An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Well folks, here it is: my first book review! I just finished An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. As you may have gathered from my "About Me," I am fairly familiar with John Green's work. In fact, the only book by John Green that I haven't read yet is Let it Snow, which he co-wrote with a couple other authors.

In case you are curious, here is a little overview of my typical format. I open with a spoiler free summary of the book. Then there is an analysis of what I liked or didn't like and what worked or didn't work in the book. I then end with a rating of some sort.

An Abundance of Katherines is the story of Colin Singleton, a young man who has dated 19 girls all named, you guessed it, Katherine. After his most recent heartbreak, Colin's friend, Hassan, takes Colin on a road trip. The boys stop in Gutshot, Tennessee after seeing an advertisement for the grave of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. They end up meeting Lindsey Lee Wells, paramedic in training and heir to the tampon string factory fortune. Colin wants his life to matter, and Gutshot, Tennessee opens his eyes to what that actually means, and what he wants it to mean.

One thing I enjoyed about this book was how Green made it feel like you were in Colin's head a lot of the time. The unique usage of footnotes throughout the story painted the image of his thought process and mental tangents. Colin is a very intelligent character, a self-proclaimed prodigy; it's fun to see some of the footnotes be extra information about a topic or some mathematical graphs. This aspect made it very different from many other books I've read.

Unfortunately, this was my least favorite John Green novel. The entire time I just couldn't figure out where the story was going; it felt like nothing was happening. Yes, there was some nice humor, but the plot just seemed stagnant.

Now, to end on a good note. I enjoyed the romantic aspect that occurred in the book. It was slow and seemed to happen so gradually. It seemed rather realistic. This is an aspect you don't see very often. It wasn't love at first sight, but it was a healing process that opened the two characters' eyes to one another. Nice work, Green.

All in all, it was an okay book, but probably not one I'd return to. Perhaps a C on the grading scale.

What do you readers think?

Megan

#JohnGreen #YANovel