The Elsewhere Express

A Novel

De: Samantha Sotto Yambao

Narrado por: Amanda Centeno

When you lose your way in life, the Elsewhere Express just might find you. Step on board the train that may take you to your life’s purpose in this wistful, Ghibli-esque fantasy from the bestselling author of Water Moon.

“A delicately layered dream of a book that glimmers with the promise of hope after grief, The Elsewhere Express will carry you to the stars.”—Molly O’Neill, author of Greenteeth

You can’t buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it’s a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace, and belonging.

Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead.

One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she’s swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world.

Together they find a train full of wonders, from a boarding car that’s also a meadow to a dining car where passengers can picnic on lily pads to a bar where jellyfish and whales swim through pink clouds.

Over the course of their long, strange night on the train, they also discover that it harbors secrets—and danger: A mysterious stranger has stowed away and brought with him a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train.

But in investigating the stowaway's identity, Raya also finds herself drawing closer to the ultimate question: What is her life's true purpose—and is it a destination the Elsewhere Express can take her to?

★ “A stunning, visual fever dream of a story akin to both the game Spiritfarer and Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea—a character-driven tale wrapped in a sparklingly creative spectacle of a world that inhabits a Studio Ghibli–like chaos even as it comes with a well-organized passenger rulebook.”—Booklist (starred review)

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The Elsewhere Express is a gorgeous story about finding your place somewhere in between two great inevitabilities: love, and loss.”—Sydney J. Shields, national bestselling author of The Honey Witch

“The Elsewhere Express reads like a Ghibli movie. I loved following these deeply hurt, broken, and lost characters on this Alice-in-Wonderland-esque adventure with Miyazaki flair. Its musical prose, vast imagination, and exploratory storytelling will spirit you away.”—Charlie N. Holmberg, bestselling author of the Whimbrel House series

“A delicately layered dream of a book that glimmers with the promise of hope after grief, The Elsewhere Express will carry you to the stars.”—Molly O’Neill, author of Greenteeth

“With its poetic, descriptive prose, The Elsewhere Express takes the reader on a magical ride exploring loneliness, life’s purpose, and ultimately human connection through a playful, surreal tale. Without question, the book will delight fantasy enthusiasts as they nestle into this perfect escape, a story that whisks them from the mundane and into an imaginative wonderland they might not want to leave.”—J. Penner, author of A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic

“The Elsewhere Express is nothing short of exquisite. Luminous and soulful, it will enchant you with its dreamy, whimsical charm even while it carries you through an exploration of such profound subjects as loss and the purpose of life. I am dazzled by Samantha Sotto Yambao’s extraordinarily beautiful imagination.”—India Holton, author of The League of Gentlewomen Witches

“The Elsewhere Express is not just thought-provoking but dream-provoking: with pages upon pages of sensory marvels apt to enliven your own idle thoughts (as they did mine!). This uniquely painterly story, full of songs and spectacle, is fueled by a dauntless hopefulness that I hope might find its way into my own dreams as well.”—Sylvie Cathrall, author of A Letter to the Luminous Deep

“A sparklingly creative spectacle of a world that inhabits a Studio Ghibli–like chaos.”—Booklist, starred review

“This work of magical realism, derring-do, and sadness combines Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and a trip through Wonderland, creating an adventure in which guilt is powerful, forgetting is a trap, and a happily-ever-after lurks behind the clouds.”—Library Journal, starred review

It Never Rains or Lingers on The Elsewhere Express

Yambao, is without a doubt one of the most intense, creative writers currently on the market. She is meeting needs of a whimsical, Lewis Carroll or Roald Dahl style that no one else can manage.

