Book Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green Summary: Colin Singleton was a child prodigy, mostly good with languages and history and anagrams and that sort of thing. His private tutor's daughter, named Katherine, asked him to be her boyfriend and then dumped him in less than five minutes. Colin swears that this set him up for the rest of his life, and the book begins with a post-highschool Colin who's dated and been dumped by nineteen girls with the same name. His most recent breakup has hurt the worst, and to pull him out of his depression Colin's best friend Hassan decides they should go on a road trip. They end up in a small town named Gutshot, following fate (or chance or luck or whatever you believe in) and a long dead Archduke that you might have heard of. In Gutshot, Colin makes a few friends while he tries to deal with his emotional shortcomings and attempts to write a mathematical formula that can predict how any given romantic relationship will turn out; hilarious banter and adventures ensue. In the end, Colin comes to a grand realization about love and the future. TL;DR Summary: In this bildungsroman, Colin Singleton's best friend Hassan tries to pull him out of his post-dumping depression by embarking on a road trip with him. They end up in a small town where Colin re-evaluates his past, present, and future. There are also twenty Katherines, one Lindsey, a wild pig hunt, and a relationship success predicting mathematical formula. Review: As a fan of the Vlogbrothers existence, I felt it necessary to actually read a book written by John Green. I had read half of Looking for Alaska once before, but I must have had to turn it back into the library before I was finished, because I never remember finishing it; I have to get on that. But, I digress. We're talking about a different book here. I found AAOK quite enjoyable. There were a few bits in the book that I got a bit bored in (not John's fault, that's just my short attention span. Thank you, internet!), and I wouldn't say that I would read it hundreds of times, but it was still very very good. I also found the mention of conjoined twins enjoyable, because it made me remember HEY, John Green wrote this! My absolute favorite parts were those written in just dialogue, complete darkness. JOHN GREEN IF YOU'RE READING THIS, THE SECRET HIDEOUT MOMENTS WERE INCREDIBLE. Also, Colin's eureka moment is just perfect. The writing itself changes almost into a stream of pure thought and it's just ARGH I honestly have no words for how right it felt. It was like his thoughts were being projected into my mind. Or something.  I reread those pages a few times before I closed the book for good. Also the big hunt scenes were hilarious. AND HASSAN. I loved him. I see what you did there, John, writing a self absorbed main character and then an amazingly awesome best friend. Because if you don't identify with the one, you will with the other. Bottom Line: Recommended for nerdfighters and people that aren't nerdfighters. Basically everyone. 3.5/4 stars.
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