Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

in a sentence or so: Colin is a recent high school graduate, former child prodigy, and freshly dumped by his 19th Katherine.  there was never a better time for a road trip with his best friend to try and work on the theory of relationships, to get over his latest Katherine, and move on.

being a prodigy has led to certain quirks in Colin.  for one, he loves creating anagrams out of words.  he reads constantly, deals with a good bit of social awkwardness, and is desperately wanting his very own 'eureka' moment.  when he is dumped by the 19th Katherine he's dated (he only dates Katherine's, actually), the opportunity for his eureka moment arrives - The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. the theorem will predict the future of any relationship, including who is the dumper and the dumpee.

deciding a road trip is the best way to recover from a bad breakup, and a way to avoid registering for college classes, Colin's best friend Hassan gets them on the road.  along their path they discover a small town named Gutshot which promises the grave of Archduke Ferdinand (which seems odd, considering it's in Tennessee).  while the grave is kind of a bust, they do meet Lindsey Lee Wells and become quickly absorbed in the Gutshot way of life. settling down sooner than they expected, Hassan and Colin are in the process of exploring the unknown, and discovering who they are and what they want from life.

i absolutely adored Looking for Alaska, and i had super high hopes for my second John Green novel. i was not let down.  i really dig having a male main character as the person to relate to in the plot, and the humor and wit in the teenage dialog was both fun and genuine.

i appreciated journeying with Colin through his heartbreak, his history with the Katherines, and slowly uncovering who he is and what he wants.  it was an intimate, and always hilarious, novel of self discovery and friendship. this is a read that comes off as light, but is deceivingly thoughtful and creative. it had the feel of meeting a new friend who recalls their crazy summer to you - personal, conversational, hilarious, and meaningful.

fave quote: "The act of leaning in to kiss someone, or asking to kiss them, is fraught with the possibility of rejection, so the person least likely to get rejected should do the leaning or the asking.  And that person, at least in high-school heterosexual relationships, is definitely the girl.  Think about it: boys, basically, want to kiss girls. Guys want to make out. Always. Hassan aside, there's rarely a time when a boy is thinking, 'Eh, I think I'd rather not kiss a girl today.' Maybe if a guy is actually, literally on fire, he won't be thinking about hooking up. But that's about it.  Whereas girls are very fickle about the business of kissing. Sometimes they want to make out; sometimes they don't. They're an impenetrable fortress of unknowability, really." (76)

fix er up: the theorem, while super cool, resolved itself in a very odd way.  and i don't mean plotwise, i mean that the theorem's actual (avoiding spoilers here) resolution was unsatisfactory for me.

title: An Abudance of Katherines
author: John Green
genre: adventure, coming of age, friendship