Alpina is a self running town set apart from the rest of the world. It is high in the mountains with no seasons, a single stream/river that runs passed it, and a supplier who comes every so often to bring what the town needs to survive. It is also a town where the mothers will randomly disappear in the middle of the night, never to be seen or heard from again, and all pictures of them are destroyed and possessions given away to other women in town.

The story is centered around Vera starting at a young age into adulthood. We are with her through friendships (always in threes), her mother’s disappearance, a stranger visiting the town, her fathers death, her marriage, the birth of her daughter, and then her own disappearance.

I went into this book with no notions or thoughts on what it would be about. With that said, it is not something that I would typically read. But I really love the concept of this book. I didn’t quite understand the why of it but it was quite interesting. And in the last 40 pages or so, the entire story was explained.

If you are up for an unusual and interesting read, you should definitely give this one a whirl.

ELSEWHERE wasn't the book I thought I would be getting. It was better. Schaitkin wove together a story that questions what motherhood is but more importantly who a woman is in society. This story delves into identity in a way that is compelling and unique. Schaitkin truly gifted her readers with this one.

I struggled with this book for weeks. And t was hard to get into which, to be frank was a stark contrast to the last book I read of hers. But that book was so good I wanted to give this one a chance. I’m glad I stuck it out because the story as it starts is absolutely not the same as where it goes but it does take about half the book to really take off. I felt like I was wandering along the book pages with the story and then, BAM! There is suddenly this engaging story unfolding. However, the lack of ability to draw me in makes this a 3 star book, I need to be engaged at the start. Had I not known this author I most likely would not have made it to the end of this book.

“Elsewhere” by Alexis Schaitkin ventures into the realm of speculative fiction, delving into themes of motherhood, identity, and the intricate web of self-judgment and external scrutiny that mothers face.

The story follows Vera, raised in a remote, cloud-shrouded mountain town, where generations of girls inevitably transform into wives and, in turn, mothers. Yet, a looming fear haunts the community as mothers mysteriously vanish, leaving their families to navigate life’s uncertain path without them.

I really enjoy speculative fiction and I found this book to be an intriguing blend of mystery and peculiarity, which held my curiosity and investment throughout its narrative.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Positives - lyrical writing, deep an interesting look at the varying psychologies of motherhood, mystical/mystery element.

Negatives - randomness, didn't engage with the story at all.

This book wasn't convincing for me. Maybe because I have never given birth? Or maybe because speculative fiction isn't for me? I don't know, All I do know is that I was very intrigued by the premise, but this book was a chore for me to finish.

A place where girls know that their mothers may not be here tomorrow and women know that there is no guarantee for tomorrow. Once a woman becomes a mother there is a chance that they may just disappear.

The story centers around Vera who at the beginning of the book is a young girl and eventually she will fall in love and become a mother, but the best thing about this book is it doesn't end when she disappears, the reader gets to see what happens after she disappears and for me that was the moral of the story.

While I am not a mother, I may not have picked up on all the things, but for me the big theme of women disappearing as motherhood becomes their identity was really something to read. And then for these women to wind up in a different atmosphere and try to find themselves again really made me think about the roles women take throughout the years of their lives and how some of those phases a woman can really lose her identity.

With maybe hints of dystopia I liked this book. I had access through netgalley to the ebook and audiobook and I enjoyed having both forms to read and I would completely suggest either form as they were both enjoyable.

This was such a unique story with a ton of symbolism and thought behind it, however, I do agree with some of the reviews on developing it further.

The plot clearly shows parallels between the towns affliction and how society views/treats mothers and women. For example, when a woman is taken by the affliction, it's automatically something she as a mother did wrong. The town doesn't truly understand why women disappear and when they do, but it just has to be a the woman's fault. Same goes in life, mothers are consistently blamed or scrutinized in public opinion. Take the women who do not have kids in the book, they are deemed less than, crazy, lonely, and spinsters. Same can be said for how societies all around the world look at childless women. The book clearly had a lot of deeper meaning.

I did find the twist interesting (although I had suspicions it was coming throughout the book). With that being said, I felt like the ending was rush - we never do find out what the affliction is, where the women go when they disappear, why they are chosen, etc. There's a lot of unanswered questions and I'm not sure if the author wanted it to be more open ended where readers can decide for themselves, but that puts a lot on the reader and not the storyteller. Some ambiguity is fun but there were a lot of aspects that left me wondering. I do still think it is a read worth reading!

This was an interesting ride, and I had no clue where I was going most of the time. Give it a go, it will surely entertain you for a while. I lost interest at some parts, because it is not my normal genre. How secluded is too secluded?

I loved the premise of Elsewhere and it was the kind of book where I wasn't entirely sure what was happening the whole time, but it kept me thinking and guessing all the way through. Is this set in the past? Or the present day? Should the people in this community be envied for their isolation? Or should we feel bad for all that they're missing out on? For such a small book it did seem that not much happened in the first two chapters (which is about half of the book), but I did read the second half in one sitting.

I will say that the writing was absolutely beautiful. The author had a way of describing things that really placed you in the moment and made you feel like you were in the scene. I loved the final chapters and the "twist" that took place.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for a review copy. I will definitely read more from this author in the future.

"Elsewhere" by Alexis Schaitkin is a thought-provoking and deeply moving novel that takes readers on an emotional journey of loss, love, and self-discovery. With its captivating storytelling and richly drawn characters, Schaitkin's debut work explores the complexities of grief and the enduring power of human connections.

Schaitkin displays exceptional skill in crafting her characters, imbuing them with depth, flaws, and complexities that make them feel incredibly real. Beatrice, the determined and resilient older sister, is the heart and soul of the novel. Her anguish and determination to uncover the truth make her a compelling protagonist. The secondary characters, from Tess's enigmatic boyfriend to the local people Beatrice encounters during her search, are equally well-drawn and contribute to the story's rich tapestry.

One of the novel's standout aspects is Schaitkin's ability to evoke a vivid sense of place. The author takes readers from the icy landscapes of New York City to the remote mountains of Central Asia, creating a palpable atmosphere that enhances the story's emotional depth. The intricate descriptions of the settings mirror the intricacy of the characters' emotional landscapes, underscoring the themes of isolation, longing, and the search for meaning.The narrative unfolds at a measured pace, allowing readers to savor the prose and contemplate the weighty themes explored within the story. While this deliberate pace enhances the novel's atmospheric quality,






Regenerate response

I really enjoyed the writing in this one, it was very beautiful and flowed so well. Overall I do not think speculative fiction is for me, but I did like this one because the writing was so well done.

Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the digital galley to review.

“And we could do nothing but leave our daughters with some trace of ourselves and hope that maybe, someday, they would come find us.”

I never expected to love Elsewhere as much as I do. I got an early copy through Netgalley and shamefully let it sit there long after the release. Flash forward to now, where I’m going to buy a personal copy for my shelves because I thought it was such a potent novel.

This book isn’t going to be for everyone. There’s some people who aren’t going to be able to accept that we don’t get a word-for-word answer on why these women disappear randomly. I think it makes it even more beautiful that we don’t get something concrete. After all, this book is for mothers. Most of us have seen a mother lose her shit. Sometimes it seems random, or they can’t explain all of the little things that made the stepping stones to this explosion or breakdown. Or maybe you’ve seen a mother retreat into herself, losing a bit of what made her stand out as a friend, family member, or partner. This is like that, but told in a dystopian-like literary world.

This book is about society’s dependence on mothers and at the same time, their disdain for mothers. It’s about how mothers sacrifice a piece of themselves to build the next generation. Sometimes these mothers lose themselves completely and sometimes they come out the other side just fine. Sometimes we stand by and watch the mothers around us emotionally disappear into themselves without stepping in. In Elsewhere, the community is willing to let these women physically disappear if it means that their idyllic world continues.

“I saw then that he was drawn not just to me, but also to the dark potential all women in our town carried inside us, and I was startled to realize he feared me a little. I began to know what women here had always known: We were endangered, but we were dangerous, too; our peril was also our power.”

And the thing is, even if we could flash forward into our lives and see how much we would struggle, most of us mothers would take that burden on without a thought if it means we get to love our children, even when they grow up and leave us and have lives of their own. Even during the times that they hate us and don’t remember the years we rocked them to sleep or the way we planned their birthdays around their favorite characters. I don’t think there’s a way you become a good mother without pieces of yourself evolving, but there’s no need for the totality of surrender that society has come to expect.

Simply put, Elsewhere encompasses the feeling of motherhood—how we can be simultaneously worshipped, sacrificed, and forgotten.

“They did not exalt mothers as we did here. But then, nor did they sacrifice them.”

At the same time, this book is about community and the feeling of home. How the place you grew up in is the only place that could feel like home until you go elsewhere. Then, when you are elsewhere, you’ll achingly miss the things that were unique to your childhood home. Some of those things will always be an intrinsic part of your being, and then you come back and certain things are a bit dingier or smaller than you remembered. You worldview is larger. Yet, when you leave, you still carry that place with you, whether it’s the sense of community, or a certain food that you’ll crave, or a shop you loved to visit. It’s a cycle, a yearning for the familiar while craving new and exciting things.

Elsewhere is an immersive, visceral novel. Everyone isn’t going to connect with it, but I sure did. Alexis Schaitkin evoked feelings in me that I didn’t fully realize until hours after I finished the novel. Stunning, intelligent work. The comparison to The Lottery is apt, for me personally, if only because the same powerful feelings were awoken in me. It is a brutal tale that stuck with me for life and Elsewhere will be the same. If you mashed up The Lottery and The Grace Year or Handmaid’s Tale, you’d have Elsewhere.

Thanks to Celadon on Netgalley for my review copy.

“He didn’t understand that a mother and daughter cannot be protected from one another, that the harms that pass between them cannot be mitigated because they are also expressions of love.”

I don’t know if it was just me but I didn’t understand half of what was going on here. It just didn’t register in my brain. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for review

I loved the premise of this book - it drew me right in. Along with the cover, I had high hopes. Very creative ideas - just way too long and not very engaging. The long chapters definitely did not work for me, along with the long stream of conscious narration.

Vera grows up in a small community where marriage and motherhood are the primary focus of the women. However, their “affliction” can also cause mothers to simply vanish, leaving their families to move on without them. Vera and her friends have witnessed many of these disappearances and once they are mothers themselves begin to wonder who, if any of them, will be the first to go. This was such a unique and interesting look at motherhood and the affects that it has on some women. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this book, as it’s not the type of book I would normally pick up, but I ended up really enjoying the story and thought it was a very clever and interesting take on the subject of motherhood and community.

If you like speculative fiction you will enjoy this one! I found it deeply haunting and yet sort of depressing at the same time—yet sometimes that’s exactly what I’m in the mood for. Captures many of the emotions and fraught tensions of being a woman, a wife, a mother, with beautiful writing.

**Many thanks to Celadon Press/Macmillan Publishers and Netgalley for an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) of this book**

Unfortunately, this book is a 3 for me; I was not the audience for it. Nevertheless, it was thought provoking and beautifully written.

WHAT'S WORTH REMEMBERING
1. The prose. Some of the descriptions of Vera's town were breathtaking and gorgeous.

2. Vera's growth throughout the novel. She felt like the most fleshed out character which is great, since she's the main character, and you are in her head the entire book. You really get the sense of her innocence/naivety, and eventual maturing.

FUZZY AROUND THE EDGES
1. The plot of this book is interesting, but I feel it needed to be fleshed out more. Why are these people in the town? What's up with the skin fruit and the silver pin-pricking? And why do the mothers disappear? What happens to them? Why do the men go along with this? Does nobody question this happenstance spiriting away? And why women, instead of men? I did not feel the catharsis I should receive after finishing a good book.

2. Without spoiling anything about it, memory plays a key role in this book. However, I had more questions than answers to its use.

3. While Vera was fleshed out, I can't say the same about the rest of the cast of characters. Many of them come across as stereotypical archetypes, with no deviation to make them interesting. Also, many characters are introduced, but with so many people to keep track of, with relatively the same personalities, I had a hard time distinguishing one person from the next.

There are only 4 chapters in this book: 1-3 are for dozens of pages (and hours of reading) and 4 is somewhat short. This type of writing has been implemented in other books before, with some success (mostly thrillers and horror novels), but in this one, it does not suit the pacing of the book. Since we stay in Vera's head the whole time, limiting our perspective of what's going on, it doesn't add any variety or interest to the book. Instead of eagerly wanting to read as fast as I can to get to the conclusion of an exciting chapter, I often put the book down because I was not motivated to finish the section I was reading.

THE VERDICT
Although I was happy I read this book, as it was thought provoking, this is not one I would reread. I would, however, read something else by this author.

Is this a dystopian? A modern day? I am not sure.
What it is is a dark fable about motherhood and the way you might lose yourself when you are a mother.
I am not a mother but I could see where she was going with this.
It is an odd little story with a lot of things I could not make sense of, but overall it was pretty good.

I love dystopian reads, so I was excited to read this one. It was very thought provoking and at times bizarre. I enjoyed that it was told through the perspective of a woman and all the emotions. The beginning was a little too slow for me which I struggled with but then I flew through the ending. Overall, I felt the book was well written and the characters were complex. It was definitely a different kind of read, in a good way!

A well-crafted story that kept my interest from beginning to end. A fairly quick read, which is always nice.