The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

​“Raya and Q are two souls who have lost their purpose in life and are simply getting by, adrift. Lucky for them, The Elsewhere Express sweeps them up and brings them into a magical, immense, imaginative world that's built from all the thoughts, dreams, desires of every person ever. They've been brought on board to find thier purpose. Q is ready and willing to accept all that the Elsewhere Express has to offer but Raya isn't convinced. It had potential but quickly dissolved into aggravation and confusion thanks to Raya's constant questioning and the books' aimless meandering from one train car to the next.”

⭐⭐

Pros: It was a very unique idea/I liked the character of Q, he was a good balance for Raya. 

Cons: Raya's constant questioning of whether the Elsewhere Express was good or bad and how she always managed to do the exact wrong thing, all the time, made this book extremely tedious/Though the places they visited were beautiful, there were far too many and it just ended up being background noise in the end. 

Full Review:

Raya was essentially born to be a safeguard for her brother's health. He was sickly as a child and if he needed a bone marrow transplant, what better person than his sister. Unfortunately, he's killed in a car accident and Raya has drifted through life ever since. She's heading home on the subway to spend her nights the way she usually does, studying but not caring about much else. 

Q is slowly going blind. He's a painter and is heading towards his last exhibit. He's full of rage and hopelessness at the fact that he'll soon be living in complete darkness. There's a moment on the train platform where he seriously considers suicide but he manages to push past it and boards the train. 

The same night, Raya and Q are both swept away onto the Elsewhere Express. 

It's a train that's created by every person's dreams, hopes, truths, lies, thoughts, yearnings, imaginings and more. It's full of music, art, color, texture, every single thing you can think, do or say is shown somewhere at some point on this eternal train that travels in an infinite loop. When it's discovered that a stowaway is on the loose, Lily, the Conductor and Rasmus, the former Conductor ask Q and Raya to help them stop the destruction that the stowaway could create. 

Sadly, the plot quickly disintegrated from there.  

I found Raya to be extremely annoying. Every one of Q's questions was met with a question of her own and it felt like she never gave a straight answer. She always hedged or avoided or dodged around the point. And every single thing she did when trying to trap the stowaway just ended up making things worse. She was selfish, petulant and just annoying. 

By about page 250, I couldn't stand Raya anymore and I just wanted the book to end which it could have easily done so 200 pages earlier than it did. I finished it because I wanted to see how it ended but what started out as whimsical and interesting ended up being overdone, confusing and tiresome.