Set in a tiny town high above the rest of the world, which is covered by thick clouds from dusk until dawn. Sometimes, overnight, mothers would disappear into the clouds, never to be seen or heard from again. The people of the town call it an affliction in order to explain this thing which they don’t understand. As the girls in this town grow up, they anticipate the next stage of their lives (marriage and motherhood), but they also fear the motherhood they so look forward to because it may becoming a mother might seal their fate as one who disappears.

This was my first speculative fiction novel. I’ve seen it compared to The Lottery, but it’s more mystery than thriller in that aspect. I felt somewhat confused throughout most of the novel as to where it was going, but the end tied everything up nicely and then everything made sense. Narrated by Ell Potter who did an amazing job of telling Vera’s story.

This is the book I have been waiting for all my life. Reading it, I felt so seen.

Everyone who will compare this book to The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is absolutely correct, but this story is so much more than that. Yes, the story showcases the mundane cruelties and common eccentricities of small towns. Yes, the story features the foreboding and lyricism of the best horror and fairytale. Tradition and doubt both intervene and interconnect in the way the people interact with each other and even themselves. The story is a perfect circle. It is a commentary on mothers, families, communities, and women at the center. Every woman will see herself somewhere in these pages, to her chagrin or delight.

I will anticipate the work of Alexis Schaitkin with the same longing with which I have devoured the work of Shirley Jackson. Her voice is of the same magnitude, but she will be able to speak so much more clearly to the women of this time and times to come.

Thank you to everyone for this copy of Elsewhere.

While the story had an interesting premise, I have to admit I don’t get it. I thought I did, but I don’t. I thought maybe the mothers “leaving” was the idea of mothers losing themselves after having a baby, but I’m just kind of confused by the concept of that.

I was hoping to really enjoy this book, but I didn't. It was ok but not great. I didn't love the storyline. It was just not for me. I don't want to give anything away. If you like dystopian novels then you may enjoy this.

2.5/5 rounded up

This book would be a good choice for a book club as there are so many metaphors involving motherhood and womanhood that I think can be interpreted multiple ways that it would lead to some very interesting discussions. I wish I had someone I read this with, as I'm going in circles about what the author was trying to say about the choices women have.

The book has promise, and I can see why it evokes Margaret Atwood to some, but it has none of the urgency that Atwood's books evoke. We move dreamlike through the story, in pacing and in the description of the setting. The narrator's languid voice compounds this, and instead of engaging me with this fantasy-like overtone, it dissuaded.

If you know me, I am not necessarily a fantasy reader. I prefer my fiction as it was meant to be…real-life fiction. Ha Ha Ha

However, I knew very little about this book when I picked it up. I hadn’t even heard of the speculative fiction genre! I am learning so much!

Turns out, this book is among the genres of magical realism and/or speculative fiction. The first half of the book, I was asking “what am I reading’ and “what am I missing” because I couldn’t tell if the beautiful writings were supposed to be in a fairytale land, or was this happening in a remote village somewhere?

I think that’s the whole point of the book – you need to be immersed in this coming of age story. The story of a girl who is growing up in a world where girls become wives, wives become mothers, and mothers and some of the mothers…simply disappear…

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Ell Potter and SHE IS AMAZING. SUCH A DREAMY NARRATION!

I did appreciate where the story took me, and enjoyed the journey. Even with the magical realism!

Thank you to the Celadon Books publicity team for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin is unique and creative speculative fiction, and my mind is still swirling.

Vera grows up in a tiny, isolated mountain town, cut off from the rest of the world and ruled by tradition. The community is tight knit, and girls look forward to growing up, marrying, and having children – even though some mothers in their community are affected by “the affliction,” causing them to simply vanish into the clouds, never to be seen or heard from again. This is just accepted in their town; in fact, they credit this unique affliction for creating beauty and meaning in their lives.

The book follows Vera from her childhood to mid-life, and through her experience author Alexis Schiatkin raises questions about motherhood, community, and individual identity. Elsewhere provides a lot of food for thought, and I really think this is a book demanding to be read in a group. It would make an excellent book club or buddy read choice.

Elsewhere is more of a quiet, character-driven book. I enjoy slow burn books, but I think even more plot-driven readers would enjoy it for the engaging writing and ideas it brings up. I listed to the audio book, which was excellent, and I found myself pausing it sometimes to think more about the story.

