Elsewhere is really just kind of weird. It also very much has a cyclical and self-reinforcing nature to it. Vera grows up in a community that is unto itself. Rarely if ever do they have visitors besides their supplier, Mr. Phillips. The life the people live is similar, but not the same as the rest of the world and the only time this curiosity comes in to play is when a stranger comes to town. The oddest part of their community? Some of the mothers disappear. There one day, gone the next. Some, not all. And who can truly say what causes the women to disappear. Do they really disappear? Do they leave in the night without leaving a trace? Vera's mother is one of the women that disappears when she is young, and as she gets older insistent thoughts begin to creep in. Will she ever be a mother, or grow up to be a deprived spinster? If she gets married and has a child will she stay, or will she go? When she does marry and have a child of her own, the thought increasingly weighs on her mind and acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. If she never thought of what it would mean to disappear, would the thoughts have ever crept in to her mind in the first place? Those thoughts however, could give her the opportunity to understand what has happened so many times before - it just requires giving up everything she knows and loves to do. The premise of the book is certainly interesting, and even at the end leaves me wondering if the women really did disappear into the air, or if they left of their own free will, because their life and their role became so consuming that they wanted to seek out an alternative and had the circumstances in their society where disappearing was a thing that could happen. It's hard to describe my feelings about this book without giving too much away. Is it dystopian? Maybe. Is it a look at motherhood and the roles women are expected to play, even if they yearn to know what else is out there? I didn't hate this book, but it was hard for me to love it either. It would certainly be an interesting read for a book club discussion.