In Elsewhere, everyone ages backwards until they reach 7 days old and then are sent back to Earth as a baby to be reborn.

Liz watches her own funeral from the 'Observation Deck', or OD in short, and learns that though she is able to see Earth, she is not allowed to make contact with anyone there.

Liz returns to her grandmother and is forced to get an 'advocate,' meet with an adviser, and get something similar to a job to take up her time and hopefully relieve her mind of her tragic depression.

Owen, Liz, and her grandmother meet Emily on her day of arrival at the ship.

[1] Elizabeth Spires gave the book a positive review for The New York Times, commending Zevin for her "fresh and arresting" premise, likening it to Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting.

[3] Booklist magazine gave the book a 'Starred Review' and called it "a work of powerful beauty".

In Germany, it was awarded the Lufti (Bronze) and the Ulmer Unke, [citation needed] and in the United Kingdom it won the Sheffield Children's Book Prize for Longer Novels[7] and the Stockport Schools' Book Award.