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A review by richardleis
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
5.0
So amazing for so many reasons, including: character-building, humor, unexpected (and unexpectedly, to me, emotional) revelations, the abundance of Katherines, the oral histories, and the ending arc that left me feeling like I was soaring. Oh, and the footnotes. I loved the footnotes so much. I even loved the appendix.
The main characters—Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey—are all so charming and smart and yet unique and different from one another. I enjoyed their interactions together. Hassan was especially funny and he and Colin together were like a famous comedy duo. Green found the voice for each of them. Supporting characters were sharply defined, including the parents, though several of these characters only appeared in the novel briefly and were quickly set aside.
The humor works on many different level and there are different types of humor, such as the outright comedic dialogue between Colin and Hassan; the footnotes and the way the narrator chimes in occasionally; the math and anagrams; slapstick; and dark humor.
I loved the novel as a whole, but I also loved it at the sentence level. This is a book I'll return to to find examples of good writing to inspire my own writing. For example, on page 26: "Since its last paving, the ten-or fifteen-mile-long road in question seemed to have been at the epicenter of an earthquake." On page 81: "Colin thought about how even in pictures of their youth, old people look old." These sentences not only are constructed well but in the context of the plot often make astute observations that grabbed my attention.
This is the first novel by John Green I've read (thanks for the recommendation, Michelle!) and I'm so excited to read more of his work!
The main characters—Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey—are all so charming and smart and yet unique and different from one another. I enjoyed their interactions together. Hassan was especially funny and he and Colin together were like a famous comedy duo. Green found the voice for each of them. Supporting characters were sharply defined, including the parents, though several of these characters only appeared in the novel briefly and were quickly set aside.
The humor works on many different level and there are different types of humor, such as the outright comedic dialogue between Colin and Hassan; the footnotes and the way the narrator chimes in occasionally; the math and anagrams; slapstick; and dark humor.
I loved the novel as a whole, but I also loved it at the sentence level. This is a book I'll return to to find examples of good writing to inspire my own writing. For example, on page 26: "Since its last paving, the ten-or fifteen-mile-long road in question seemed to have been at the epicenter of an earthquake." On page 81: "Colin thought about how even in pictures of their youth, old people look old." These sentences not only are constructed well but in the context of the plot often make astute observations that grabbed my attention.
This is the first novel by John Green I've read (thanks for the recommendation, Michelle!) and I'm so excited to read more of his work!