An Abundance of Katherines: An Anagrammatic, Mathematical and Unparalleled Novel by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines revolves around Colin Singleton, serial Katherine-dater and child prodigy. After graduating high-school and being dumped by his nineteenth Katherine, or K XIX as she is mathematically and affectionately known, Colin sets out on a road trip with his quick minded but lazy hearted best friend, Hassan. On this road trip, Colin wants to prove himself a genius and get over the heartbreak of K-19.

Aside from Katherines, Colin’s loves also include: languages, anagrams, mathematics and strange facts. If you have an aversion to any of these affections, I would highly recommend that you steer clear of this book as they all play a vital role in the understanding of Colin Singleton.

Every road trip has a destination, and the stopping point of this particular road trip is Gutshot, Tennessee. There, our protagonist meets Lindsey Lee Wells, a charming young paramedic-in-training that is determined to live in her home town forever. After this chance encounter, Colin and Hassan both find themselves in the employment of Hollis Wells, recording the stories the people of Gutshot have to tell. In his hours of free time when he isn't anagramming or reading, Colin works on his Theorem that tries to predict the future of relationships, he believes that when he gets it right, he will have his 'Eureka' moment and become a true genius that will matter in the world.

The footnotes in this book are hard to get your head around at first; it’s up to you to find a technique that works. My personal method was darting my eyes to the bottom of the page as soon as I saw a little superscript number next to a word, but I think that’s because I grew fond of the wealth of translations and peculiar facts that could be found there.

After being highly recommended by a lot of friends, I decided I would read my first John Green novel. Katherines is widely known as the least favourite in his repertoire, so if I enjoyed this, I had to enjoy the rest. After finishing the book, with a huge smile on my face from the slightly predictable but satisfying ending, I am eager to read another book written by this illustrious and much loved author. If this is the bottom of his pile, then there is a lot of promise in his most acclaimed works.

I've decided to give this book A Facts Tin rating. If you’re wondering as to why, 1- read the book and 2- work out what a facts tin is an anagram for.

Happy reading!

Review by Lauren Goodfellow