friendships. Liz also falls in love for the first time, while her grandmother (who has progressed back to her thirties) becomes engaged to a famous rock star; and readers will likely be intrigued by the "strictly forbidden" Well. Prudently skirting the issue of God's role in Elsewhere (when she asks about God, Liz is told simply "God's there in the same way He, She, or It was before to you. Nothing has changed"), <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Margarettown author Zevin, in her first novel for young people, bends the laws of physics and biology to create an intricately imagined world. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

School Library Journal (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 7-10 This coming-of-age novel by Gabrielle Zavin (Farrar, 2005) has a unique twist. Although Liz is maturing, coping with disappointments, and controlling her anger, she is getting younger. Having been killed by a hit and run driver, she now lives in Elsewhere with the grandmother who died before she was born. After death, the residents get younger until they become babies and are reborn onto Earth again. Initially mad at the driver and sad that she will not have a boyfriend and attend the prom, Liz misses her family and is sullen and depressed. Gradually, she begins to realize that life is not so bad in the hereafter. Although written in the second person, the text and the narration by Cassandra Morris draws listeners into this new world, giving them a sense of immediacy. Morris's youthful, gentle, slightly nasal voice clearly brings out Lizzie's life and frustrations, and her tone becomes harsh to show anger. For the most part, she reads quickly, almost sprightly, but at dramatic moments she slows to heighten suspense. There is no significant voice changes to differentiate between male and female characters. An excellent choice to motivate reluctant readers or just for enjoyment. Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA

Voice of Youth Advocates

Readers who get past the dialogue, featuring a dog's account of its young mistress's death, will find this fantasy about the afterlife a fun and thought-provoking page-turner. Lizzie's new existence begins in Elsewhere. It is like earth with enhancements and a catch. She will grow younger each year, reversing from fifteen to fourteen and so on, until she becomes a baby and is new born to the world. Although the process might be nice for the aged, Lizzie's life was ahead of her, and she haunts the Observation Decks, watching her loved ones and mourning the big breasts, college life, and boyfriends that she will never have. But Elsewhere is not without attractions, one of which is Owen. Twenty-six and married when he died, he is now physically seventeen. He can be the boyfriend that Lizzie longs for if she can relax and enjoy him and if he can stop mourning his wife. Lizzie's challenge is to accept two seemingly contradictory propositions: one, that nothing is forever and that happiness is found in the moment, and two, that everything is forever, a continuous cycle, and one makes of the process what one will. Readers unwilling to suspend disbelief might find this story irritating. Zevin never explains how a fully grown baby enters its new mother's womb. Others will resent the instances of stereotyping-a rock star who overdoses, teens who drink, drive, and die. Still others will relish Zevin's lively imagination and her fast-moving plot. Buy this book for them.-Mary E. Heslin.