With a title like, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, one may assume or hope (well, someone like me) that this book may offer a cynics view of the term "love at first sight." Instead, the title has made me, even if only for a few days, believe that happenstance meetings that lead to great love affairs really do exist. I could not put Jennifer E. Smith's young adult novel down! I am so glad that I have worked ten minutes of independent reading time into my students' library class schedules as this allowed me to sneak in a few pages of reading even while at work! I was one hundred percent on board with Hadley, the main character. Even more than recognizing a piece of myself in her, I was shocked to find my chin quivering and giant tears pooling in my eyes and rolling down my cheeks as I read her adventure. That I can recall, the last time I cried over a book was in sixth grade when I had to read the end of Bridge to Terabithia on my own and in bed while recovering from a bout of mono. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and it's characters will be sticking with me for a long time to come!
The book takes place in the space of twenty-four hours during which Hadley misses her original flight to London for her father's wedding to the woman he left Connecticut, Hadley and her mother for. Hadley's relationship with her father is broken and she is only attending the wedding because her mother forced it. I can relate to Hadley, not because I've had a similar family experience but because I know myself well enough to know I'd hold a grudge and be just as stubborn, unmoving and unforgiving even when I knew attending the wedding was the "bigger" thing to do. Hadley's personality flaws are my personality flaws so I feel a special kinship with her. Hadley is only able to relax and ignore the disaster waiting for her in London when she meets Oliver while waiting for another flight. Chance has it that they are seated in the same row which obviously leads to sitting next to each other for hours over the Atlantic. Oliver is just the type of guy I could talk to for hours on end. Their cheeky back and forth flirtation feels completely natural and honest. At one point Hadley muses, "Is it possible not to ever know your type-not to even know you have a type until quite suddenly you do?"
After a night of conversation and unmistakable chemistry, Hadley fears that she will never see Oliver again once they land. I feel the same panic as Hadley when she and Oliver must part at Customs. I read just a little faster waiting and hoping for him to make a reappearance so I could be assured that love works out for at least someone-even if she is a literary character. I was so caught under his spell that I inwardly sighed when Hadley remembered Oliver like a song, "He's like a song she can't get out of her head. Hard as she tries, the melody of their meeting runs through her mind on an endless loop, each time as surprisingly sweet as the last, like a lullaby, like a hymn, and she doesn't think she could ever get tired of hearing it."
As the story in London unfolds and Hadley walks through the wedding in a daze, my heart got heavier and heavier. I was sad for Hadley - for everything she lost - for the way her father broke her heart and made her mistrust marriage, but I also realized (as she realizes as well) that without that hurt and sadness, she never would have met Oliver who holds so many possibilities for happiness. He is a representation of hope. For my taste, Hadley forgives a little too easily. I felt like her father was let off the hook. Everything else about this book felt so real and authentic that it ruined the illusion a bit that what should have taken months and possibly years to fix, took only a few conversations in the span of a few hours. I would love to read a version told from Hadley's father point of view just so I can hear his guilt and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he realizes what a horrible thing it was that he did to his family.
This book read like a movie...a really good one that's bound to become one of my favorites. The kind that I watch (or read) over and over again even once all the lines have been memorized!
