Look at Her Go; Reviewin', Reviewin': An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines- John Green



☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆


I'm slowly working my way through all of Father Green's books. I'll pick them up when I'm feeling something contemporary, or when I feel myself slumping because I know that any of his books will snap me right out of it. This time, it was because of the latter. I'd already read Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars (obviously), Let It Snow, Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. So when I found this book on a bargain table in Boston, I knew it was time.

So, in case you aren't familiar, this book is about a child prodigy with an enormous affinity for anagrams; Colin Singleton. And, at the end of his senior year he's been dumped by nineteen- yeah- nineteen girls, all named Katherine. And at the end of the torrid breakup with Katherine XIX, his best friend, Hassan, drags him on a road trip to leave his troubles behind.

I really did enjoy this book, as expected with a John Green novel. It has its fair share of hilarious moments and the quotable quotes we've all come to love from his books ("That smile could end wars and cure cancer" p. 32 is one that pops to mind), and I just always find his books immensely readable. The characters are hopelessly flawed but hopelessly lovable, and this is just a quick, amazing read.

Full, spoilery review under the cut!

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*SPOILERS AHOY*

Ok, can I be the first to say how much I love the characters in this novel? Sometimes, even when I love the book, John Green's characters make me want to strangle someone. (READ: ALASKA YOUNG, MARGO ROTH SPIEGLEMAN) But I love love loved Colin, Hassan, Lindsey and Hollis. Even with Colin's endless whining, Hassan's complete inability to be serious and Lindsey's serious identity issues, they were all so tangibly real that I felt myself sympathizing with their struggles. That was one of the reasons why I finished this book in less than a day- I wanted to see how the characters would resolve themselves. And, to me, that always makes a book a million times better.

I love everything about roadtrips. That's one reason why I loved The Darkest Minds so much; roadtrips are just full of endless promise. The one dignified way of running away from your problems is to hide the fact that you're running away under a pile of road trip.

Gutshot, Tennessee. I know a few Gutshot, Tennessees. I thought it was hilarious how they manufactured tampon strings, and I thought it was really interesting that John Green wrote small town characters that didn't spend all of their time wishing that they could get out of their small town. It was different and I liked it.

Colin's whole thing about wanting to matter was important to me throughout the book- because I saw myself and a hundred other people in that statement. Everyone wants to matter, everyone has that one special talent that they want to use for the betterment of themselves and the people around them, and not everyone can express that desire in so many words. But its there.

I was rolling laughing during the turkey hunting scene. Something about the whole situation reminded me of The Hunger Games, as if someone has parodied it. With the turkey like Groosling and the wasps like tracker jackers? Anyone? The scene was hilarious. Also, I totally called The Other Colin cheating on Lindsey. Its just a thing Other Colins do.

Quotes

• "Prodigies can learn very quickly what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover what no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn, geniuses do." p. 10
• "He liked all books, because he liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words, inside his head." p. 18
• "But you can never love people as much as you can miss them." p. 105
• "Books are the ultimate dumpees: put them down and they'll wait for you forever; pay attention and they always love you back." p. 110

There's a lot I'm leaving out, but these are the things that stuck out the most to me. My notes on this are pretty sparse, plus its been five days since I've finished, so a lot of my inital reactions are lost. :( but these are the most important things to me. I really did enjoy this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who's into contemporary. Plus like everyone loves John Green right?

happy reading!

xx
Sunny