Back of Beyond

by Sarah Ellis

A collection of spine-tingling stories introduces Kenton, on a boring baby-sitting job when the unthinkable happens; Adrian, whose life is changed after surfing the Net one night; and Rita, who has a strange experience while driving alone for the first time.

Genres: Young Adult, Short Stories

144 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 1997

About the author

Writer, columnist, and librarian Sarah Ellis has become one of the best-known authors for young adults in her native Canada with titles such as The Baby Project, Pick-Up Sticks, and Back of Beyond: Stories of the Supernatural. In addition to young adult novels, Ellis has also written for younger children and has authored several books about the craft of writing. Praised by Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman as "one of the best children's literature critics," Ellis "writes without condescension or pedantry. . . . Her prose is a delight: plain, witty, practical, wise."

Ellis was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1952, the youngest of three children in her family. As she once noted, "[My] joy in embroidering the truth probably comes from my own childhood. My father was a rich mine of anecdotes and jokes. He knew more variations on the 'once there were three men in a rowboat' joke than anyone I've encountered since.

Reviews

[Catherine Jett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not like to give low ratings to books. Unfortunately, though, I didn't find these stories very interesting, nor memorable. Some of the dialog was trite or corny, or you wouldn't think people would interact with that type of discussion and still be "hip" or respected. Thus, every now and then, the dialog or small actions could be annoying. The two stories I liked the most were "Net" and the last story, which had some meaning to it that I could discern. A girl with dyslexia catches up with beautiful people on a camping trip, loves their company, and finds out later she could have easily died falling off a steep edge due to their dancing. People she almost died trying to be like (beautiful) by not eating, came back after her hospitalization, and she could have died again in enjoying them. In addition, the riddle by the beautiful people was apropos because its answer to what is above the highest thing, the lowest thing, better than God and worse than the devil, and eaten by the dead but if eaten by the living, the living would die was extremely significant to the story and the character. Other than Net and this story, the rest were really not memorable. I'm still glad I read this book, esp for the last story. Even books I don't like are worth having read and I can get something out of them. So, if you see this book in the library, or for free, and have some time to kill, go ahead and read through it. You might like it better than me.

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 3 out of 5]

From strangers online and odd dolls, to beautiful folk from out of the woods and those who dream of mystical truths in their pasts, these twelve short stories invoke the unknowable edges of reality as it peeks into our world...and our personal lives. Ellis will peak the interest of mystery fans with touches of the otherworldly in every well paced and shaped tale, though its weak implementation leaves the overall atmosphere feeling empty. There is no predicting where the things beyond our understanding will appear...

[T & Sons · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 12 year-old son, and I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. After reading 5 or 6 of them, he declared that, in a very short space of time and with very few words, you came to feel that you really knew the characters. I agreed. He liked the mysterious, slightly creepy element of the stories. I thought the writer really hit the right tone here: fun, intelligent and snappy characters, but not at all jaded or sarcastic.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

(greatly influenced my lifelong love.of short stories)

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was supernatural involved in these stories...? Yeah. Maybe. Sometimes it seemed like, othertimes was it supernatural or just a messed up situation. Some of the supernatural elements didn't come off well, like in the short story The Knife suddenly you have an image of seal. Then there is the Potato, it is less supernatural than a guy who clearly delved off the deepend and came back, but to say it was a potato head that saved him? Really. Anyways, let's just say definitely not worth reading.

Warnings (Spoilers):
Sex - None.
Language - None.
Drugs/Alcohol - I would assume some of the characters were on drugs.
Violence - Suggestion of violence, but nothing ever actually happens.

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't much like it. It was a collection of short stories, completely unrelated and some of them weren't even really supernatural. While it was well-written with amazing description and characters I could feel, it seemed like everything ended too abruptly and without explanation. That might've been the point, but personally, I didn't like it.

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories with a touch of the eerie about them. I don't normally care much for short stories, but found these very good.