An Abundance of Katherines
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4.3 • 662 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From the #1 bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
Michael L. Printz Honor Book
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Katherine V thought boys were gross
Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart
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. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
After graduating from high school and being dumped by his 19th girlfriend named Katherine, Colin Singleton embarks on a road trip to clear his head. The author of The Fault in Our Stars delivers another quirky coming-of-age story, this time about a grown child prodigy who’s riddled with anxiety that he's wasting his genius and determined to come up with a theorem explaining his bad luck with Katherines. Colin will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider—we loved how the book’s prose reflects his unique way of thinking, with anagrams, trivia, and mathematical puzzles breaking up the text.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Green follows his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, with this comic story about Colin Singleton, who at 17, considers himself a failure. "Formerly a prodigy. Formerly full of potential. Currently full of shit," he thinks, when, on graduation day, his girlfriend breaks up with him, the 19th girl named Katherine he has dated and been dumped by. (That number includes some third- and fourth-grade encounters, one of which lasted three minutes.) Colin's best friend, Hassan, an overweight underachiever, suggests a road trip to lift Colin out of his funk. A highway sign advertising the grave of the Austro-Hungarian archduke whose assassination sparked WWI leads them to Gutshot, Tenn., and Lindsey Lee Wells, whose mother, Hollis, is the town's largest employer she owns a factory that makes tampon strings. Hollis offers the boys jobs recording oral histories of local residents, which they accept, though Colin's true preoccupation is a mathematical formula ("The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability"), which will forecast the duration of all romantic relationships and enable him to make his mark on the world. It's not much of a plot, but Green's three companionable main characters make the most of it. Colin's epiphany he can't predict the future but he can reinvent himself, maybe even date a girl not named Katherine is pretty basic, but the intelligent humor that will make many readers eager to go along with him and Hassan for the ride. Ages 14-up.
Customer Reviews
Not as well written
I love John Green’s Fault In Our Stars while this book was less interesting. Sometimes it made you lose interest. It never made me feel like on the edge of a cliffhanger, which was one thing I enjoyed about the Fault In Our Stars. Still a very good book but would not recommend it as much as The Fault In Our Stars
Disappointment
This book was the worst that I have read from John Green. It was very childishly written, it was nearly pointless. I kept reading it hoping that the book was finally going to get good, but it never did.
Loved this book but not as well written
I love John Green’s books and have read most of them and they are all incredibly well written but this one felt like it was missing a little piece of the story not in the way of leaving out details (because John Green does leave out details for us to fill in with our imaginations and I love that about his books) but more towards the way the story was portrayed I would like it a lot more if it was in Colin’s point of view or Lindsey or Hassan or maybe even Hollis or TOC’s point of view.
The difference between this book in and the rest of John Green’s books is that it has an ending and it ends happy it doesn’t just stop at a sad point and let us imagine the rest (like most of his books do) it stops at a happy point (and let’s us imagine the rest) we can end it the way we want, for example we could make Lindsey and Colin grow up, get married and have 3 kids one of which who has cancer but survives and is happy or we can make it so that TOC wanted Lindsey back but she did not want him back and unfortunately he somehow found out about Gutshot Textiles so blackmailed Lindsey to break up with Colin but Lindsey refused and TOC kept his promise so the whole town knew and quit making the company and town collapse.