Guest Review: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines

John Green

Pages: 227

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

Age Group: Young Adult

Publication date: September 21, 2006

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

Hey y’all!

My name’s Amanda, and I’m Megan’s friend! (We kind of share a brain.) I’m the London to her Paris! (Get it. Her blog’s all ‘Paris is awesome!’ and I’m all ‘my suitcase is one giant picture of Big Ben with a double decker bus in front of it!’) ((This is true. My suitcase > your suitcase.))

I just finished reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (LOVE HIM<3), and Megan told/asked me to write a review, so here goes!

First off, this book is one of the best combinations of nerdy facts, love stories, and semi-deep physiological stuff. I learned so many interesting facts from the footnotes-

Ok, side track.

THIS BOOK HAS FOOTNOTES! How cool is that!? At first, I was like “ehhh... this book has footnotes? Do I really want to read this?”

Yes. Yes I did.

Back on track!

-for example, in one of the footnotes, you learn that a child prodigy turned genius (like GENIUS genius) was actually a serial killer and his son grew up to be a detective and his son was the one who found out his dad murdered all these people. What an interesting fact!

(Ok, so I’m typing this in class because, ya know, I’ma rebel and all, and this dude in my class walks up and calls himself a ‘swagbear’. The definition of swagbear is someone who has vast amounts of swag. Thought you should know that.)

Not only does this book have footnotes, but it has 20 love stories. I am a lover of love stories (Nicholas Sparks is my man) and this made me so excited! The main character is a dude named Colin, and he is a child prodigy. He is all ‘woe is me’ because he wants to be a-

Side track.

Megan is making my signature and it looks so amazing!

Back on track!

-genius but is only a prodigy. (A prodigy shows lots academic promise, and a genius makes awesome stuff. I.e., inventors, engineers who make world-changing things, Einstein, Aristotle.)

Not only is he upset because he isn’t as awesome as he wish he was, but he has a thing for girls with the name Katherine. Only. Girls. Named. Katherine.

So, Colin has dated 19 girls named Katherine. (19 is my favorite number in the universe, btw. I wonder if I can add it to my signature...) Each and everyone has broken up with him. Bless his heart. (So he thinks! I’m not goin’ to give away any spoilers.) But he really loves Katherine-19 (aka K-19) ((I bet he loved her most because she was number 19)) and she just broke up with him. So now he’s a depressed, heartbroken child prodigy.

Double-bless his heart.

You know how I mentioned earlier that there was also a lot of semi-deep psychological stuff? Well, it’ll about doing something that matters and has an impact on the world. For example, Colin says at one point “What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?”

Amen to that, brother.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re all “Yes! That is so me! I can identify with this character and this is awesome because it’s what I think in a book!” That quote was one of those moments for me. I mean, I know Blackbeard was craycray and all, but do you know why he killed so many people? He didn’t want to be forgotten, or to be just another grave. I’m the same way. I feel ya’ Blackbeard. I feel ya’.

So Colin, his best friend Hassan, who just happens to be the funniest fake-dude I’ve ever read, take off on a spur-of-the-moment road trip, no destination, and meet the lovely Lindsey Lee Well/Wells. (I can’t remember, and sadly my book is at home beside my bed waiting to be quoted into my quote book.) They later go to see the Archduke who started World War I’s grave, and they just-so-happen to run into Lindsey’s boyfriend, also named Colin. At first, he seems like the perfect southern boy. (And I love my southern boys.) ((I’m pretty southern myself.)) He plays football, he’s tall, tan, and muscular, and has The Accent. Hassan and Colin (the heartbroken prodigy) decided to call him TOC. (TOC = The Other Colin)

TOC and JATT and SCOT (I can’t remember where those came from, but one has to do with chewin’ tobacco. Read the book and find out :)! ) and Katrina leave Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey to do somethin’, and that’s all the important teenage characters! (Btw, Katrina is one of those girls who totally lucked out in the physical gene pool, but didn’t get anything from the mental gene pool.)

Lindsey and Colin and Hassan then meet Lindsey’s mom, who happens to own the local factory. She’s a great lady. Not only is she humorous, but she is rich, can cook, keeps it real, and has The Accent.

IMPORTANT: Sorry I forgot to mention this. It takes place in Tennessee.

So Colin, in his heartbroken state, decides to graph his relationship with K-1 through K-19. But graphing these failed relationships isn’t good enough. He has to create a theorem that graphs everyone of them perfectly.

Once our now less-depressed prodigy creates said theorem, it comes out looking like a beautiful place of math. (I’m a math and science nerd. Woo Calculus!) Having properly graphed each relationship, he feels that he has done something that matters. He then proceeds to graph Hassan’s relationship with Katrina, and Lindsey’s relationship with TOC. The graphs are perfect.

Yay for Colin!

(TOC and Katrina kind of do something totally NOT okay, and it’s craycray scandalous. Also, Hassan is a chubby slacker who’s greatest love in life is a Monster Thickburger. Like no one saw THAT relationship not working out.)

And the ending is great :)

Now for the sales pitch! This book is really a great book. (And I’m not just saying that because if not, I have to read another one to review for Megan.) It is interesting, you learn stuff that you don’t mind learning, romance and scandal (Yes! Scandal!) are abundant, and there’s footnotes.

Now, for something totally not related to the actual book. I totally feel like I’m Colin in girl form. I’m definitely not a prodigy, but I am an admitted nerd. I mean, if I could make an equation that graphed my relationships, I know I so would! Plus, he’s just like me in how he wants to be put in the history books. Also, he’s really insecure in all his relationship, and has to have his girlfriend tell him all the time that she really does like him. And you can ask my boyfriend, I’m the same way.

Isn’t it cool when you find book characters that are just like you?! It’s so awesome!

(Now, when you read this book, (because I know you’re going to! :) ) don’t think I’m just like him. I don’t have a Jew-fro, and I have more than one friend. I’m just saying that we’re a lot alike. :) )

I give this one 5 mustaches!

Thanks so much for reading this here blog post! Let me know what you think of the book and my post! Maybe Megan will let me do more! :)

Have a wonderful time until the next post!