What a fantastically thoughtful creative book. Oh, that life after death were this. As the main character says, “If only he (Hamlet) knew what we know.!”
No one would be afraid of the other side, or squander time – wherever it may be had – again.
Elizabeth Marie Hill is a 15-yearold girl who dies after being hit by a cab. After a week in a coma, she wakes to find herself in a bunk on a boat. She thinks she is dreaming, naturally, but by the time she disembarks in Elsewhere, she realizes she is dead.Everyone she meets is dead. The people, the pets … everyone.
The interesting part is what is happening to the dead. In Life, you age progressively, in Death you age regressively.Liz dies at 15 and will spend 15 years in Death getting younger and younger, until at seven-days-old, she returns to Life. She will be swaddled, placed gently in the river, and be born again.
Elsewhere is what you make of it. You can choose the vocation that makes you happiest. You can live where and with whom you choose. Pets can communicate. Old friends and relatives are approachable. It is fascinating to see the interactions between people of all ages.Upon your death at 90, you may be reunited with your husband, who passed away 30 years before. If he died at 60, and has been there for 30 years, he is now 30. It creates the most visually remarkable and wonderfully romantic pairings. It is who you are on the inside that is relevant. Love is love – whatever your current physical manifestation.
There are ways to communicate with the living, but they are inadvisable and often cause more harm than good. For a while, Liz cannot reconcile her situation and spends months watching her loved ones through change-operated binoculars.
When she makes peace with her current reality , her ‘death’ becomes as fulfilling as the potential in the life she lost. She will not graduate high school nor grow old and have children, but she does get her driver’s license and meet her grandmother ( who is now in her 30’s). Liz falls in love and finds her calling.
The creativity of Gabrielle Zevin‘s plot is mesmerizing. Life and Death are reflections of one another. She likens their state to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The human people and fairies live side by side. They’re together and they’re apart … the fairy world might be a dream, but maybe the real world is too.
I will mention that although it is a Young Adult’s book, this could not possibly diminish its appeal to adults in any way.