Liz was killed when a taxi cab ran into her. She was only fifteen and on her way to the Mall to help her friend find a dress for the prom. Now she's dead and she's waking up in a strange place known as Elsewhere. This is the next place for the soul after life on Earth and here you live your life backwards beginning from the age you were at time of death. So, Liz is fifteen going on zero. In an odd twist she finds her grandmother as she arrives and the two have a chance to get to know each other at long last.
But, Liz isn't happy here. She talks her grandmother into giving her enough money to go to the Observation posts where she can buy time to look back at her loved ones on Earth. She can watch the friends and family come to her funeral.
In Elsewhere everyone has an assigned task. Liz works with animals at a shelter matching the animals to new owners. But she struggles constantly with her wish to return to her life. There is so much she did not appreciate and so much she didn't get to do in her short years.
Other characters emerge and weave in and out of her days. There is the rock star who doesn't want to sing any more. There's the man, Owen, who watches his wife brush her hair every evening. Is it possible to live another life in death? Is it possible to move forward and let go all the while getting younger and younger and heading back to Earth for another life? A story of grief, death and seeing the possibilities of wherever you are in time.
304 pages 978-1250408495 Ages 13 and up
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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A TIME MAGAZINE BEST YA BOOK OF ALL TIME
A Deluxe Special Edition with stained edges and bonus content! Beloved by generations of readers, Elsewhere is an original, moving novel about love, loss, and the meaning of it all from the New York Times–bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.
Is it possible to grow up while getting younger?
Welcome to Elsewhere. The beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick, and you’ll never turn even a day older . . .
This is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth yet completely different. Here, Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby and returns to Earth.
But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. Now that she’s dead, though, Liz is forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has never met before. And it isn’t going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
A book that transcends genre and category, Elsewhere is a modern YA classic. This deluxe edition features stained edges, an introduction written by the author, a new Q&A from the author, and personal black-and-white photographs.---from the publisher
