![]() 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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