He thinks he’s better than that, that because he’s survived his mother’s abandonment and his father’s isolation that he doesn’t need the things he secretly wants. Elliot wants what most lonely children do: a fantasy life full of magic and adventure and parents who would do anything for them. Brennan allows him a happy ending of sorts, but there’s a lot of sadness that goes along with it. Over the course of the book he transitions from being a bitter boy already fed up with the world and desperately lonely to an adolescent learning to open his mind and heart to a young man who appreciates the world for all it’s weirdness and wants to explore it and all its people.Įlliot grows up a lot in the story, not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. Within each volume, a small, intimate story is told of Elliot Schafer’s life that year. The novel is broken up into volumes by age: thirteen through seventeen. Plot isn’t a major concern in In Other Lands, but that doesn’t mean nothing happens. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world.” (via Goodreads) On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands.

He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and-best of all as far as Elliot is concerned-mermaids.Įlliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border-unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. “The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan