The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

Back in August 2003, there was a massive blackout that covered most of the east coast and Canada. People were without power for almost two days. I was in a Mexican restaurant when it happened. Other people weren’t so lucky…

The Geography of You and Me takes place, at the beginning, in New York during a power failure much like the one back in 2003. The two main characters, Lucy and Owen, are stuck in their apartment building’s elevator when the power goes out. They’ve never really met, Owen has just moved in with his father who took over as the building’s super. Since they’re stuck together they begin to talk, even when the building’s doorman and maintenance guy get them out, they continue to talk. What else is there to do in a blackout? Especially with Owen’s dad in Coney Island and Lucy’s parents are over in Paris. In that brief twelve-hour period, they develop a connection, which is great because they live in the same building…

Or not. After the power comes back, Lucy’s parents send her a plane ticket to come visit them in London where they have some surprising news. Her father is up for a job that would require the family to move back to England. Owen’s dad gets fired from the apartment building because of his absence during the power failure and a plumbing issue that was mostly his fault, so they decide to go on the road. The two maintain their relationship with postcards and e-mails, and eventually they do meet up. But things don’t go exactly as planned.

So this wasn’t my first novel by Jennifer E. Smith. Two summers ago I tried reading The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and I didn’t really care for it – not that I read that many pages to begin with – and school was starting up so I returned it. Last summer I read This is What Happy Looks Like and fell in love. It was a really good book and when I heard about The Geography of You and Me I couldn’t wait to read it. This book didn’t disappoint. Usually I’m not a fan of the switching of POVs between chapters, but with this book it just worked. I loved all the traveling that Lucy and Owen did, and I loved the postcard idea. The only thing I didn’t really like was the ending. Everything just came together a little bit too easily. I wouldn’t mind a sequel to see how Lucy and Owen are handling the long distance thing, maybe more postcards?

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Loved the characters and the plot. Especially loved the flow of the story. I practically read the whole book in one day. Thanks to this book I’m probably going to give The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight another try.

Bookshelf worthy? If only my shelves were bigger. The book design is just amazing.