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Liz Hall is a girl who was hit by a cab when she was fifteen. It killed her, but instead of going to heaven she went to Elsewhere. A beautiful place where no one can get older or sick. Liz thinks it is all a dream. But it's not. When Liz finally realizes that she is dead she wants to give her... read more

Summary edit see section history

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Though if you get hurt, you just go to the Healing Center and you're all better. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died.... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Though if you get hurt, you just go to the Healing Center and you're all better. Elsewhere 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 again 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 she wants to live the life she was supposed to, doing things like all of her friends were that very moment.. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not 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?

Characters edit see section history

  • Elizabeth Marie Hall: Liz is the main character who dies in a horrible car crash and ends up in Elsewhere. She ends up living with her grandmother.
  • Thandi Washington: Liz's first friend in Elsewhere.
  • Betty: Liz's grandmother that helps her through a lot of her problems in the beginning of the book, also in Elsewhere
  • Curtis Jest: One of Liz's best friends in Elsewhere. Lead singer of Machine, Liz's favorite band.
  • Owen Welles: One of Liz's best friends in Elsewhere. He died in a fire.
  • Sadie: Liz's dog in Elsewhere that she gets along very well with. Died in a car crash.
  • Emily Welles: Owen's wife from Earth.
  • Alvy Hall: Liz's little brother who is the only one she manages to make contact with through the Well.
  • Aldous Ghent: The administrator that helps Liz get acclimated to Elsewhere, and eventually becomes a good friend.
  • Zooey Brandon: Liz's best friend on Earth.
  • Amadou Bonamy: A cab driver.
  • Jen: Owen's dog in Elsewhere.
  • Esther: The operator of the Observation Deck (OD) near Liz's home in Elsewhere.
  • Paco: Thandi's dog in Elsewhere. Drowned on Earth, and ends up in Elsewhere.
  • Olivia: Liz's mom on Earth.
Show all 15 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “A life isn't measured in hours and minutes. It's the quality, not the length.”
    Elizabeth Marie Hall
  • “A human's life is a beautiful mess.”
  • “Don't you know there's no such thing as forever?”
    Elizabeth Marie Hall
  • “In the end, the end of a life only matters to friends, family, and other folks you used to know, for everyone else, it's just another end.”
    Lucy the pug
  • “On Earth the attempt to stay young,in the face of maturity is futile.”
  • “Did you know there are over 300 words in Canine for love?”
  • “It's a good thing to know how to apologize properly. Very few people know how to apologize properly.”
    Curtis Jest
  • “Then again, the conditions are rarely very good anywhere, but love still happens all the time.”
    Curtis Jest
  • “As the wisest here know, it isn't a sad thing getting older.”
    narrator
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “In the end, the end of a life only matters to friends, family, and other folks you used to know,” the pug whimpers miserably. “For everyone else, it’s just another end.”
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • “A life isn’t measured in hours and minutes. It’s the quality, not the length.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • “When I said ‘I like you very much,’ I actually meant ‘I love you.’”
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • As the wisest here know, it isn’t a sad thing getting older. On Earth, the attempt to stay young, in the face of maturity, is futile.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • “I have heard of a place, about a mile out to sea and several miles deep. Apparently, this is the deepest place in the ocean. People call it the Well.”
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • Cheer up, little pug. You worry too much. That’s why you have so many wrinkles.”
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • then dead. “On Elsewhere,” Polly continues, “a life is more finite: man dies, and ages backward until
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • “I believe she is up there. And I believe there are angels there and harps and heaps of puffy clouds and white silky pajamas and everything.”
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • I was walking down my street with Slim. We live in D.C., by the way. This crazy bullet comes out of nowhere. Slim’s yelling at me to duck, and then he’s screaming, ‘SHE’S BLEEDING! OH LORD, SHE’S BLEEDING!’ Next thing I know, you’re waking me up on this very boat, asking me where you are.”
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • Liz learns the proper way to state her age: your current age followed by the number of years you have been in Elsewhere. Liz’s current age is fifteen–zero. She also learns that her new “birthday” is January 4. It is a somewhat confusing calculation that involves adding the number of days past one’s last birthday to the day one died.
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Show all 19 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

Elizabeth Hall wakes in a strange bed in a strange room with the strange feeling that her sheets are trying to smother her.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Prologue: In the End

Part I: The Nile
At Sea
Curtis Jest
In Memory of Elizabeth Marie Hall

Part II: The Book of the Dead
Welcome to Elsewhere
A Long Drive Home
Waking
A Circle and a Line
Last Words
Sightseeing
Lucky Cab
The Big Dive
Sadie
The Well
A Piece of String
Owen Welles Takes a Dive
Thanksgiving
A Mystery
Liz in Love
Arrivals
The Sneaker Clause
To Earth
At the Bottom of the Ocean, in the Land Between Elsewhere and Earth
Restoration

Part III: Antique Lands
Time Passes
Two Weddings
The Change
Amadou
Childhood
Birth
What Liz Thinks

Epilogue: At the Beginning

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Nominees 2011. (community list)
This is book 4 of 15 in 2007-2008 Iowa Teen Award. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Gabrielle Zevin (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Country: United States of America
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 9780374320911
Page Count: 277

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PZ7.Z452 E1 2005
  • Dewey: 818'.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

This book is fine for 11+. There is one mention of Liz's 16 year old friend losing her virginity after prom, but it's made in passing, and not dwelled upon.It discusses an afterlife that would lead to reincarnation and only briefly mentions where God plays a role in the lives of the characters. Although it is fantasy it does not support the idea of heaven and hell

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
  • A Ring of Endless Light
  • What I Call Life
  • Funerals and Fly Fishing
  • Before I Fall
  • Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party
  • Meet the Austins
  • The Body Finder
  • The Afterlife
  • In a Heartbeat
  • If I Stay
  • Everlost
  • The Great Blue Yonder
  • Incarnate

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