Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green
Published: October 16, 2008




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, washedup 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.


Like so many other award-winning books of his, this one is a total.complete.champion. The story is so very cute¹ , and very very funny². It’s like The Big Bang Theory in text, with the same level of hilarity that gets you not only hysterically laughing, but at an epic period of time, too. And I’m actually listing down vocabulary for the voluminous words I just ain’t heard of before³. 

This is really an epic read with reflections, reflections everywhere. It’s probably the first book I’ve read where I was actually sad to see the pages thinning out on my right hand⁴. Unlike other books, I thoroughly took my time reading this one, even pausing to reread several pages over and over again, on account of (a) the deep thinking and philosophical ideas, (b) very funny passages and metaphors, (c) the highly witty conversations, and (d) much much more. Right into the first chapter, the story was very promising—and it didn’t fugging disappoint up to the last. The footnotes also made it very interesting, and if you’d really take time to read them, which I encourage you to do, you’d find it very informative and illuminating. 

I also liked the idea that math was featured, and not superficially. God, it even had an appendix. This book is so entertaining that it almost feels like listening to a person tell a story—an amusing, fascinating, and inspiring one at that. Don’t forget instructive. I personally think just anybody would easily get lost in the story—in between anagrams, eureka moments, formulating theorems, telling stories, secret hiding places, and feral hog hunts—it’s the best read next to The Fault in Our Stars. It’s the type of book you get a separate bookshelf for. And not to sound emotive and gay, but rarely do I read books that make my heart beat faster while reading, kind of like listening to a really good song—simple things that lift the spirit⁵. 

I really love how John Green writes realistically, not adding unnecessary emotions to appeal to readers, yet managing to make it better and more convincing. He has the admirable ability to really live the life of his character though his words.  And the part that inevitably caught my heart wasn’t the funny parts nor the edifying theorems, but the clear lesson reaching out to us—especially teens struggling in finding and knowing themselves. Even better, because I think it is made especially for everyone, no matter what social group you may belong to and no matter what teen-type you were branded to be. This wonderful book teaches us all that we matter as others matter to us, teaches us to do, to be, and more importantly to be grateful for every second of the lives we’ve been given, and for the infinite future looming before us, giving us every chance and opportunity to create infinitesimal changes in our lives, so that we may be able tell our own stories in the end⁶. 

John Green is the best in every fugging possible way. My favourite part? Well, if I had my way I’d put the whole book in here, but oh, wait. I actually can, so eat this. *insert pdf file here*(mwahaha.) 

Words!
“Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.”

“Well, while you were in the bathroom, I sat down at this picnic table here in Bumblefug, Kentucky, and noticed that someone had carved that GOD HATES FAG, which, aside from being a grammatical nightmare, is absolutely ridiculous. So I'm changing it to 'God Hates Baguettes.' It's tough to disagree with that. Everybody hates baguettes.”

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1 and so is Colin. And Hassan.

2 no shit.

3 almost 60 new words I learned!

4 I tend to read books speedily

5 like Coldplay

6 equations:     x²-8x-4y+20=0

                       x²+y²-6x-18y+90=0

                       x²+y²-10x-18y+106=0

 

LOL!