Zevin's Elsewhere

After reading Shusterman's Everlost, my son picked this up, continuing on our "Views of Heaven" tour. When he finished, my younger daughter picked it up, laughed at some parts, and told me some was very sad. The impressive part there is that she finished it. In two days. She usually only reads the first three chapters of books.

Basically, Liz dies at 15 and goes to "Elsewhere". When she arrives, she stays with the grandmother she never met, and spends a while moping and watching the life she left on earth before settling down to a job and hanging out with friends.

Yes, in Elsewhere people have jobs and have to clean the house. I found that really depressing.

Liz finally becomes a conselour who matches dogs to people, and meets Owen, who has been pining for ten years for his wife. Since people age backwards, he and Liz are the same age.

Then it just gets sad and complicated. I don't want to wreck it (my older daughter is now reading it!) by saying too much. It was good. No question. But I can' t for the life of me think to whom I would recommend it. It's a girl book, and a fantasy. But it is too real life for people who want fantasy. Too sad for people who want romance; too happy for people who want sad. All in all, it's very deep and philosophical, and really, very mature.

In the end, loved it but am not going to buy it, even though it made me cry.