An Abundance of Katherine's - John Green

Ali Mark
Feb 6, 2016
4 min read

Published in 2012.

Pages: 215.

Number of books by author: 30 Novels.

Genre: YA Fiction.

When Colin feels sorry for himself after being dumped 19 times by the Katherine's of the world, his buddy Hassan packs him in a car and takes him on a road trip to heal.

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:

Relationship drama
(Crappy books written by popular authors)

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.69 I think it was more deserving of a 0, but since 0 is the absence of anything (which this book mostly was), I'll be polite and give it a 1 simply because it was written, and somehow published.

I don't know if I've given a one-star before (turns out I have... I don't remember what the book was, however... maybe Rx), but this will stand out as the shittiest book I finished in 2016. I hopefully won't have a list at the end of the year... but this will stand out as crap. And I have reasons... real reasons, not just "I didn't like it," but in case you don't want to hear me bash the infamous John Green and this seemingly popular book (which I still can't wrap my head around), you can stop reading here and know that I simply hated this book and the only reason I finished it is because JG has been given high praise; his books are plastered everywhere; they're turning into movies; and I just figured I could jump on the bandwagon.

I think the initial problem starts with a lack of sympathy, or empathy for that matter, for Colin. The fact that he's dated 19 girls in his what, 17 years of living, seems a bit much. But when you date 19 girls named Katherine, it's just annoying. And completely unlikely. The chance that Colin Doe in the real world would date 19 girls named Katherine, and those are the only girls that he's ever dated up to the point of the book, is slim to none. (Although, some Colin out there in the world might have dated 19 girls named Katherine just to prove a point, which the way this book went... I wouldn't be surprised.) But honestly, everyone gets a significant other over the course of a few days... it's just teen-angsty meets week-long-romances. IT'S ANNOYING.

The tiresome flashbacks to the days of Katherine-19 are just fucking annoying. I get no benefit, and I find myself even more annoyed with Colin's character with every flashback because we learn something new about the whiney-brat he is every time Katherine is mentioned. No one wants to listen to someone do the following: whine about being alone, whine about being a prodigy (but not a genius), whine about not being a genius, whine about being alone, and finally, whine. It's annoying. But when you mix that with the character's desire to turn every word or phrase into a new set of words or phrases throughout the entire novel (although consistent, I guess I can tip my hat to the author there) is annoying. Everything is a tangent about something he finds interesting. Which would be fine if it was even remotely fucking relevant to the story.

Which brings me to the story - there was no. fucking. point. None, whatsoever. The detailed summary is this (so skip this part if you have intentions to read on... you can pick back up at the next paragraph): Colin gets his heart broken by Katherine. Hassan and Colin go on a road trip. They stop in a town in TN. They are offered a job at Lindsey's house. Colin works on being a genius. Hassan gets a girlfriend. Lindsey's boyfriend Colin, although not the same Colin, is cheating on her with Hassan's girlfriend. Lindsey and Colin (the main character, not her previous boyfriend) start dating. THERE IS NO POINT. (Oh, and Colin solves his theorem, which is irrelevant to the story line, if I knew what the story was.)

The footnotes. This makes me feel three ways about this novel: it's not a textbook, so I have no desire to read the footnotes; 2- the author makes himself look conceited as fuck thinking people want to see footnotes in his book.... this isn't a biography or written in a foreign language (for the most part); 3- you look like a jackass. I would've much rather you defined things or elaborated on things within the context of the paragraph. I basically got to the point where I stopped reading them. I'm not over here trying to learn about the Arabic language or know about King Charles the 50th or whatever. I'm trying to follow a story line... and this is not important to whatever the story line might have been.

WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT? I still have no idea. I don't feel anything (but annoyance) towards any of the characters. I don't feel a longing to know more (because, as soon as I hit publish on this, I will happily never re-visit this book again - at least until I sell it). I feel like there was a beginning, and that was it. The book started, but it never went anywhere. I never traveled with the characters on their journey. I don't think the story ended, because I don't think a story was being told. It was just so bloody annoying.

This book, really, really, REALLY sucked. If there ever comes a point where there's a movie from this book, I will boycott theaters everywhere; and I might possibly even start a petition because it would be a really pathetic movie.