An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

BLURB:
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.





The Review:

An Abundance of Katherines. This is my second John Green novel after Paper Towns, and of course, it was as entertaining albeit less emotional, and as decidedly amusing. So yes, I loved it.

An Abundance of Katherines is about Colin Singelton, a child prodigy (and has always longed to be a genius, so that he can be someone significant) and has acknowledged himself as a certified dumpee. He was just recently dumped by his 19th girlfriend, who is also his 19th Katherine. Hassan, his arab best friend (and only friend), came up with the idea that instead of Colin moping around, they should go on a road trip. And so they did. But the problem is that they don't have any destination until they passed-by a town claiming to possess the grave of a prominent Archduke. Of course Colin insisted they visit the grave, so albeit Hassan's enthusiasm about history is not as vast as Colin's, they went through. Neither of them had any idea that entering Gutshot, Tennessee will shake their lives like a fugging snow globe and turn both their worlds upside down. ;)

While I loved the whole book, here are some of the things I liked about it:

• Interesting secondary character (Lindsey). And when I say interesting, I meant that she's, like, this is oh-so-cool and oh-so-bubbly person around everyone, yet you have this small feeling that she's just putting up a facade so people will think of her that way (a quality similar to Margo Roth Spigelman of Paper Towns). So you get intrigued about what the real Lindsey is like, and why she keeps that charade. 
• No love-at-first-sight cliche. Yes, as much as I loved some love-at-first-sight novels, I still get tired of it sometimes. So one of the things I liked about this book is that the characters slowly develop their feelings toward each other, thus making the story more convincing and realistic; so the story grows gradually on the reader.
• Straightforward characters. Unlike other novels, the major characters bluntly say what they feel towards the other---no dilly-dallying, no hesitations; straight to the point. Because of this, the characters, as well as the story, is easy to comprehend.

As the main character ponders about mattering in this book, I, too, have come to a realization that: You can make a theorem that can explain the past, but you can never make one to predict the future. The past is a logical story, whereas the future is unknown. That the infinite future makes Colin's idea of mattering (formulating an original mathematical formula) impossible. But there are stories. We can all be forgotten but the stories will last. And so that way, people can matter. Instead of obsessing about our past mistakes, why not live the most of our lives and make it a story worth-retelling? You can't stop the future from coming. Don't worry or think too much of what was, think of what lies ahead instead. Think of what you can be or what you want to be, because there is always, always, room enough to be anyone. :)