An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Title: An Abundance of Kathrines
Author: John Green
Publisher: Penguin
Page Count: 213
Publication Date: September 21^st 2006
Obtained: Purchased

Synopsis:

Katherine V thought boys were gross
Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart

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.

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.

What I Thought:

As a fan of Green’s work I was hoping this would be another favourite of mine. The story is written about a teenage boy named Colin who is a former child prodigy and only dates girls named Katherine. In the book Colin goes on a road trip with his best friend, Hassan.

I have no idea why but I found this book really boring. The story and the writing just didn’t capture my attention like I thought it would. I found Colin’s character to be annoying. I felt like his character wasn’t particularly likeable or funny. In fact most of the characters lacked dimension and there was no character development which is crazy because nothing happens in the book. I still don’t know what the story was meant to be about because I couldn’t find a solid plot.

I actually thought the footnotes in the book were quite interesting to explain the random word and things in the story. I did however find some of the language distracting. E.g siztpinkler. I know a lot of the words and themes used were for comedic effect but it felt in a way as if it was too try-hard.

This book came out quite a few years before The Fault in Our Stars which may explain the difference in writing. Overall this wasn’t particularly enjoyable and it took me a long while (longer than usual) to read it.

Rating: 2/5