John Green

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Published by Dutton Books on September 21, 2006
Genres: YA Contemporary
Pages: 229
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Katherine V thought boys were gross
Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

“What you remember becomes what happened. And the second moral of the story, if a story can have multiple morals, is that Dumpers are not inherently worse than Dumpees-breaking up isn’t something that gets done to you; it’s something that happens with you”.”

Catfairy’s First Thoughts

Two Fugging Stars!!

Now I just want to say that I am a huge fan of John Green’s books! I have always loved ya all my life but John Green is the person that sucked me into the world of ya loveliness again and made me become the biggest fangirl for ya literature! But as much as I have love and respect for one of the YA Gods this book killed me to the core and not in a good way at all…

An Abundance of Katherines is more like An Abundance of Crap! Now I can tell that John Green put so much effort into this book and you can see it in the writing! The amount of effort he put into this book was phenomenal but I feel he put in too much effort…more like an increasingly excessive amount of EFFORT! This book was simply overdone, to say the least! I felt that John Green was trying too hard to be John Green. The book itself was written in a typical ya cliche fashion. It followed the typical YA outline about the cute nerdy guy that is quirky and smart and that is always getting dumped by the girl that is too beautiful for him…blah blah blah…it was nauseating.

Catnopsis
Basically to put it simply the plot line of this book is about this guy Colin that is super duper nerdy and was once thought to be a child genius but fears he will never get to the genius status that he wants to be in his life. Colin is someone that wants to do great things in his life and be somebody but he fears he will never reach the potential of doing something great and genius like in his life.

Colin is the ultimate whiny and annoying nerd because all he does through most of the book is moan and groan about the 19th girl that dumped him whose name is remarkably Katherine. He feels like the world is ending and that he will never amount to anything in his life or never be loved by anyone. Colin also has an equally annoying friend named Hassan who endures all his whininess and Hassan decides to make him feel better by taking him on a road trip where they end up in a small town named Gutshot, Tennessee (A make-believe place by the way.). This is where the story actually begins but for me, it’s where I started to fall asleep.

Catfairy’s Final Thoughts

“Book are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.”

Remarkably this book received two stars because it started to pick up on page 155! Not the best being that the book had about 60 pages left…but the book held my attention towards the end. The writing of this book was typical John Green style but the plot itself was poorly written and the characters drove me crazy cakes! Colin was way too self-involved of a character and it is no surprise to me that he kept getting dumped one way or another. One of the very few good moments of the book was when Hassan told him off and basically called him a selfish asshole. Good job Hassan, I was rooting for you!

TWO CHARLIE CHUCHI STARS

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Published by Dutton Books on January 10, 2012
Genres: YA Contemporary, YA Romance
Pages: 313
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"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once."

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Catfairy’s Booktape

Enjoy my angsty playlist inspired by The Fault in Our Stars!

...”There is always a hamartia.”

Catfairy’s Thoughts

This book has literally broken my heart and it was definitely a “privilege” in the words of the ever so eloquent/thought-provoking/unique/utterly charming Augustus Waters. (I just love that name. I will name my future child after Augustus.) It’s rare for me to find a book with such unique, witty and smart teenage characters who live their lives with such self-awareness that it’s a bit scary. If only there were more teenagers like Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace…it would definitely make the world a more interesting place.

… “I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin.”

…”Oh I wouldn’t mind Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”

Catnopsis

This starry-eyed/teary-eyed book is about two teenagers who have lived with cancer for most of their lives. The narrator of the story Hazel Grace has terminal thyroid cancer that has completely destroyed her lungs and she has to lug an oxygen tank around to be able to breathe. She goes to school and has an obsession with re-reading Peter Van Houton’s book a million times and terrible reality shows. She goes to a cancer support group that she is dragged into even though she prefers to watch endless marathons of America’s Next Top Model and who can blame her? Fortunately, missing marathon episodes of models in stage cat fights weren’t so bad when she met the “metaphorical cigarette hanging” Augustus Waters in the support group. Augustus Waters leg was claimed by a malignant bone tumor. Before he had the tumor he used to play basketball but now resents his past. He also goes to school as well and has a penchant for “Call of Duty” style video games and The Price of Dawn sci-fi series. Augustus is basically your classic geek with hunka hunka good looks and body.

…”What a slut time is. She screws everybody.”

Catfairy’s Pop Culture Time Warp

If you loved The Fault in Our Stars and you want to cry some more I highly recommend you give A Walk to Remember a go! For anyone that has seen A Walk to Remember didn’t it kill you a little bit inside when Mandy Moore said…”You have to promise you won’t fall in love with me…”

SHE IS EVIL!

Catfairy’s Final Thoughts

This story is not your stereotypical story about two cancer kids that fall in love. It’s about these two amazing characters that view the world in such a completely and devastatingly honest way than any of their peers. They embrace life for what it is…the good and the bad. They don’t sugarcoat their cancer at all. Hazel even calls herself the side-effect when it comes to her cancer at all. They live their lives with wild abandon and if that means having their first kiss in Amsterdam on a tour of the Anne Frank house then so be it! Although at the same time these characters are aware of what their fates are. It’s the kind of story that will make you appreciate the simplest things such as breathing without relying on Phalanxifor (which is fake by the way) and being nostalgic about running around a playground which sadly these characters didn’t have the luxury to do. These are one of the few books where I read the ending about 10 times till I was satisfied and realized that I still wasn’t. Isn’t that like life?

“Ok…bye.”
…”You gave me forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.”

Five Charlie Chuchi Stars!

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Have you read The Fault in Our Stars and what book just made you ugly cry after reading it?