An Abundance Of Katherines by John Green | BOOK REVIEW

PUBLICATION YEAR- 2006 AUTHOR- John Green GENRE- Young Adult Fiction PAGE COUNT-213 FORMAT- Paperback AVAILABLE AT -  amazon

Lately I have been craving for some fun frothy books. Don’t worry...!! I am still loyal to my favorite fantasy genre . But they say that when you are expecting, you need to subject your baby to happy sounds and feelings. Since, my inclination is deep dark fantasy with as much gore,guts and blood as possible, I decided to take a break and may be explore light-hearted genres. Hence I started looking for books with humor in it which could potentially make me laugh-out-loud.😃

I have always been a huge fan of John Green ever since I read “ The Fault in our Stars”. I think he writes great characters. Unfortunately the same can't be said about his plot/story. Anyways, I love all his books except for “ Looking for Alaska” which I found extremely disturbing and even annoying to a certain degree. This is strange because most people are of the opinion that “ Looking for Alaska “ is his best written book so far. Even more strange is the fact that I actually ended of enjoying “ An Abundance of Katherines “ way more that his other works. I am in the minority with this because the goodreads rating for this one is extremely low.

An Abundance of Katherines is a quirky story about a child prodigy Colin Singleton who has dated and subsequently has had his heart broken by 19 girls each named Katherine . Using this experience of his, he tries to come up with a predictability theorem which would determine the future of any relationship in order to avenge Dumpees and perhaps win him his girl. After the 19^th break up , he goes on a road trip with his best friend Hassan to a farm where they meet people who eventually change the course of their lives.

Years down the line if I ever think about this book, I will remember two things- the side character Hassan who I found is the most funniest character ever written  and the extraordinary writing style of the author.

Hassan is the only best friend of our main lead Colin . He is overweight, witty and lacks ambition . In fact, three fourth of my overall rating is all credit to Hassan.  The fact that I am writing about his character description even before the main protagonist is proof enough for how much I love him. Anyways, he is absolute crazy and everything that comes out of his mouth is comedic. I don’t remember laughing this hard ever while reading a book.😃

Colin , on the other hand, is a smart prodigy who obsesses over his Katherines and theorems and everything factual about life. He also has this quirky habit of anagramming. He uses  his incredible memory and retention power to come up with interesting facts/titbits during normal conversations.

 

The best thing about any John Green book is that it is extremely informative . He writes characters who are smart and knowledgeable.Through this book, I discovered how the word “ eureka moment” came into existence. I also ended up learning new words. 👉 “Sillage” is what you call the smell a perfume leaves behind.

I also ended up learning interesting facts .For instance, there is a huge difference between a prodigy and a genius.

“Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered . Prodigies learn ; Geniuses do. The vast majority of child prodigies don’t become adult geniuses.”

Also check out this bizarre mind blowing fact – “ Did you know that the whole eight glasses a day thing is complete bullshit and has no scientific basis? Most experts agree that unless there’s something horribly wrong with you, you should just drink water whenever you are – get this- thirsty.”

The other thing that made me love this book was the friendly banter between Colin and Hassan . There was also a lovely friendly dynamic between Colin and another character called Lindsey that I ended up liking as well. The camaraderie that these three share was  - #friendshipgoals. They kept cracking unabashed and unapologetic jokes at each other which were so funny that you can't help but LOL.  For instance- When Hassan and Colin were engaged in Arabic conversations with each other, Lindsey said something to them which was offensive yet funny. 

Lindsay asked,” Why are you guys talking gibberish?”

Hassan said,” We are not speaking gibberish . We are speaking the sacred language of the Quran , the language of the great Calipha and Saladin, the most beautiful and intricate of all human tongues.”

Lindsey replied, “ Well, it sounds like a raccoon clearing its throat.”😃

The only problem with this book was its plot which was expected because I feel every John Green book lacks plot. So, for a plot driven reader, this book will be complete a waste of time. I also found all the mathematics, equations and graphs a bit annoying after a point. This is coming from someone who has done a Masters in Mathematics . LOL..!!!😃

I would like to end this review with a quote from this book which warmed my heart-

“Books are the ultimate dumpees: put them down and they will wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.”

If you are up for some fun time reading and not exactly care about plot,climax and all that jazz then , this one's for you. One more thing- Don’t ignore the footnotes while reading this book - it's equally entertaining. 

RATING - 🌕🌕🌕🌕 (4/5)