Monday, June 15, 2009

My Take on An Abundance of Katherines

Synopsis: When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is 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 by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska.
I finished this book in two days, totally couldn't put it down! It has a very infectious vibe about it that leaves me feeling the need to use footnotes1 and quote it excessively2. It was truly hilarious when Colin's best friend Hassan3 would cut him off when he went off a on a boring tangent and Colin4 would continue his thought process in a foot note5. Green filled this book to capacity with banter6 that kept the flow going through the whole story.
I give An Abundance of Katherines five zombies because I was actually tempted to read it over before I even had a chance reshelf it. Yeah. It's that good. Plus the hard back cover is so cute!
Tootles!
21
footnotes__________________________________________________
1 This book uses a lot of footnotes. I’m a big fan of footnotes.
2 “Books are the ultimate Dumpees-" was my favorite line.
3 An over-weight Arab-American who loves Judge Judy and balances out Colin’s dorkitude with his easy-going funny-pants-ness and picks up the pieces every time a Katherine breaks his best friend’s heart.
4 A washed up child prodigy with a knack for languages and an obsession with dating girls named Katherine.
5 “Among many, many others, the following things were definitely not interesting: the pupillary sphincter, mitosis, baroque architecture, jokes that have physics equations as the punch lines, the British monarchy, Russian grammar, and the significant role that salt has played in human history.” I actually think that salts role in human history is very interesting. I even have a book on it, Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky. Reading it makes me hungry.
6 At one point, Colin and Hassan pretend to be French cousins on vacation to see the grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Hassan is Colin’s translator, and Colin is a French dude with tourettes and hemorrhoids. Hilarity ensues.

10 comments:

Natascha De Marco said...

U didn't told me you had a new blog! Sad panda :(

www.bloodybookaholic.blogspot.com

Eli said...

You have another blog?

Interesting review!

Zombie Girrrl said...

I have three blogs actually. One's for books (duh), one's for drawings and stuff (In Stitches), and one's a story blog (The Everchanging Lives of 13 & Co. That's why my name is 21, BTW. It's like a call sign.) where me and a few friends post, well, stories. I just wrapped up one called The New Olympians. The other two aren't new, really.

~The Book Pixie said...

I've been kind of wondering about this book. I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for the review!

Now I'm gonna go check out those other blogs of yours. :)

~Briana

Sandy said...

Your review is by far the best I've read about An Abundance of Katherines. Now I want to run to the library! Have you ever read the Ruby Oliver books by E. Lockhart? Those have footnotes in them! The third book is coming out soon and E. Lockhart's actually giving away ARCS for it. Check out my site for more info!

I saw your mini-rant about zombies at bloodybookaholic's. I never saw zombies in that way until you gave me another perspective to think about. So thank you! Hope I didn't make you mad at me. I wouldn't want that!

And aha! That's what each of your sites are about. I'm gonna go check them out too. :)

Zombie Girrrl said...

Thanks for the book suggestion, Penguin (I don't know your name, sorry!)! I haven't read anything by E. Lockhart, but I'm gonna go check it out now!
And don't worry, you didn't make me mad! I'm glad you enjoyed my rant. :)

Zombie Girrrl said...

Oopsy! I have read an E. Lockhart book! The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, I love that book!

Natascha De Marco said...

Giiirl! You have to go to my blog and check something ooouuuut! I made something, just for ya...

Look at my columns for anything new...

^^

Orchid said...

I Finished An Abundance of Katherines last weekend (I still need to review it) and I loved it. If you like footnotes you should read the Bad Kitty books by Michael Jaffe.

Zombie Girrrl said...

You mean Michelle Jaffe? I haven't read anything by her (and this time, I'm sure of it!). I've heard those are pretty funny though, I'll have to check it out. Thanks, Orchid!

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