I find speculative novels so fascinating, and Elsewhere was no exception. Tucked into the rural mountainside, this community initially appears "normal" upon a cursory glance, but mothers commonly disappear without warning. Concerning as this might be to us, it's a part of life for this village. Once a disappearance takes place, all photos and possessions of the vanished woman are taken and either destroyed or sold. As is common for any group of people, judgments about why that particular mother left are thrown into conversation.

Vera at sixteen is on the brink of motherhood, and the anxiety begins settling in. Her own mother left when she was a child, and she's determined to do whatever she can to be the best mother she can be and to fiercely protect any children she has.

I really enjoyed this imaginative story and the questions it brought up. I wish there was a little more detail into the ins and outs of the community and its more unique practices because I found that world building really imaginative. Otherwise, this was a solid, one-of-a-kind book.

When someone on bookstagram compared this book to The Grace Year, I was very interested when I received a widget from Celadon because I really enjoyed that one. It’s not true to say I don’t enjoy dystopian novels since I have enjoyed a select few that the masses rave about, but it isn’t my usually go-to genre just like sci-fi isn’t really either.

This story is told in a singular POV and follows Vera, the MC, while she grows up in a quaint, isolated mountain town where women tend to disappear after they become wives and mothers. It happened to her mother, and Vera faces the possibility it might happen to her, too. They call it an “affliction” and any reference to other places is “Elsewhere.”

To be entirely honest, I wanted to DNF this title around 8% when the characters were eating dirt and tasting each other’s blood. At a later time in the book, the MC says “I am in her and she is in me” in reference to sucking her friend’s blood in their childhood and it made me cringe. That was the most memorable part of the book for me, in a bad way.

It was very difficult to get into this story, especially with such a long portion in the beginning dedicated to Vera’s childhood without much plot or answering any of the questions readers want out of reviewing the synopsis and deciding to dig in. I stuck with it and eventually it got a little more interesting and the story moved along. I don’t think I would have been able to finish this one if it wasn’t for the audiobook approval in addition to the e-galley widget. The story does eventually come full circle and answer some important main questions about where the mothers go, why, and whether they ever come back, but still left with so many other questions in an incomplete way, not a good literary deep thinking way.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Celadon, and the author for an e-galley and the advance listener’s copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

Elsewhere is a remarkable and approachable fantasy novel that reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale (the novel) and The Village (the movie). The protagonist makes an extraordinary journey and learns some startling things in the process. Highly recommend to fans of Margaret Atwood, M Night Shyamalan, and fantasy in general.

I felt like I had stepped back in time to a Brothers' Grimm Fairytale when I read this book.

Alexis Shaitkin's novel tells the story of Vera who is raised in Eschen. I preferred to imagine that it was a small, German town outside of Nuremberg. It lies near the top of a mountain where the clouds constantly weave in and out of buildings amongst people and streets. Vera works in her father's photoshop. She's made fun of by her peers. She's motherless. Indeed this malady affects everyone in their town. Women reach the age of marriage, have children and unexpectedly vanish. Girls are left to mature alone and unguided.

A strange woman enters the small village. She's from Elsewhere. It's not here. It's not Eschen. Ruth attempts to be accepted into the community. She's fascinating to the town's people with each member attempting to gain her attention. Will the town people continue to find Ruth intriguing? Will their curiosity about a stranger amongst them provoke joy or fear amongst them?

Throughout the book we see the evolution of Vera from a teenager to an older woman in her 50s. We experience her life as a woman in a society which assumed that she will perhaps disappear, vanish and abandon her future family. We experience the rituals of the mountain and question whether what we know as normal as simply being strange and wrong by others.

This book tied a bow around motherhood and everything it means to love a child so fiercely yet question the definition of "a successful, good mother". What causes us to make decisions as parents? Is it the society that we live in? Is it the other women that surround us that provide advice?

Are the things which we experience in life similar to other's perceptions of the same experience? Is one's interpretation of something of a food being "too rich" accurate or is it simply what we are acclimated to what is rich and instead it is simply "the norm".

I enjoyed each of the characters in this book and wanted to understand this fantastical mountain town. I felt Vera's pain, sadness and eventual joy. I generally am not a speculative, fiction reader but this book felt genuine in it's story. It is neither dystopian nor science fiction. It brings together the story of what it means to be a mother and the choices we make to care for the ones we love.

The narrator of the audiobook had a lovely accent and was very clear. A very pleasant reading experience.

Many thanks to Celadon the publisher for my E-ARC on Netgalley.

