Elsewhere

by Shelby Matheson

Overview

At the outbreak of World War I, eleven-year-old Elsie Clarke is sent to a mysterious school in the woods for only the most talented children. But fewer still, the Gifted, are invited to the other side – a sentient forest called Elsewhere with a magical secret.

Elsie's world is transformed by the knowledge of Gifts – special talents born from their traits, desires and fears. Talents they will need when the formidable headmistress reveals that she'll do whatever it takes to win the war, robbing the students of their childhood.

The Gifted must bring down her awful regime and win a battle of their own. But is Elsewhere recruiting them too, training them for something even bigger?

Product Details

BN ID:	2940181287358
Publisher:	Wombat Books
Publication date:	06/04/2025
Series:	Elsewhere
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Shelby Matheson is a born-and-raised Australian, currently residing in the quiet, beachside town of Hervey Bay, Queensland. She has a Bachelor in journalism and creative writing, and a graduate diploma in editing and publishing from USQ. She has been writing full-length novels since she was fourteen and has always known that being an author is the only career for her. In her spare time, she enjoys video games, drawing, crochet, collecting books (and even reading them), but her greatest passion will always be writing and escaping to the worlds in her head. 

Her debut novel, Elsewhere, was inspired by the sense of wonder and awe of classic children’s novels such as Narnia, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, and more. Elsewhere pays tribute to these classics through Easter eggs and similar tropes. The series stays true to the timeline and facts of World War I, exploring the horrors of the time through the eyes of a child, creating a symbolic parallel between the pains of adolescence and the extreme changes that the world went through during the war.

Editorial Reviews

2025-03-08
At boarding school in Wales in 1914, 11-year-old Elsie discovers how extraordinary she is.

When the invitation to enroll in Miss Coleridge’s Academy for Gifted Youths arrives for Elsie Clarke, a London resident who’s originally from Australia, she’s puzzled—no one in her family has heard of the school. But with war looming, her ostensibly neglectful parents—a plot point that isn’t believably developed—decide to send her there. After she arrives, Elsie is surprised to discover that she, along with eight others, are Gifted: Unlike their merely academically talented classmates, they each have a special ability—invisibility, acute hearing, super strength, and so on—which they must keep secret even as they’re covertly mentored. Elsie, who’s cued white, discovers that she’s a Guardian, someone with the Gift of being able to open Gateways to Elsewhere. As the war breaks out, Elsie and the other Gifted are disturbed by the headmistress’ plan to turn the school into a military academy, and they band together to try to get rid of her. The heavy reliance on telling rather than showing deadens the interesting premise, and the overt themes of respecting differences and not becoming intolerant like grown-ups are delivered with unleavened earnestness. In monologues, Elsie spouts insights far beyond her age and life experience that don’t feel authentic to her characterization and mostly come across as preachy and sanctimonious.

An imaginative plot undermined by weak delivery.(Historical fantasy. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews