Book Review #4 : An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

                      

An Abundance of Katherines 

Author : John Green

Number of pages : 213 pages

          God can I start by stating how much I admire John Green, there’s always something new I learn from his books, starting from weird words that I never heard of, different languages and definitely  historical and scientific facts and he never disappoints when it comes to endings, they are always real.

With this book, it was definitely the case, as the main character is a half Jew prodigy named COLIN, who was discovered to be smart at a really young age. Colin wants to break the mole and become a genius; he wanted to do more than just learn what others had discovered, but the most interesting fact about him is his ideal type…his ideal type wasn’t a popular girl, a smart girl nor a beautiful one …his ideal type was KATHERINE with this exact specific spelling, as long as the girl is named Katherine he somehow falls for her,  but he always get dumped by Katherines; and that’s when the best friend job starts for Hassan, his best friend that has to hear about his moments with Katherines and their breakup and everything ..Hassan was his fat, Arab and Muslim friend that makes jokes all time and has no interest in entering college as he claims that he’s better off home watching TV and spending his dad’s money (who is apparently rich).

After his breakup with Katherine 19, Colin was so fed up and not welling to deal with his parents (showering him with love, telling him he’s the best, pushing him to learn new things and more educational programs) so it occurred to him this brilliant idea to go on a road trip with Hassan…and their drive begin and somehow (well not really somehow...but I won’t give you much spoilers)they will meet Lindsey who was giving tours around the town and her Mom Hollis who was able to identify Colin as the “Smart Kid” because he had appeared on a TV show before- for prodigies  of course- and then she invited them over and was also able to provide them a part time job .

COLIN decided later that he’s going to make a theorem for relationships: Dumpers and Dumpees , that will allow him to tell the tendency of his relationships ( how much until he’s dumped, the factors that causes breakup ) – I personally didn’t understand what that would get him haha – but he also got involved alongside Hassan with Lindsey and her mother ..Surprisingly Lindsey’s boyfriend shared the same name as him, Well after few events (not really …MANY happened) Lindsey broke up with her first Colin (yep first Colin) to Fall in love, later, with The Smart COLIN as he also fell for her at the end, also during this journey Hassan (the hilarious guy) got to experience being in a relationship (for like 4 days LOL) and had his first girlfriend!

It took Colin 18 Katherines (because Katherine 1 was later Katherine 19) to actually matter for someone and it took Lindsey one dump Colin to find someone that she can be herself around him.

I love how this book was about real friendships, I mean Hassan’s and Colin’s friendship was so cool, they went through ups and downs but they were always there for each other, I also loved how J.G displayed the image of a Muslim teenage boy, showing how he was as normal as other boys at his age ..I also loved the fact that Math was part of this novel, it made it more interesting, and OF COURSE  as I mentioned before I loved how it included facts and different informations.

If there’s any advice I would give to someone who’s hesitating to read this book( especially that many stated it was a bit boring) : don’t hesitate to grab this RED BEAUTY, it’s full of adventures, real situations, amazing quotes and it definitely gets more interesting page after page !

So I would like to share with you some of my favorite quotes:

-          But mothers lie, it’s in the job description

-          Crying adds something : crying is you plus tears

-          "Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn, geniuses do" .

-          Dumpers may not always be the heartbreakers, and the Dumpees may not always be the heartbroken. But everyone has a tendency.

-       "Everywhere man blames nature and fate, yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passions, his mistakes and weaknesses “ – Democritus

-          What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable? How very odd to believe GOD gave you life, and yet no to think that life asks more of you than watching TV. 

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

-          But I was ugly. I don’t even know how ugly and pretty get decided.

-          Everyone  just assumes they’re true, because people are basically lazy and incurious.

-          Authors always wrote things in ways other than how they actually happened. Authors never included the whole story, they just  got to the point …the truth should matter as much as the point.

-          I will leave behind something more than one photo album where I always look old

-          I just want to do something that matters, or be something that matters. I just want to matter
-          Because personally I think mattering is a piss-poor idea.

-          Books are the ultimate dumpees : put them down and they’ll wait for you forever, pay attention to them and they will always love you back.

-          How do you just stop being terrified of getting left behind and ending up by yourself forever and not meaning anything to the world.

-          In this world…you are best off staying with your kind.

-          I learned a while ago that the best way to get people to like you is not to like them too much.

-          The thing about chameleoning your way through life is that it gets  to where nothing is real.

-          How you matter is defined by the things that matter to you. You matter as much as the things that matter to you do.

-          I don’t think you can ever fill the empty space with things  you lost.

-          Dumpers are not inherently worse than Dumpees- breaking up isn’t something that gets done to you; it’s something that happens with you.