In an isolated mountain town, mothers sometimes just disappear. Vera's mother "went" when she was young, and it's just a fact of this beautiful town that these "goings" simply happen sometimes. When a stranger, Ruth, witnesses the aftermath of a going and questions it, Vera knows Ruth will never understand the town's ways. Then one day, Vera feels the going coming for her, and she has to make a choice.

God this book was beautiful. It was a stunning fantasy story and a gorgeous allegory for the horrors of motherhood. The prose was beautiful and poetic, sometimes visceral and sometimes dreamlike and I loved every second of it. So many details stick out so well, and I can see myself rereading this book and having more revelations, seeing the foreshadowing. I do not want to be a mother and have not felt the draw to have children, but even so, I could feel Vera's intense love for her child and her fear of losing her. I cried at the end of the book, and I felt real grief for the characters. I will be thinking about this book for a long, long time.

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Ell Potter. Her voice was absolutely perfect for this book, emotive and deep. I think it also helped the mysterious quality of the story, because the book was written in a style that felt both British and American, with some distinctly American word choices but also some British cultural choices, and Ell Potter's British accent furthered that ambiguity, which I loved. I usually speed up my audiobooks to 1.25x or 1.5x, but I don't feel that Ell Potter's voice lends itself to being sped up, so I listened on regular speed. The book is under 8 hours, which I find is pretty short for an audiobook.

I can't recommend this book enough. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Alexis Schaitkin for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Elsewhere, like Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, will divide readers, I feel. It is a dissonant tale, the telling melodic and the narrative visceral, but its message is of the universal, human struggle to simultaneously belong and break free. The desire to reclaim lost innocence. The grief when the reality forms that what once was can never be again. Some questions raised in the book are not answered, while others are given very straightforward answers that don’t feel like resolutions suitable for an ending. The density of the prose requires close attention, and close attention to the prose can pull a reader under until the end causes a violent resurfacing.

Elsewhere contains within its pages many different literary/cinematic vibes--some Shyamalan, some Clarke, some Atwood, some King. It weirded me out and fascinated me at the same time. Vera grows up with the reader, losing her innocence in more than one way while still remaining optimistic about the future and nostalgic about the past. The plot has a mystery to it that can sneak up on you if you’re not expecting it, and it still manages to railroad you if you do.

I can’t really say more about this book without completely giving away the story, except to assert that this is the best, creepiest, most original book I’ve read since Clarke’s Piranesi. While it’s certainly much easier to understand than that realm-jumping mind-bender, I implore you to pick this one up if you’re looking for something amazing and out of the ordinary.

The only drawback to the novel for me, for which it got a .5 star ding, is the story provides no great amount of detail about the main conflict, which was the main feature of the synopsis that drew me into wanting to read it. The resolution is left to the reader to speculate, and I can come up with many reasons for it, but I’ll leave those to the reader. I did not find the lack of detail about this issue too much of a detraction from the fabulous story, but some may have a need for more closure.

As for the audio, I fell asleep sitting straight up in my chair listening to this narrator. I had to be physically active in order to keep from being lulled. Potter was such a pleasure to listen to, though soporific at best (or worst).

My thanks to Celadon Books (Macmillan) via NetGalley for the ALC, for which I give my own, honest opinion.

Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin is on my streak for loved stories. Narrated by Ell Potter, this audiobook is a 4.5 Stars!

Vera grows up in an isolated town with a perfect climate and no seasons. This idyllic community seems to have figured out a way to sustain itself with only a single outlet to the outside, or Elsewhere. The only drawback to this pristine place is that periodically, mothers disappear; all traces of their existence are passed on or burned. This creates an undercurrent of fear and collective judgements centered around women that Vera begins to grapple with as she grows older. Can they predict who will go? They certainly try.

This is the kind of ethereal type of story with a lot of loose ends that makes me so thankful for talented storytellers. The audio narration was so good. I was easily taken into this bizarre land with all the trust of a child and felt the disillusionment with Vera through Ell's voice. I loved the detached atmosphere of this story, which was conveyed smoothly.

This story gave voice to so many of the very real issues of motherhood that I grappled with years ago. I ended up choosing a path that did not include motherhood, and I felt a bit validated in some of my reasons. Growing up, motherhood was expected and praised (as it should be), and yet no one seemed to acknowledge the difficulties of it.

