Book Review: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

SUMMARY: 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. He’s also a washedup child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin’s on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin’s hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere. (from the book description)

OPINION: It can be hard for a novelist to write a second book when the first is really successful. John Green won the Printz Award for Looking for Alaska, so that's a hard act to follow! Nonetheless, An Abundance of Katherines is an excellent book in its own right and is definitely worth reading. I loved the nerdiness of this book, from the fading genius main character and his obsession with anagrams to the bizarre random knowledge of the footnotes. I am not a math person, and I even liked Colin's theorem! (Try it out for yourself at John's website!) Also, this is one of the few recent teen books featuring a contemporary Arab-American character, Colin's best friend Hassan. Hassan is crass, hilarious, and not a terrorist. I learned from Alaska that John Green excells at writing about unique, interesting, fully-developed characters, and this book is no exception. So go read it!

ANAGRAMS: A while ago, I posted a blog entry about an online anagram maker that will figure out all the possible permutations of your word or phrase. I learned that "Gretchen Ipock" anagrams to "Peking Crochet" and that "Jason Ipock" anagrams to "Jack Poison"! Check out the old blog post to see what other people found anagrams for!