An Abundance Of Katherines

An Abundance Of Katherines

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, 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 by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska.

It would be a good assumption to say that I loved this book. Although it is not my favorite John Green book, it is still entertaining and hilarious. I was surprised to find it written in third person as other John Green's books  are written in first. It took a bit of getting used to but then I realized the characters were as well played as if they were written in first.

Okay, let me stop getting too technical. Colin is the prodigy and he feels like he doesn't really matter so he goes on a road trip with Hassan who is HILARIOUS. Unfortunately, Colin just broke up with Katherine XIX and it has affected him much. He gets an idea that a relationship can be graphed and therefore, predicted.

Although I understood most of the math as it's one of my best subjects, it might prove a bit confusing at first, especially with all the footnotes* that make the book a bit scarce and distracting. I did not necessarily hate the footnotes, I just don't like them that much. It worked in some places to add humor but at one point it became tiring to flip next some pages to get to them.

The supporting characters are very unique and the whole tampon string factory element added to the uniqueness that is everything John Green.

Overall, I liked this book a lot and I think it's not as graphic as other John Green books so it's definitely better in that sense for younger audiences.

In one sentence:
"John Green's AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINE delivers the witty and humor style of his past books."

Plot: 4
Characters: 5
Writing: 4
Cover: 4
Overall Feeling: 4
Average: 4.2

*Footnotes like this, see?

Looking For Alaska by John Green

Looking For Alaska

Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious... from GoodReads.

Miles is the scrawny guy whose life is as boring as a doorknob. He is search for adventure, the Great Perhaps, so he goes to a boarding school in Alabama. He finds himself falling in love with the reckless Alaska Young whose got things more interesting than her name.

I can't help but fall in love with John Green's writing. It's brutally honest and lyrical. Miles is the guy whose life has been defined by his nothingness and just like everyone, he's looking for something more, the Great Perhaps. He is obsessed with last words.

Okay, so all girls have this fairy tale about how guys are supposed to be, the perfect boyfriend yadda yadda yadda, right? But those fantasies - I'm sorry to say - aren't likely to come true. Miles is a guy like all others. Some readers might find this story a bit too honest, it describes teens and their sexual situations - not censured, full disclosure. That's what I love about it. It tells the things most authors don't tell. It doesn't hold back. I've only read a few books given from the male point of view and I must say John Green is the best at it so far. He creates well developed characters who are real, honest, funny, and philosophical.

Alaska is a pretty ambiguous character, I would say. Moody and self-destructive we don't ever really know what's going in her head. But she's so well developed that I don't need to know. I relate to her and care for her and her decisions. I don't want to spoil anything here - I spoiled it to myself by reading the summary in the copyright page and I was so mad - but the complex and ambiguous ending is just as breath-taking as any other. Some readers might not like this 'almost' kind of ending but I love it, it makes me think, it makes me create.

The plot is simply amazing. I personally relate to it because that's the kind of life I've been living sometimes - boring nothingness. And the sense of wanting to do more is always on the back of our minds. The events flow flawlessly and the structure is very unique. It's the best combination of humor and philosophy I've ever seen and I love it.

In one sentence:
Honest and funny, John Green captivates all kinds of readers.

Plot: 5 stars
Characters: 5 stars
Cover: 3.5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall feeling: 5 stars
Average: 4.7 stars

Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns

Quentin and Margo used to be friend, then they grew up and grew apart. Now, unexpectedly, Margo appears on Quentin's "Q" window and takes him on the night adventure of a lifetime which include fish, SeaWorld, and broken windows. Q feels that he and Margo are back to being friends. That is why he is surprised when next day at school, Margo is not there. He doesn't give it much thought until it is apparent that Margo has disappeared. And she has left clues that only Q would know.

Q follows these clues until finally, he comes across the word Paper Towns. He fears that Margo has committed suicide and searches all of the paper towns in Central Florida for her body.

One day, his graduation day to be exact, Q finally figures out where Margo is hiding. Q and his friends undertake a nineteen hour road trip to a fake town were Margo is hiding.

When they discover her, Margo explains that she didn't mean for them to find her, only just one of her other many hiding places. And the sad part is: she's never coming back.

This beautiful story mixes everything perfectly, humor, romance, sadness, and mystery. We are following Q on his quest to find the girl he has always loved. The adventure begins from page one. It is fast paced and has an ending that you will never guess. I've always wanted to do a road trip with my friends and found that this story has just that. Time crunching, near-death experiences, and amazing humor that portrays teenage life, and love, very realistically.

In one sentence:
What an adventure!