Book: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E Smith
Pages: 352
Read On:: iPad
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Plot Summary: Lucy lives on the twenty-fourth floor. Owen lives in the basement. It's fitting, then, that they meet in the middle -- stuck between two floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, Lucy and Owen spend the night wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is back, so is reality. Lucy soon moves abroad with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.
The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and to San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland, Lucy and Owen stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and phone calls. But can they -- despite the odds -- find a way to reunite?
Smartly observed and wonderfully romantic, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. Sometimes, it can be a person.
General Thoughts: I've read two other books by this author and honestly I've had somewhat mixed-ish feelings about them. You can find their reviews HERE and HERE.
Things I Liked:
1. The premise of this book- two people meet on a stuck elevator and develop a connection. Sounds nice. I have come to realise that Jennifer E Smith is the master of coming up books based on adorable and super interesting meet-cues. The books always start with a super cutesy meeting point.
2. The book takes you so many places. Road-tripping in the US and places in Europe and it's always a nice thing when books takes you places.
3. The characters of both Lucy and Owen are very well-crafted and you get to know both of them really well by the end of the book. We have alternative chapters from each of their perspectives and this really helped in connecting with the characters and getting to see their world through their eyes.
4. I liked that while they were apart from each other, there were other (love interest) people in each of their lives.
5. The insta-love/interest was present...I can't pretend it wasn't there...but it wasn't as vile as it normally is. The connection and fondness that develops between Lucy and Owen seemed largely natural.
6. Lucy's parents and their lack of interest in their children's lives was shown well and what was shown even better was the impact their behaviour had on Lucy.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. The ending was just...abrupt and it felt like the book almost ended mid-sentence. There was no resolution or a wrap-up.
2. As much as the insta-love in this book wasn't as terrible was it could be...it was still there. The connection was almost instantaneous. Lucy and Owen meet in the elevator during a city-wide blackout and she doesn't know him at all. Like this is the first time they've met. They manage to get out of the elevator and she then takes him home...in her apartment in the pitch dark, on the 24th floor when no one is at home! Like really? Hasn't she heard of date rape? So stupid!
3. Overall this book was a bit under-whelming and supremely meh.
Rating: 3/5
Buy it Here:
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