January 5, 2009

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Date Started: January 2, 2009 Date Finished:January 5, 2009

Summary: Colin, a child prodigy, and his best (and only) friend, Hassan, decide to go on a roadtrip to get Colin off of his recent break-up with K-19 (his nineteenth girlfriend named Katherine). Along the way, Colin and Hassan stop in Gutshot, Tennessee and meet Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis, who invites the boys into her home and offers them a place to stay with pay if they begin collecting oral histories from Gutshot's residents.

Likes: The story and its premise are interesting. Each character is unique and has their own unique voice. I applaud the author for knowing which point of view to choose as the third person limited point of view was the best choice for the book. The story is about a couple of nerds, the type of people who were too smart for their own good. Colin is the type of person that I imagine a lot of child prodigies to be. They spend their whole childhood thinking that they are something special being told they are special, only to grow up with a normal adulthood like everyone else. Colin is a bit pathetic, but his efforts are endearing. He finally learns through all his calculations that he can't just predict the future. The answer is so obvious, but as a reader, you are taking the journey with him so the answer isn't as obvious as it seems.

Dislikes: I hate math, though I'm curious to see if the theorem actually works. The footnotes were cute, but sometimes they were a little distracting. It took me a little while to get into this, especially after reading Looking for Alaska. I should have taken a break before diving into this one. I really don't like discussion questions and interviews at the end of a book, but for John Green, I'll make an exception.

Overall: It was a satisfying read. It was light-hearted and funny with quirky characters (one of Green's strong points). I hope the author writes more stories like this where the character realizes that the answers that he/she is looking for are right in front of their faces.

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