Audio Review: Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Author: Gabrielle Zevin

Narrated by: Cassandra Morris
Title: Elsewhere

Publisher: Listening Library

Format:Unabridged Audio CD

Length: 7 hrs: 3 mins

Publication: 2005

Source: Library

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Goodreads Summary: 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. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.

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. 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?

This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

My thoughts: This story is about coming to terms with change. Zevin makes the hereafter real and something to look forward too. We have all wondered "what happens after I die?" Liz Hall gets to find out all too soon. Liz dies in a tragic accident. She is really struggling with the fact that she is dead and the circumstances of the afterlife. Getting to experience all the stages of grief with Liz was emotional. I laughed and cried right alone with her. Elsewhere is very similar to traditional ideals of heaven, beautiful, no growing older, and no sickness. Liz spends a lot of time whining and scheming. Her behavior is understandable. She had so much to live for and so many plans. Liz breaks the rules, makes new friends, and finds love. This is a great book, depending on what's going on in your life it could be extra emotional. 

This was my first time listening to an audio narrated by Cassandra Morris. She did an excellent job. Her narration made Liz real. I enjoyed how she would change her voice and tone for the other characters in the story. She was able to keep my attention and evoked emotion when necessary. I will defiantly listen to another audio narrated by her.