Skip to main content

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



Blurb from Goodreads:
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.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.
My Review:
 
It really is my own fault for reading The Geography of You and Me when I really didn't like the only other book I've read by this author, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.  I've seen so many reviews raving about books by this author that I figured not liking one of her books was a total fluke and, so, I read this one.  And I feel like the two of these books are nearly identical?!  Both books are based upon longing, pining, and unrealistic expectations after the two characters spend less than 24 hours together.  

One thing I will state is that the writing is good in this book.  That wasn't my problem with the book.  My problem is that I felt NOTHING while reading this book -- I didn't care about the narrators -- they seemed whiny, immature and just totally out of touch with reality.  And, I was bored.  Really, really bored.  I base my reviews on the feeling I have when I finish a book and whether I keep thinking about the book when I finish.  When I finished this book?  I felt nothing but relief.  I am sure there are tons of readers out there that will disagree with me and for whom this book will be a favorite. I'm just not one of those.
If you were to draw a map of the two of them, of where they started out and where they would both end up, the lines would be shooting away from each other like magnets spun around on their poles.  And it occurred to Owen that there was something deeply flawed about this, that there should be circles or angles or turns, anything that might make it possible for the two lines to meet again.  Instead, they were both headed in the exact opposite directions.  The map was as good as a door swinging shut.  And the geography of the thing -- the geography of them -- was completely and hopelessly wrong.

Comments

  1. I've seen a lot of great reviews for this book, but it never really seemed like my thing so I didn't read it. I have a feeling that my thoughts would have been in line with yours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't read anything by this author yet but I have one on my kindle that I need to get to. Although whiney immature characters are so no my style. I do love her covers though!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I actually really like this author... BUT this was definitely my least favorite. I had a lot of trouble with it too. :( Sorry you didn't enjoy this one. Whiny and immature I totally agree with!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! I'm so sad to hear you really didn't like this one. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard mostly good things. Your review definitely makes me think twice. Great review.

    Thanks for commenting on my review of Jesse's Girl. I agree with you on a lot of what you said. I enjoyed it, but definitely not my fav in the series. And it wasn't about sports, that bugged me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I love this trope, sub-genre, setting: My Best Friend's Brother/My Brother's Best Friend

I Love This Trope, Sub-Genre, Setting is a new feature on my blog in which I discuss a trope, sub-genre or setting that I love and tell you about books that are shining examples of said trope, sub-genre or setting.  Feel free to play along and please let me know about your favorite books in this realm and whether you like this trope, sub-genre and/or setting as much as I do! Today I am spotlighting the trope of:  My Best Friend's Brother/My Brother's Best Friend , which I would define as any book where the heroine either has a crush on or falls for her brother's best friend or her best friend's brother. I have to confess that I love this trope in nearly all of its iterations!  I have a younger brother so I never got to crush on any of his friends but it's fun reading about that and it's equally as fun as reading about falling for your best friend's brother -- instant sisters!  I know there are a ton

Conversations With Myself (& Hopefully You): ARC Greed

This discussion is inspired by my feelings lately when reading and reviewing ARCs versus the feelings I had when I requested those same ARCs: ARC GREED ARC greed -- have we all experienced this?  What I even mean by this term is that I sometimes feel overwhelmed when looking at Netgalley and Edelweiss and  I sometimes over-request, if only because I can!  I get greedy when I see all the new and shiny ARCs available and I will sometimes request things that have even a hint of interest for me, not necessarily focusing only on those books that I really, really want.  The problem with this over-requesting and with getting greedy with requesting (and receiving) ARCs is when it comes time to read and review these ARCs.  Last month and this month, I have looked at my ARCs with a release date in each respective month and I just haven't wanted to read any of them.  I need to start asking myself -- If I was immediately approved for this ARC, would I read it right thi

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015

Top Ten Tuesday  is hosted by the fab ladies at  The Broke and the Bookish ! What books are you anticipating for the rest of this year?