Book Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Once again John Green has astounded me. I think one of the key reasons I love this book is that although a lot of us are not setting out to become some form of ‘child prodigy’ like Colin Singleton is, we are always trying to make ourselves stand for something and always feeling so let down when we’re not where we thought we’d be in 5 years time. Green has once again brought humour to tackle the topics that cause us a great difficulty such as relationships and break ups, family issues, the economy and as I said, this social perception of ‘happiness’ and how the only way we can reach this is if we are higher than everyone else.

I know a lot of people adore John Green, and this opinion in the literally world is growing rapidly, but one of the main reasons I find his books a little more unique is that you can tell, not only from the story itself, that he is a true educator. With this book for example I have found that through Colin, Green has been able to illustrate his extended knowledge and research that he has built around the story itself with his use of foreign languages, advice and insight on relationships, history, and although he says he sucks at maths, his mathematical knowledge when completing the theorem. 

After I read each book I’m going to pick out some key quotations that have affected me personally, so here are my three quotes from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

"If there’s one thing I know, it’s that there’s some people in this world that you can just love and love and love no matter what." - Roy Walker

"And Colin thought: Because like say I tell someone about my feral hog hunt. Even if it’s a dumb story, telling it changes other people just the slightest little bit, just as living the story changes me. An infinitesimal change. And that infinitesimal change ripples outward - ever smaller but everlasting. I will get forgotten, but the stories will last. And so we all matter - maybe less than a lot, but always more than some." - Colin Singleton

“As the staggered lines rushed past him, he thought about the space between what we remember and what happened, the space between what we predict and what will happen. And in that space, Colin thought, there was room enough to reinvent himself—room enough to make himself into something other than a prodigy, to remake his story better and different—room enough to be reborn again and again. If Colin learned one thing from Gutshot, it’s that you can’t stop the future from coming. And for the first time in his life, he smiled thinking about the always-coming infinite future stretching out before him.” - Narrative

The last thing I want to say about this book is that I like how in the end everyone gets what they deserve to an extent. Everyone finds their love, or their path in life or they realise the goodness of others and the end couple of chapters of this book really hit home.

I give John Green’s ‘An Abundance of Katherines’

✰✰✰✰

Four stars out of five! A truly brilliant read.