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quadrille 's review for:
An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green
1.5 stars, grudgingly rounded up because I did enjoy John Green’s prose, and started enjoying the book a lot more towards the end: when it started focusing a bit more on Lindsey, and her arc, and on Hassan’s arc. Lindsey’s social chameleon-ness and anxiety over figuring who she is rang far more true and ‘real’ and relatable to me than Colin’s neuroses. Because dear god I wanted to punt Colin Singleton off a cliff, every single goddamn page, and that never really abated even by the time I finished the book. When he finally Gets The Girl, I mostly just found myself annoyed because I didn’t feel like he’d earned it at all.
I’m all about unlikeable characters learning to be better, but man I just could not ever grow to like him or care about his arc. His development was too little & too late for me by the time the narrative announced that he had supposedly improved. All of his internal narration how he thinks he’s better than everyone else; how unbelievably obsessed he is with being ~*a genius*~; his obsession with Popularity, and not even joining Hassan the moment his friend happens to enjoy other people’s company (how dare Hassan have a life outside of Colin); how he thinks girls are prettier without makeup (kill me now); I hate him!!!
My favourite moment, really, was when we finally learn that The Other Colin’s friends are actually really really good great dudes. But it was only one scene. I wanted a whole whole book focusing instead on Colin befriending these people, dropping his snap judgments, and teaching the importance of tending to his friendships rather than stewing over: romantic relationships, being dumped, Dumpees vs Dumpers, his Theorem, and thus inevitably rebounding onto Lindsey. I think it would’ve been far more powerful to solely learn be a better friend to Hassan and to Lindsey, rather than her being the romantic carrot dangled to narratively ‘reward’ him for becoming marginally less self-centered. Barf.
There were also just so many logic gaps that I could not believe in: this teen boy with overprotective hover-parents is allowed to just hop in the car and impulsively go on a road trip, with no word of when he’ll be back? He and his friend will just head to some random town, get random jobs, and live with strangers? And the parents are okay with this?? Plus, Hollis handing them well-paid jobs and letting these two strangers immediately move into her home with her teenaged daughter and strike up such a daily intimacy with her & them???? WHO DOES THIS
Anyway, I’m not a Fan. I see that even some of my friends who love John Green still disliked this book, though, so this probably wasn’t the best place for me to start; I would still give him one more shot and probably just settle for reading The Fault in Our Stars. Which I think I might also enjoy more because the stakes are higher; here, there just weren’t any real problems to get invested in, beyond those the protagonist had created for himself.
In terms of contemporary YA capturing sheer giddy vicarious emotion, I much rather recommend Emma Mills’ [b:First & Then|23310751|First & Then|Emma Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426513843s/23310751.jpg|40149265] or Jandy Nelson’s [b:I’ll Give You The Sun|20820994|I'll Give You the Sun|Jandy Nelson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451382614s/20820994.jpg|11409817] (which is also twee as hell but in such an endearing way, rather than infuriating).
I’m all about unlikeable characters learning to be better, but man I just could not ever grow to like him or care about his arc. His development was too little & too late for me by the time the narrative announced that he had supposedly improved. All of his internal narration how he thinks he’s better than everyone else; how unbelievably obsessed he is with being ~*a genius*~; his obsession with Popularity, and not even joining Hassan the moment his friend happens to enjoy other people’s company (how dare Hassan have a life outside of Colin); how he thinks girls are prettier without makeup (kill me now); I hate him!!!
My favourite moment, really, was when we finally learn that The Other Colin’s friends are actually really really good great dudes. But it was only one scene. I wanted a whole whole book focusing instead on Colin befriending these people, dropping his snap judgments, and teaching the importance of tending to his friendships rather than stewing over: romantic relationships, being dumped, Dumpees vs Dumpers, his Theorem, and thus inevitably rebounding onto Lindsey. I think it would’ve been far more powerful to solely learn be a better friend to Hassan and to Lindsey, rather than her being the romantic carrot dangled to narratively ‘reward’ him for becoming marginally less self-centered. Barf.
There were also just so many logic gaps that I could not believe in: this teen boy with overprotective hover-parents is allowed to just hop in the car and impulsively go on a road trip, with no word of when he’ll be back? He and his friend will just head to some random town, get random jobs, and live with strangers? And the parents are okay with this?? Plus, Hollis handing them well-paid jobs and letting these two strangers immediately move into her home with her teenaged daughter and strike up such a daily intimacy with her & them???? WHO DOES THIS
Anyway, I’m not a Fan. I see that even some of my friends who love John Green still disliked this book, though, so this probably wasn’t the best place for me to start; I would still give him one more shot and probably just settle for reading The Fault in Our Stars. Which I think I might also enjoy more because the stakes are higher; here, there just weren’t any real problems to get invested in, beyond those the protagonist had created for himself.
In terms of contemporary YA capturing sheer giddy vicarious emotion, I much rather recommend Emma Mills’ [b:First & Then|23310751|First & Then|Emma Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426513843s/23310751.jpg|40149265] or Jandy Nelson’s [b:I’ll Give You The Sun|20820994|I'll Give You the Sun|Jandy Nelson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451382614s/20820994.jpg|11409817] (which is also twee as hell but in such an endearing way, rather than infuriating).