Book Club: Week Two

Introduction

     "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. 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. 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."
     Did you read that little intro up there? It almost sums up the entire story of week two's adventure. This week we read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Now when I had announced that this was going to be week two's book, a lot of people were pretty angry. Now of course you can't really come close to the works of art that are The Fault in Our Stars or Looking For Alaska, but in terms of the entire teen literature world, I enjoyed this book. The story follows Colin, a Katherine lover, as he struggles with the breakup of his 19th Katherine. 

  ***SPOILER ALERT***

     Now for those of you who read the book, what did you like and dislike? I loved the first half of this book. The abundance of Katherines was such a clever and weird twist to think about. Like how does someone really wind up with nineteen girls named Katherine? (Not Katrina, and certainly not Catherine. Just Katherine.) I think it's only fitting that a guy like Colin would wind up in that scenario. I enjoyed the balance between Colin and Hassan, and I loved that little bits and pieces of Colin's past were thrown in between present chapters. My favorite part though was the plot twist of Katherine XIV. I was like "YESSSS". It just seemed fitting that Katherine I would be Katherine XIV, though for the life of me I didn't put this connection together until it was blatantly laid out. Now onto the aspects I didn't really enjoy. For one, it was super obvious that the long line of Katherines was going to be broken by Lindsey Lee Wells. Oh, and I hated the footnotes too. They were mostly just distracting and not at all detrimental to the story. The whole math aspect of this book also through me off, though I suppose the Theorem is sort of the center of this story. I kind of just disliked the entire second half of this book. The plotline that the story started to follow around the pig hunt scene just seemed lacking. What did you like and dislike about An Abundance of Katherines?

Summary

     Overall I would rate this book 4 out of 6 daisies. It was a pretty good book, but not the best thing I've ever read. I didn't feel let down by the excellence that is John Green, and I still enjoyed the hours I spent reading of Colin's troubles. I would certainly recommend this book for anyone who's just gone through a bad breakup or is struggling with the unpredictability of the future. This story reminded me of a lot of people I know in my own life, and I think any reader would be able to connect to this story. However, this book reminded me a lot of Paper Towns (another John Green book), and I would certainly recommend that one over An Abundance of Katherines. 

How would you rate this book? What did you like and dislike?

Week Three: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

To read the week one discussion, click here.