Book Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Photo taken from D.W. Poppy Library

Book Info

Title:  An Abundance of Katherines
Author:  John Green 
Publisher:  Speak 

Language: English

Format:  Paperback 

Pages:  272 pages

ISBN-10:  0142412023

ISBN-13:  978-0142412022

Source:  Purchased, Celina's Books and Mags

Buy this book on Amazon 

 

Summary

From Goodreads:  

"When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun - but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska."

Review

An Abundance of Katherines

Best Read on a Funk in an Ache

While Colin Singleton could probably do better than that in one-hundredth of the time I finished that anagram, I daresay that that anagram I did says it all –this book is best read during those bad days when you really need help in cheering you up, or just plain helping you renew your energy.

Colin Singleton

Tingles in Colon

Colin Singleton is an anagram-happy, washed up child prodigy who experiences Tingles in His Colon for girls named Katherine.  Not just in his colon, but also in his heart.

Katherine

Eat Her Ink

But the Katherines he loved – all nineteen of them – would each rather Eat Her pen’s Ink than be with him forever, and he was dumped by Katherines nineteen times.

Characters

Reach Cast

The Characters were very funny, although the fact that Hollis depended on Colin’s reputation as a child prodigy and winner of a game show to let them live in her home struck me as odd and a bit impractical, I thought the characters were very easy to Reach and were Cast appropriately in that they all elicited the desired reactions and emotions from the reader.  You feel hurt but proud for Colin, you love Hassan, you sort of hate but like The Katherines, and the town villains make you make fun of them and hate them at the same time.  They were very likable, some outrageous quirks but the reader would be willing to suspend a bit disbelief at what he/she reads because the story is just plain awesome, and it would be a shame to put down this book just because you thought ‘this character shouldn’t be this, or this character shouldn’t be that.’

Awesome Story

Twosome Years

This Awesome Story involved romance, intelligence, common sense, and some morals on life and friendship as Colin tried to perfect The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability in order to prove that the Twosome Years, or months, or days or whatever of a couple could be predicted.  Which of course makes this story a bit predictable in itself, although it would also interest you enough to read it if only so you can congratulate yourself for knowing what happens in the end beforehand, but at best this story will surely suck you in from the beginning and before you know it, you’re already in Colin’s car with Hassan and enjoying a road trip between this Twosome. 

While I was looking at this book’s reviews in order to help me decide whether I should get a copy or not, one particular opinion remarked – I cannot repeat it verbatim but here’s the gist – The book featured footnotes of interesting trivia and an appendix of mathematical graphs and equations, which could either interest or bore the reader.   And so, I prepared myself to be bored.  But reading through these fun stuff only increased my interest and most times, I even laughed aloud at the comments in the footnotes, and could not help but smile over the graphs.  I am no Math geek myself, but the graphs were kind of mesmerizing to look at when you understand what they mean.   And although Hassan would qualify which of Colin’s trivia is interesting and not interesting, most of them you would find fascinating and something that could be used to start conversations (or maybe it’s because I’m a geek that I could think of those trivia as remotely interesting.).  The narration conveyed a sense of both youth and intelligence and that unique John Green appeal.  I would definitely read this book over and over again for Years. 

Anagrams

Sag an Arm

I actually wanted to write most of the review in Anagrams, but it’s totally exhausting and time-consuming.  It also made my arm hurt as I had to write down everything in order to get something that I liked.  Figuratively, it made me Sag an Arm – the right arm, that is.  And I wish I had Colin’s fantastic ability to form great anagrams in his head but I don’t.  I’m such a failure. 

Paper Towns?

I could not find an anagram good enough for what I am going to say so I’ll just leave it at that.

There were some readers who compared An Abundance of Katherines to Paper Towns in that it had some similar elements:  The road trip, finding missing pieces of a puzzle.  In my opinion, that is only as far as the comparison could go.  This book is way different than Paper Towns because this dealt more with love and the fact that the future could not be mathematically predicted.  Paper Towns dealt more with finding out the mystery of a person’s existence.  It could not get any more different than that.  But of course, my opinion is open for debate.

Rating

If you have any questions on this particular rating, please refer to my ratings system here.

Notice 

All opinions expressed in this book review are my own and not influenced by any party in any way.

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