While the decisions Vera made throughout feel questionable, I also wonder how we are affected by our community expectations. And how often do we look back and see how our actions were hurtful as we mature and grow, and yet, we can never go back and fix it.

This story left me with a jumble of thoughts and I can't wait to discuss this with friends!

Thank you to @NetGalley and @celadonbooks for this Advanced Audio. This is available for everyone on June 28. I recommend it to those who enjoy a less-than-tidy story that will leave you thinking!

Short Review: A work of art that I'm going to remember for a long time.

Long Review: This book truly surprised me. I listened to the audio and it is absolutely fantastic.

Elsewhere is a dystopian story wrapped in women's literary fiction that immerses you and doesn't let you go even after the last page. Ultimately, it's about motherhood, family, coming of age, strange afflictions, and a town surrounded in mystery. It's comparable to The Handmaids Tale and Shirley Jackson's Lottery.

It begs the question: What is elsewhere? Is it where you are now? Where you are from? Where you are going? Or perhaps, is it a feeling? There are so many layers that I don't want to chance giving any spoilers. So, I"ll just say it's truly a book you have to experience for yourself.

3.5 🌟

I'm so excited to be a part of @celadonbooks Little Free Library Drop of ELSEWHERE by @alexisschaitkin

I don't read a lot of speculative fiction, so maybe that's why I felt like I was missing something at times, but still, this was such a unique read. I felt like it was a modern-day fairy tale in many ways, perhaps even allegorical. Set in an isolated town, women prick men for their blood and mothers just seem to vanish into the clouds. Vera comes to age in this society, but then she goes out on her own journey - she goes to see what is elsewhere but discovers where home really is.

𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Elsewhere is precisely the book that it needs to be, however it was difficult for me to get through sometimes. This book reminded me quite a bit of The Handmaids Tale, and I do mean that as a compliment as that book was also very well written and also sometimes, for me, difficult to push through.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator was perfect for the material and did an amazing job portraying the characters and adding the right feeling to the book. I would not hesitate to listen to another book with this narrator!

Now this is not a rip on the story this is just me and I personally tend to like more lighthearted ones. If you are looking for a lighthearted story this is not the book you want to read right now. If you are looking for a very interesting, sometimes confusing but deep book with gobs of character development and a unique world, let me submit Elsewhere for your review.

I am sitting at the end of this book still processing and I feel like this story is going to sit with me for a while like a stone in my stomach and I feel like it’s intended to. I still do not really understand the “magic system” and I feel like if you focus too hard on trying to understand it (like I admittedly did particularly in the first half) you might miss what you can learn from the story. For me, it was a few things, but the one that stands out the most is that when you’re living in a situation that you’re used to, it’s hard to see what is really going on sometimes. You can’t see the forest because of all of the trees.

Ultimately am I better off from having read this book? I’m not sure. Will I ever forget this book? Definitely not. I don’t know in what way the ghost of this book will haunt me but I am certain that it will. There are plenty of other reviews that will tell you about the stories particulars but I don’t think anything will sum it up other than reading it, it’s not that kind of story. It was not what I expected at all but I cannot imagine how I could’ve prepared myself for what it was and I think it is worth reading if you are prepared for something pretty heavy, that feels like a cold, rainy day in your soul.

This has been my TED talk about Elsewhere, thank you for listening!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance review copy of the audiobook for free in exchange for my honest review.

I also did try to review this on Amazon but it said it was not eligible for review there yet.

This book is not for me, I can’t get into it unfortunately. I loved Saint x and the writing was wonderful, but the story didn’t keep my interest.

This story conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear. The premise sounds so interesting but the execution was suboptimal. I found the writing to be very vague and did not get the answers I desperately wanted. This book may be for you if you like character driven stories.

I'm so conflicted on how to feel about this. I did really like the portrayal of how women are basically expected to give their lives to be mothers, and all of the things that go along with that. The speculative aspects were also really interesting. I haven't read a ton of speculative fiction before, so it was fun to go through the book not quite knowing what was happening to these women. I really enjoyed the ending as well. The thing that makes me conflicted on whether I actually *liked* the book is that I just felt very unsettled the entire time, but if that is something you like than you may even enjoy it more because of that!

I did think that the narrator of this audiobook did a really fantastic job. Her tone was exactly what I would have expected with this character, and I think really contributed to me feeling a little unsettled and uncomfortable at times (again, not necessarily a bad thing).

Overall, I think if you like speculative fiction and are looking for something a little weird you will enjoy this one!