Samantha Sotto Yambao’s The Elsewhere Express is a Technicolor fever dream with poignant messages about self-identity, love and coping with grief embedded within its action-packed pages. When Hiraya Sia wakes up from a nap on her subway commute to find herself a passenger on a mysterious train in another dimension, her immediate thought is that it’s all one big mistake—until truths are revealed that cause Raya and the reader to wonder if her journey on the train is part of the universe’s grand plans for her. Raya’s existence has not been a particularly happy one: Conceived to serve as an organ donor for her older brother, Jace, she struggles with her grief when he passes, as well as finding her purpose when she numbly steps into his plans to become a medical student. This heavy inheritance plagues Raya, and while the Elsewhere Express and its unique inhabitants paint a vibrant picture of how wonderful life could be if she just lets go of her emotional baggage, Raya isn’t sure if the train is where she would like to spend eternity.
Enter Q Chen Philips Jr. Like Raya, Q is grieving the loss of a loved one and carrying on their legacy, and he also struggles with identifying his life’s purpose as a painter whose vision is rapidly deteriorating. When Q unexpectedly ends up on the Elsewhere Express, he is reminded of life’s colorful beauty, and he contemplates making a permanent home there. Given the conductor’s concern that two passengers have appeared simultaneously—an unusual occurrence—it feels like an easy solution to have Q remain and Raya return to her life. But Raya and Q’s stay on the Elsewhere Express is anything but restorative and peaceful. As they explore the train, they soon discover that the darkest of secrets puncture this dreamscape.
Yambao’s fantastical adventure has the feel of a Studio Ghibli film, with creatively designed creatures and pastel landscapes. Her deft and expressive use of illustrative language and clever wordplay lends an otherworldly aura to Raya and Q’s adventures, and Yambao excels at crafting vignettes that illustrate people’s hopes, regrets, memories and dreams. But while there are certainly cozy aesthetic elements, the stakes for the characters’ souls are very high, and it feels likely that Yambao pulled inspiration from works such as Infinity Train, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth. The train is a world in which both everything and nothing is possible, where possibilities are supposedly limitless but feel constricted nevertheless. It is up to Raya and Q to get curious, think outside the box and bend the rules to achieve ultimate happiness.
With unforgettable settings and two flawed-yet-relatable character perspectives, The Elsewhere Express is a marvelous fantasy that is unafraid to confront the complexities of intense grief.