An Abundance of Katherines

Summary: 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.

Review: So I have successfully read all John Green books to date, except for a Christmas one that was jointly written with a group of authors. However, with the finishing of An Abundance of Katherines I have read all his solo works. :) This makes me happy. Now onto the review! This Green book was a little slow to start off. It took me about halfway through the book to start laughing all the time and be able to not wait to read again and see what happens. The natural wit and great story-telling that is very John Green-esque is rampant throughout the story, but it takes a little while to connect with Colin (the sort-of washed up child prodigy with an affinity for girls name Katherine). Once you make the connection to Colin though, it is easy to get wrapped up in his world and his journey to Gutshot and to himself.

So, overall it is a pretty good book. Not John Green’s best work, but still admirable and fun. The characters are true and real and the dialogue is raw, witty, and very natural feeling (not forced at all). By the end of the book you will find yourself rooting for Colin and smiling along as they grow in this one summer. It is so very easy to fall into John Green’s books and characters. Very easy to get attached. I recommend you read not only this book, but all of his other books as well.

Rating: 4.5/5 It got a little slow at some parts, but overall a great book.

Reviews from the Pros:

“Fully fun, challengingly complex and entirely entertaining.” -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Laugh-out-loud funny... coming-of-age American road trip that is at once a satire of and tribute to its many celebrated predecessors”. -- The Horn Book Magazine, starred review

“The narrative is self-consciously dorky, peppered with anagrams, trivia, and foreign-language bons mots and interrupted by footnotes that explain, translate, and expound upon the text in the form of asides. It is this type of mannered nerdiness that has the potential to both win over and alienate readers. As usual, Greens primary and secondary characters are given descriptive attention and are fully and humorously realized. While enjoyable, witty, and even charming,”-School Library Journal

“The laugh-out-loud humor ranges from delightfully sophomoric to subtly intellectual, and the boys' sarcastic repartee will help readers navigate the slower parts of the story, which involve local history interviews. The idea behind the book is that everyone's story counts, and what Colin's contributes to the world, no matter how small it may seem to him, will, indeed, matter.”-Booklist

Max

Summary: Someone—or something---is decimating ships and sea life off Hawaii’s coast, and Max and her flock find themselves sucked into the Navy’s top-secret investigation of the catastrophe. Their objective: Rescue Max’s activist mom from a wicked subterranean enemy. The hitch: They must dive deep into dark waters, where gruesome evil dwells…and for high-flying Maximum Ride, could there be anything more terrifying than being trapped in the great abyss?

Review: So, I have come to the conclusion that I have outgrown Maximum Ride books. It was good, but there were points where it was actually kind of painful to read. I would roll my eyes at the gushy love scenes between Max and Fang. They were so cheesy, I wanted to gag. Angel was annoying and diabolical, and I didn’t like her character at all. I still love Gazzy and Iggy. The idea that the bird kids are trying to save the world environmentally still kind of irks me.

The book is meant for 4th-7th graders and it is probably a really great book for that age group. It helps inform them about the environmental issues with cool superheroes that are kids just like them. Not the best book to read at 18. I kind of still want to read Fang, but I won’t be spending any money on buying it, that’s for sure. I will have to reread the Maximum Ride books to see if I have truly outgrown them, or if the series just went way down hill.

This was an improvement on the last one, that’s for sure.

Rating: 3/5

Reviews from the Pros:

“A masterpiece!”-Avi Arad, executive producer of Iron Man and Spider-man

“Max narrates with a precocious, snarky voice, but makes it relatively easy to jump into her complicated tale midstream. Not surprisingly, the open-ended conclusion begs for a follow-up; it's also little wonder that a movie franchise is in the works.”-Publisher’s Weekly