Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

This review can also be found on my Goodreads account: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/969189882
 

 Title: An Abundance of Katherines
Author: John Green
Genre: YA Contempary
Pages: 236
Summary: "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." (as found on Goodreads)

 I had mixed expectations for An Abundance of Katherines. On the one hand, the only reviews I had seen for this book were negative 1 or 2 star reviews. On the other hand, it was John Green. I had high hopes for my second novel of his. I ended up really liking this book, and here's why:

 

Characters:

The characters were believable. They were suffering from real problems, and although I found the element of him dating 19 girls named Katherine a little on the silly side, they still were realistic enough to relate to. They all had thier own problems and secrets and I loved all of them. Yes, even Colin, despite the fact that most people call him whiny. Of course we also have Hassan, who was hilarious. And there was also Lindsay, who I enjoyed reading about too.

 

Setting:

The setting of Gutshot, Tennessee, was good for this book. It was a cute little town that was rural, unknown, and slightly run-down. One of my favorite settings (other than fantasy worlds), is when an author makes up a place that seems like it could be real, and that is what John Green did with Gutshot.

Plot:

 Okay, so the plot was a bit slow at first, but still, it was easy to follow and it was a discovering oneself type of plot, so I was okay with it. Everything was wrapped up at the end, and there were no stray ends.

 

Writing Style:

The writing style was easy and quick to read, and the idea of including footnotes in the book is always a fun one. It really fit with Colin's voice, as he went off on random tangents most of the time, I thought it was a good idea for the footnotes to be included. John Green probably had to do a lot of research for this novel to come to life. I'm guessing this wasn't an easy book to write, but he made it seem easy in the way he wrote it.

Final Notes and Thoughts:

Admittedly, I had gone into this thinking it was going to be a good-ole road trip novel. Sadly, it wasn't. However, it was still enjoyable and dealt with real problems. It was definately worth the time spent reading it.

 

(4/5 Stars)