I was thoroughly entranced by the author's first book, The Comeback Season, when I read it seven years ago. I had high hopes for this one after reading This Is What Happy Looks Like last year. I am pleased to report that I wasn't at all disappointed by this book. In fact, I read it in one afternoon and it left a smile on my face as I imagined where the two main characters were going in the future. Lucy, youngest of three children, has lived on the 24th floor of a New York high rise all her life. Her father is a high powered banker and he and her mother travel abroad frequently. In fact they're overseas when Lucy gets stuck in an elevator during a massive power outage. Trapped with her is Owen, a year older, who recently moved to NYC from Pennsylvania when his grieving dad has been offered the position as building superintendent by a cousin. Lucy had noticed Owen coming and going over the previous week and had formed an initial opinion. However, being trapped in a dark elevator lends a bit of magical intimacy to their face to face meeting. Their conversation leads to a spark of attraction that builds once they're freed. Lucy has never seen stars, so Owen, who 'borrowed' his dad's keys and made a copy of the one that let him access the roof, takes her up there and they end up talking most of the night. When she wakes, he's gone and, as the day goes on, she realizes how much she hopes to see and talk to him again. This possibility is made quite difficult when the power comes back on as her parents insist that she fly to London so they can be certain she's all right. Meanwhile, Owen's father, who had gone to Coney Island to leave flowers at the place where he first met Owen's mom who died in an auto accident a year ago, had to walk almost the entire way back and is both dehydrated and exhausted. In fact, he's so wiped out that Own has to do most of the repair work on the pumps in order to get adequate water flowing again. It would be easy for both teens to dismiss their night together as a fun, but one time thing, but as hard as it seems to do otherwise, both of them can't let go of what might happen if they could meet again. Unfortunately, Lucy's father gets a promotion to Edinburgh, while Owen's dad loses his job when a loose valve lets water leak all over the basement of the building. He and Own take off in their old car, heading west, hoping to find a little peace and a new job. At first, Owen and Lucy keep in touch through quirky messages on postcards, but whenever he tries to send her an e-mail, he freezes up. Distance takes its toll and both of them find someone they initially think might fill the void created after that night. How they come to realize that no one else is going to fill the need or satisfy the hunger that has been building for each other, coupled with how they finally get back together makes for a dandy and totally feel-good love story. This is a great book for any library that cares about offering teens a great reading experience. It's also a perfect read for anyone who believes that a chance meeting can become something that just might last a lifetime. I was thoroughly entranced by the author's first book, The Comeback Season, when I read it seven years ago. I had high hopes for this one after reading This Is What Happy Looks Like last year. I am pleased to report that I wasn't at all disappointed by this book. In fact, I read it in one afternoon and it left a smile on my face as I imagined where the two main characters were going in the future. Lucy, youngest of three children, has lived on the 24th floor of a New York high rise all her life. Her father is a high powered banker and he and her mother travel abroad frequently. In fact they're overseas when Lucy gets stuck in an elevator during a massive power outage. Trapped with her is Owen, a year older, who recently moved to NYC from Pennsylvania when his grieving dad has been offered the position as building superintendent by a cousin. Lucy had noticed Owen coming and going over the previous week and had formed an initial opinion. However, being trapped in a dark elevator lends a bit of magical intimacy to their face to face meeting. Their conversation leads to a spark of attraction that builds once they're freed. Lucy has never seen stars, so Owen, who 'borrowed' his dad's keys and made a copy of the one that let him access the roof, takes her up there and they end up talking most of the night. When she wakes, he's gone and, as the day goes on, she realizes how much she hopes to see and talk to him again. This possibility is made quite difficult when the power comes back on as her parents insist that she fly to London so they can be certain she's all right. Meanwhile, Owen's father, who had gone to Coney Island to leave flowers at the place where he first met Owen's mom who died in an auto accident a year ago, had to walk almost the entire way back and is both dehydrated and exhausted. In fact, he's so wiped out that Own has to do most of the repair work on the pumps in order to get adequate water flowing again. It would be easy for both teens to dismiss their night together as a fun, but one time thing, but as hard as it seems to do otherwise, both of them can't let go of what might happen if they could meet again. Unfortunately, Lucy's father gets a promotion to Edinburgh, while Owen's dad loses his job when a loose valve lets water leak all over the basement of the building. He and Own take off in their old car, heading west, hoping to find a little peace and a new job. At first, Owen and Lucy keep in touch through quirky messages on postcards, but whenever he tries to send her an e-mail, he freezes up. Distance takes its toll and both of them find someone they initially think might fill the void created after that night. How they come to realize that no one else is going to fill the need or satisfy the hunger that has been building for each other, coupled with how they finally get back together makes for a dandy and totally feel-good love story. This is a great book for any library that cares about offering teens a great reading experience. It's also a perfect read for anyone who believes that a chance meeting can become something that just might last a lifetime.
What do You think about The Geography Of Us (2014)?
So this book was..... Okay. Here, I shall explain.So I loved the characters. I really felt like I could understand Lucy and I sympathized for Owen. The characters felt real... All of them. So what's the problem with this story?THE STORY LINE!!! Aka the romance. See it was just too fake for me I mean they hung out with each other for like 12 hours and half that time they slept! But nope INSTA-LOVE EVERYBODY! And then when both of them move thousands of miles away from each other they can't date anybody else cause they "love each other and can't stand dating anyone else" so they send postcards. Which I thought the postcards were cute but seriously they aren't in love. This is like an Anna and Hans situation; he gonna kill you girl! But noooooo! ITS TRUE FRICKIN LOVE! And the end was a major let down I mean it practically ends with then saying "well we live thousands if miles away from each other but we are soul mates so see ya later!" It seemed pathetic. Overall though I still liked the story hence the three stars and this is by far Jennifer E Smith's worst book yet. So if you are withholding reading her other books because of this one, DON'T! I recommend The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and This Is What Happy Looks Like. They were both better than this one.Until the next okay book I read, send someone a postcard!
—elliotruns
Stop me if you've heard this one: a boy and a girl meet when trapped in an elevator, spend a magical night in NYC, then part for separate ends of the globe, never able to get over the memory of that mystery boy/girl. But strangely, even though you feel like you've seen/read this same plot a billion times, Smith still makes you want to experience it again. Maybe it's the quirk of the postcards they send to each other, ironic and yet true all the same: "Wish you were here." Maybe it's the poignancy of Owen's recent loss, forced to mature too soon as he tries to hold himself and his father together after his mother's death. Whatever it is, regardless of the fact that you know every step of the story before it happens, it still manages to enchant. I'd probably actually rate it at a 3.5, but I'm willing to round up, since the maturity of the two teens and the lack of overemotional, overwrought, artificially-induced teen angst makes for a refreshing change.
—Sarah
In need of something light and fluffy to end the year with.
—annie
