So, after ‘umming’ and ‘aahing’
for ages over whether to post this review or not I’ve decided to bite
the bullet and do it. I put the feelers out to try suss out how book reviews
would go down and the feedback was quite positive so here it goes! I’m a big reader and for all
I know you might be too so why not give you some inspiration of what books to
pick up (or avoid).
Where to start with ‘An Abundance of
Katherines’(or ‘Katherines’ as I’ll be abbreviating it to for this post). Well,
I picked up this book whilst in Liverpool way back when and only just got
around to reading it on my recent journey to London. Tubes make for great
reading opportunities! I chose this book as I absolutely adored The Fault in
Our Stars ('Stars') and the same author, the amazingly talented John Green, writes this.
‘Katherines’ is based around 17 year-old,
anagram lover Colin Singleton. This former child prodigy has a thing for girls
named Katherine – 19 of them to be exact. And has just been dumped; again. He
is patiently waiting to have his very own ‘Eureka’ moment that will make him
either a genius, or famous. The story follows him and his best friend Hassan on
a road trip to help Colin get over the girl and discover his very own ‘Eureka’.
But of course this doesn’t go exactly as planned as they meet a girl named
Lindsey and Colin searches for his ’Eureka’ in a Theorem using maths and
relationships.
As far as characters go, Colin isn’t a bad
protagonist but I did find him a little boring at times. It’s really his
relationship with Hassan that makes the book and gave me some sincere
‘laugh-out-loud’ moments. Hassan’s care-free and lazy attitude contrasts
wonderfully with Colin’s uptight and anxious one and I think this is why they
connect so well. Although I did enjoy the relations between the two I can’t
help but feel the author could have done so much more with them. I felt like I
was constantly waiting for something major to happen and it just didn’t. I
found Lindsey to be your typical love interest character, and although she was
a strong female (my favourite) I didn’t find myself loving her the way I did
Hazel from 'Stars' or Liesel from The Book Thief. Maybe this was
because the book wasn’t from her perspective as the other two were.
In saying this I did like the chapter
length and writing style of the book. Being inside Colin’s constantly
anagramming brain was fun, and the footnotes at the bottom of the pages were
charming, I always find they give a book more personality. However being inside
Colin’s brain whilst he works on his Theorem was just exhausting. Too many
graphs and numbers in my opinion and it made it hard to enjoy. (Although it is
pretty impressive that it was all real; John Green got one of his friends,
Daniel Biss, to make an actual formula for the book.)
I really wanted to love this book, believe
me. But I just didn’t, and I didn’t hate it I just know I won’t be reaching for
it again as I will with 'Stars' or The Hunger Games. My love for 'Stars' may have influenced my thoughts on 'Katherines' as I may have expected more
of an emotional journey that unfortunately wasn’t there.
Not a bad read but unfortunately only
getting 2.5/5 from me!
What did you think of this post? Would you
like to see more book reviews from me? Let me know! xo
Really glad you decided to post this review. I agree with the points that you made, I did find Colin a little boring & there were too many graphs and numbers for my liking too. I'm going to get my boyfriend t read this & see what he thinks because I think he would really enjoy it, for some of the reasons we didn't!
ReplyDeleteIn Katie's Corner
Yes I definitely think a boy would enjoy it more! More like how their heads work as oppose to us haha! Thanks for commenting. xxx
DeleteI'd love to see more book reviews. Always looking for more books to add to my read list. I read waiting for Alaska after reading The fault in our stars and I found that one the same. I kept waiting for more exciting things to happen and found the main character a bit odd.
ReplyDeleteBeth x
mermaidindisguise.blogspot.co.uk
I think I'l start posting them more often! Yes I'm currently reading Looking for Alaska and I'm getting the same vibe. I've yet to finish though, I'm hoping John Green isn't a one-trick pony! xxx
DeleteFantastic review! Love finding new books to read! X
ReplyDeletewww.whatlouiseisloving.com