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

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green

Publisher: Penguin

Page Count:  313

Publication Date: January 10^th 2012

Obtained: From Penguin Publishing House

Synopsis:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

What I thought:

First I’d like to thank Penguin for sending me this book for review. Now onto the book. I loved this book. I loved the characters and I loved the way they interacted with each other, there was just so much to like about it. I felt like Hazel was a genuine, albeit pretentious, 16 year old girl was trying to live life with terminal lung cancer. However many years that might have been. Things changed when she met Augustus Waters, a cancer survivor, and despite her judgement, decides to get to know him.

Hazel knew that the process of getting emotionally involved with Augustus was an irreversible one and in the end someone would get hurt. This book is sad, but I didn’t cry. The ending was in some way expected and also surprising but I felt like from the start we were being prepared for what was to come. Hazel doesn’t take any sugar-coating from anyone and always demands honesty, not pity. She accepts her condition and wants to die, hurting as few people as possible.

This is easier said than done, of course, and Hazel realises that her efforts are futile and she must live for the day because the next isn’t guaranteed. The Fault in Our Stars wasn’t what I expected it to be. There's love, loss and so much pain but I didn’t feel it was about a girl with cancer. It was a teenage girl who fell in love, read a book and made some friends – she just happened to also have cancer.

Rating: 5/5