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Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E Smith



Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.


My thoughts
A super sweet offering from an author who I have come to expect great things from. The Geography of You and Me was a quick and lovely little read which I enjoyed thoroughly.

The Geography of You and Me is the story of Owen and Lucy. They are very different and meet during a blackout when they both end up stuck in an elevator. I liked the contrast between the two and their backgrounds but also being the common ground they have in their stories. Both are quite lonely and being moved from place to place by dictated by their parents work.

The vast amount of the book the pair are separated whilst on their travels and their only communication being a series of postcards and email replies sent between the two. It was a really sweet idea and I liked seeing how their relationship developed in this unusual way.

For me the book was very much about seeing all the places the characters visited. I personally got very excited about seeing Edinburgh and London through Lucy's eyes and I loved the American Roadtrip feel of Owen's story.

All in all a book I very much enjoyed and an author I continue to follow with interest.

Comments

Aww, this sounds like a really cute read - great review :)
I got about a 1/3 through this book and felt no urge to continue. I felt really disappointed as I loved the previous two books of hers that I've read. I'm hoping it was just bad timing. Might give it a bit of time and then try to return to it...