The Elsewhere Express

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao, 432 pages. 

Sometimes when people's thoughts start to drift away from their life, those people drift towards the Elsewhere Express, a train made of thoughts that promises a more magical existence, full of peace and purpose. Raya has been drifting for years, robbed of her purpose when the brother she was born to save dies young. She has tried giving up her dreams of songwriting to pursue his instead, but she can't help but feel unmoored from her life. She finds herself on The Elsewhere Express at the same time as Q, an artist who is losing his art as he loses his vision. But something else has boarded the train at the same time, a stowaway with the power to destroy the train is Q and Raya can't find a way to stop it. 

This book has maximum amounts of whimsy, balanced out somewhat by the very real pain of the characters. It feels like the show Infinity Train by way of Studio Ghibli. While the story was engaging, the setting is the real star of the show. It creates the kind of place that I wanted to linger in while I read the book. However, time nonsense is a bit of a plot pet peeve of mine, and I am afraid that does come into play into this book, which makes it a little hard for me to fairly judge the resolution. This is a book that deals heavily with the symbolic and emotional, turning it into something physical to examine it from a new angle. I don't know if I enjoyed this book quite as much as the author's first novel, but it has given me a lot to chew on, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up rereading it at some point.