Great Philosophy

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."-Dr. Seuss

Friday, July 16, 2010

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Elizabeth (Lizzie, Liz) Hall awakens to find herself on the bottom bunk in a cabin on a ship called the S.S. Nile. On the top bunk is a young African American girl with beautiful braids and Liz believes that she is dreaming and that Thandi, the girl with the braids, is a queen.
Liz learns the truth slowly, that she had died on Earth and is being transported to her life on Elsewhere. She learns that time travels backwards on Elsewhere and you get younger, rather than older. She meets her grandmother, who passed away on Earth before Liz was born.
We follow Liz through her ups and downs on Elsewhere. She meets her favorite rock star and has the ability to talk to the people on Earth, with consequences.
The book was a little short on story. I think that with this idea, so much more could have been done with developing more characterization and plot. The premise of the plot was good, just don't think that it was taken as far as it could have been.

2 comments:

Linda Kage said...

Thank you so much for the review. The blurb about it sounds very interesting, but I'm glad you said the idea doesn't carry through as well. I'd never heard of this story before.

JoanneR said...

Linda, I thought that the story could have been a lot more involved and deeper. It would have been nice to actually read about the changes that were taking place to her physical body, her language, her mindset. Not enough of that was delved into, though.