My major critique is that the complexity of the creativity is just so heavy handed that it leads to sheer exhaustion. The Elsewhere Express is truly for the lovers of creators such as Miyazaki, Salvador Dali, Dr. Seuss, Erin Morgenstern. Much like Miyazaki, specifically, there is the (what seems to be?) intentional lack grounding as the magical ambiance consumes and devours the reader. The Boy and the Herron is a great example of a film that starts grounded and only speeds up more and more as you watch- to the point of the viewer feeling robbed at the ending. The Elsewhere Express (along with Water Moon) misses moments of lingering similar to The Boy and the Herron. Some of Yamboas best moments would be if she could settle a bit into these creative locations and let them simmer. Allow the reader fall in love with the moment and atmosphere, instead of just asking the reader to ride the train off the tracks. Let us be immersed instead of driving us to run from location to location.

The Elsewhere Express feels like a file full of ideas that were smooshed into one novel. Leave some out, it's okay, they are all brilliant and I fear many become completely forgettable because we are gifted far too much.

It begs to ask the question, can something be so whimsical it loses whimsy?

I complained about the lack of lingering in Water Moon as well and was sad to find this same struggle in The Elsewhere Express.

The premise is delightful, I still love her creativity, I just found myself continually putting down this book because I felt trampled by the magic itself.
Every scene in both The Elsewhere Express and Water Moon is tragically vacated like the floor is lava. What is the rush? Do the editors just want a smaller scale novel? Are they pairing things down to the point of rushing a story? I get that we are chasing a villain of sorts amongst a magic train, but can we not dilly dally and enjoy the ride?
To be fair, the train itself lacks stability, so perhaps it was all on purpose to give a reader the feeling of haste alongside our main characters?

Something I would love to see in her third book would be characters that don't always give the reader answers to the 'reasons' or 'justifications' behind all the magic. I'm just not believing they COULD understand all the magic. Gandolf himself would ride this train and think, "That is so creative, I wonder how they accomplished that?" and laugh to himself. Let me giggle with Gandolf. Don't give away the illusion each and every time. Magic doesn't demand explanation- let me have some wonder behind it.
How can everything have answers that rationalize the most irrational things? It honestly would have been better to let even the leading train characters understand much much less. Less of anything would have been more in this book.

There were multiple points where I would stop and reread, sometimes with the audio playing and physical copy in hand, to attempt to better grasp what a scene was doing or what the characters were truly trying to say. I do believe the scenes were more clearly laid out than in Water Moon and do feel like Yambaos writing has only improved, which is always exciting to see as a reader.

Take Dr. Seuss, writing something like:
the sneezles of weasels bring up the treasles and happened to measel on gentle cathedrals.
....like what does that mean? What it means doesn't matter.
It's cute because it's short.....it would be exhausting if it were 400+ pages of a full story.

All that critiquing to say, I will continue to read whatever Samantha Yamboa writes. No one loves whimsy more than me. At heart I will always follow the white rabbit down the hole or ride the Catbus to the next location, but ...even I like to rest in a field of flowers or listen to the rain.
(It never rains on the Elsewhere Express).

Will I re-read- Yes!
Which book do I like more- I like them both differently. I think I enjoyed the ride of Water Moon a bit more than this, but this concludes a bit better.

Concept 5/5
Setting 2/5 - I need to feel immersed, I never really do. LINGERING! I NEED LINGERING!
Characters 2.5/5
Magical Moments 7/5 Was Undeniably Creative
Magical Ambiance 2/5 - again, I just want to smell the food, feel the wind, something?!
Plot 3/5
Coherence 2.5/5
Romance 2.5/5
Ending 4/5 (but also, I don't know if I truly understand it?!?!)
Enjoyability 3.5/5
Audio Readers 4/5

Final Rating 3.5/5
Audio Speed- 1.7x

Is the audio worth it -yes
Do I own a physical copy- yes and she always gives a craft within her covers! Water Moon had origami and The Elsewhere Express is coloring book style end pages. You can see my version on my instagram. :)

Verdict- Manic, Pixi, Dream Girl Train

Narration Didn't Match the Mood of the Book

The narration was quite frankly disappointing. The narrator was very chipper and had a very odd inflection which made the sentences feel disjointed with one another.

The book itself didn't help. It got more confounding the longer you read and you ended up with more questions than answers. Had some very neat fantastical ideas but it just wasn't very cohesive.