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In the book Elsewhere, Gabrielle Zevin, has an enormous load of creativity, and fantasies to make the book addicting.

When Elizabeth Marie Hall wakes up on a cruise ship named the SS Nile, she convinced herself that she is just experiencing a regular dream. After getting up and exploring the room, she makes noise, and wakes up her partner she shares a bunk with. Her bunk mate named Thandiwe Washington, but just likes being called Thandi. When the who of them set out to explore the ship they walk up to the dining area and realizes they are the only two fifteen-year old on the ship. Elizabeth thinks this has just can’t get any worse, being stuck on a senior cruise, but then she realizes she has her long blonde hair, buzzed away, and above her right ear she has mysterious stitches, and doesn’t remember where they’ve come from. Elizabeth tries explaining it to Thandi, and Thandi feels her head and realizes she has a hole at the base of her neck. Elizabeth has never dreamed so vividly before, and then she realizes. Everyone on the SS Nile is dead, and they are on their way to a place just like Heaven, but instead called Elsewhere.

At first, Elizabeth cannot bear to accept that she is dead, and can never go back to Earth and never live her life again. When they arrive at Elsewhere, she decides to get off the ship, instead of going back to become a ghost. When she steps off the ship she meets, an always sunny, perfect world, where no one ever gets older. The inhabitants of Elsewhere grow younger. After they become babies they go down the river back to Earth to become someone new on Earth. In a way the book reminds me of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, although Benjamin isn’t in Elsewhere dead.

On the Island of Elsewhere, Elizabeth meets her Grandmother, who now is 36, that she has never met. A bond between Elizabeth and her grandmother grows, although, Elizabeth becomes addicted to the Observation Deck where she can see what is going on, back on Earth. This causes Elizabeth to become very depressed seeing, how everyone is dealing with her death and how it’s affecting her brother, Alvy. When Elizabeth finds a special way to communicate with her family, she is willing to do anything, to talk with them. Even though, communicating with Earth is illegal, she does it anyway. While Elizabeth is trying to communicate with her family, and telling her brother where a birthday present is, she gets caught by Owen Welles, the person who acts as the authority.

Elizabeth finds herself falling into a relationship with him, and Owen finds himself falling as well. When Owen’s wife from dies, Owen quickly forgets what started between him and Elizabeth, but Elizabeth is hesitant to forget. As the story progresses Elizabeth finds a way to get back to Earth faster as a sneaker. She is only allowed to leave if she has ben in Elsewhere for longer than a year and has accepted death. Elizabeth takes this route to Earth only to realize that it’s definitely not what she wanted. The only way to return to Elsewhere, is if a certain person comes to save her, but Elizabeth doesn’t know if he has moved on and forgotten about her.

Elsewhere is a book that I would never would of imagined of reading, but the characters, and the new world Gabrielle Zevin created is very intriguing. Elsewhere is one of my favorite books, and i encourage you to read the book.