An Abundance of Katherines by John Green • contains 272 pages • published 21. September 2006 by Speak • classified as Romance, Young Adult • obtained through Overdrive • read as eBook • shelve on Goodreads • shelve on The StoryGraph
Synopsis:
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 washed-up 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.
For once I’m not entirely sure if my dislike for the book purely stems from the book itself or from the expectations that arose prior to reading the book because a very popular author wrote this. An Abundance of Katherines is the first full-length novel of John Green that I got my hands on. The first sentence had me totally hooked but no single sentence can sustain a whole book. No matter how good that sentence is. Despite my growing reservations, I decided to continue reading, even staying up till 3 a.m. one night just to complete it. Sleep would’ve been time better spent on my part.
Things I detested more than anything after I was done reading An Abundance of Katherines:
- Anagrams
- Footnotes
- Graphs
- Trivia
- The term fug
- The abuse of the term kafir
- Stories within a story
- Stating the obvious
- Colin (and he’s the main character!)
- Colin’s obsession with Katherines
- Colin’s obsession with not being good enough
Looking at that list, I disliked practically everything in that book. There were only a few things that I did appreciate. That Colin’s best friend, Hassan, is Muslim, so diversity is definite score. But even that didn’t win me over because Hassan is such a hypocrite. Sure, everyone makes mistakes. The problem with Hassan is that he professes that he is Muslim, acknowledges all his sins but couldn’t care less to atone for them or to lead a life befitting his faith. Plus he constantly refers to Colin as kafir, and jokingly keeps telling Colin that he should convert instead of trying to find his worth in yet another Katherine.
Altogether,
- the plot is so predictably,
- the inclusion of all that math is unbearable because in the end it really doesn’t tell the reader anything of worth,
- the excessive anagrams are completely annoying,
- the footnotes make for cumbersome reading, and
- not a single part of me cares for any of the characters or the story as a whole.
As much as The Fault in Our Stars has been on my radar, I think I’ll wait a few more months before picking it up, so I can have a go at it without a clouded mind.
The style of writing in An Abundance of Katherines did not amuse me in the least, yet for some reason others have referred to it as a humorous read. I didn’t even come close to smirking a single time. I was bored by the time I reached the fourth chapter. Had I read a printed copy of it, instead of on my Kindle, I might’ve torn the book to shreds in frustration. It was 3 a.m. after all when I finished reading and realized I didn’t gain anything out of reading this book. Even the entertainment value wasn’t there for me at all.
I can’t help myself but leave everyone with this quote:
“I figured something out,” he said aloud. “The future is unpredictable.”
You don’t say?
I for one did not think the book was that bad. perhaps it was because of the fact that I was really bored and I was forced to read it. the whole problem with the math equations coming up in the book was annoying(despite the fact that I love math). Hassan as a friend confused me as well but I just think that was the point to get to know all different types of characters and their personalities but since you despised all I would not blame you. Lindsey was actually an okay character but you did not mention her character in your review. I wanted to use this book as an example on how I should write a book but now that I see most people are not a fan of it I’ll definitely be using another book as my guidance,
Oh dear, I guess I won’t be reading this any time soon! I’ve never read a John Green book, but when I do, I’ll make sure to start off with something else, haha. I don’t want to end up hating anagrams and graphs and trivia like you have. :(
Good choice! I wouldn’t recommend this book unless someone’s a die-hard John Green fan or loves maths so much, they would swoon at the thought of calculus in their fiction.
OMG I’m so glad I wasn’t the only person who didn’t like this book. I don’t think I disliked it quite as much as you though! I didn’t mind the anagrams or the footnotes, I thought the footnotes were creative actually.
I really didn’t like ‘fug’, ‘kafir’, or even the whole Katherine thing. He didn’t even date all 19 Katherines! But they all count because he spoke to them. Or whatever. And he’s had dates with other girls (not called Katherine) but they don’t count? Because their names weren’t Katherine? Really? *head desk*
And the math… difficult to understand and somewhat irrelevant to the story other than to provide a way for him to build a relationship.
Gah. That said, I’m totally glad this wasn’t my first John Green, or I may not have tried any others. I loved The Fault in our Stars, and really liked Looking for Alaska. You’re right, maybe give it some time to let the anger subside before you move on to TFIOS!! I hope you like that one :)
HAHAHA. I realize I fall onto one extreme end of the spectrum. But, checking out footnotes that detracted from the story was so annoying because I read it on my Kindle, so it’s not like I could just glance at the bottom of the page. I had to go to and fro. And you pointed out another reason I didn’t buy Colin’s theorem nonsense in the end. The convenient inclusion and exclusion of girls had no basis besides the name Katherine.
It gives me hope knowing someone who didn’t like AaoK loved TFioS! Still, I’ll wait it out for now :)
I’m so happy I’m not the only one who didn’t like this. I hear a lot of people rave about it but personally, I just don’t see it. Colin was such a pathetic character and honestly, I didn’t see any explicable reason for how he managed to date 14 Katherines. I also didn’t really get his theorem and I thought it was so stupid, like why would you spend time doing that anyway? And the footnotes. Ughhhh. I could have very well done without them. I also really didn’t like the little things like RHAPAW or whatever their car was called and every single time Ben spoke, I wanted to punch him in the face. I agree that the diversity was a bonus but I don’t know, a lot of the time I felt like there were a lot of jokes about being Muslim and I’m not feeling too good about that.
Anyway, great review and thanks for making me not feel like a unicorn any more! :)
Well, I didn’t specifically hear people rave about this one but with all the hype about John Green books, I didn’t think it mattered where I started. It was 19 Katherines but the number doesn’t matter so much as the obsession with Katherines when all these relationships are clearly over. I don’t even know what he was trying to achieve. The name was Devil’s Hearse. I have no idea what was up with that either. Lol. And yes! The Muslim aspect was taken wayyy too lightly.
You can alway hop onto Goodreads, then filter to only see the one and two star reviews to prove that you’re not alone! Hahaha.