“The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath.”

From John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines.

Colin Sinlgeton is brilliant, but he is also somewhat cursed when it comes to dating relationships. Colin was a child prodigy that grew into an intelligent teenager who constantly reads to learn more (even phone books) and strives to be responsible for something else to “put him on the map” in the world. The other thing that seems to take up Colin’s time is dating girls named Katherine (and only that specific spelling); with each of the Katherines, things go great until they dump his post-child-prodigy butt and leave Colin with a broken heart. Since Colin spends so much time reading, anagramming whatever he can, and getting dumped by Katherines- 19 separate Katherines to date- he doesn’t have an abundance of friends; in fact, he really only has one friend: Hassan. Hassan is a witty, sarcastic, asthmatic, and somewhat lazy friend, but he is able to keep up with Colin’s random factoids and romantic life. Hassan suggests that both boys take a break from the after graduation pressure that their parents are placing on them by taking a road trip, so the boys head off, and one of the first people they meet is Lindsey, who both annoys and captivates Colin; she is funny enough to maintain back-and-forth banter with Hassan, smart enough to help Colin develop a theory to predict when a Katherine will break up with him, and she maintains unique relationships with various unique members of her community. The summer takes on a completely different plan that originally expected, but Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey discover the pain of growing up and the joy of opening your life up to others… and Colin finally finds the way that he can make his mark on the world.

The story is quick-paced and filled with sarcastic humor from all the characters. Green brings his wit to the characters and situations to develop a truly captivating story. The story connects with anyone who has felt that they were not as important as they should be, because there will always be something that we want to do so that the world knows our name. This book also creates an interesting read for those interested in random facts or mathematic equations, because John Green fills Colin’s dialog with true facts, information, and math that has all been footnoted. Reading this book will cause you to come away satisfied and, dare I say, smarter than when you first opened the book. An Abundance of Katherines is definitely a memorable book worth the read.