The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

TL;DR two kids trying to keep in contact while traveling the world

TBR #829, added Apr 29 2014

finished 5/11/16

I managed to kill this book within about 24 hours. It's addictive. (I also read 90% while waiting for my exams, which might make me a little biased, but it also made me less stressed about my tests, so...)

I have to admit that I was excited about this book because of the word "geography". I'm not going to make any excuses about it. It definitely didn't disappoint! I was completely absorbed in it and I felt worlds away from the bench in the geography department hallway where I was camped out to read. (God, that's really ironic. I am a giant nerd.)

Lucy and Owen were pretty standard for contemp characters, but I was surprised by how the narration followed them. Most of the story is their time apart from each other, which is pretty unique for a fluffy book. I appreciated how the narration focused on the two of them as individuals and their experiences in life.

Actually, I was surprised by how little romantic-related stuff there was between Lucy and Owen compared to other contemps. The romance aspect was actually really chill. And I loved that. They cared for each other a lot, but there was never any lust. The story was more about how they wanted to be near each other and less about how much they wanted to make out. (I am really jaded. Honestly, though, I'd kill for more books like this.)

I was expecting this to be pretty standard fluffy-romance, so I appreciated how it was more about Lucy and Owen's lives than about their relationship. I loved the exploration of how their lives intersected and paralleled each other.

As for if their experiences throughout the book are realistic, I'd have to say probably not. I don't have any experience living in other places, but I do know that the logistics of their travels would be kind of hard to pull off. As in expensive. And some events are a little too convenient for the plot, but I didn't think any of it was detrimental to the story. Their experiences function within the book and I didn't mind it being potentially unrealistic.

The reviews I looked at on Goodreads seem pretty divided about the book.  I'll agree, the book doesn't really defy any norms of contemp books, but it was really good as a fluffy book. (In all honesty, I expect that most contemps are going to be similar, which is probably why I like a lot of them. There's only so much variety you can really get while trying to stay within the bounds of real life.) And I'll admit that I'm biased, between the geography aspect of the book and using it as a distraction from my exams.

I could've technically made a really cool map out of everywhere the two of them went, but I didn't sticky-note anything past the third chapter. I was honestly too wrapped up in reading to break my concentration and fish my pencil bag out of my backpack. I think it would've detracted some from the journey the two of them went through, too, because it's so much more intricate and nuanced than the blurb suggests. I think it's something you have to experience for yourself as it unfolds.

TL;DR the plausibility of the premise and subsequent plot might be a little questionable, but I really enjoyed the exploration of the "home is a person, not a place" concept. If you don't like the uniformity of the contemp genre, you're probably not going to enjoy it, though.