The best book you’ve read in the last year.
(Thank god for Goodreads because I don’t remember what I did yesterday, much less all the books I read last year.)
“An Abundance of Katherines,” by John Green. An excerpt from the review I wrote up after reading it.
There’s a similarity there between this book and Looking For Alaska: John Green seems to be fond of the Golden Trio concept. In Looking For Alaska it was Pudge, The Colonel, and Alaska. In this book it’s Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey. If you’ve read both, there’s also an intimate similarity between the relationships between the three characters; which may or may not say something interesting about John Green, because if memory serves he didn’t appear to realize he’d done it.
There were a lot of parts that I really loved, but one passage in particular spoke to me: “I don’t think your missing pieces ever fit inside you again once they go missing” (p. 201).
I’m not usually one for hyper-realistic fiction (I tend to prefer fantasy or sci-fi, and all the crazy shenanigans usually contained therein) but there’s something about the way John Green invests you in his characters, the way he makes mundane life seem more exciting than laser pistols and swordfights, that keeps me reading … and makes me want to read the rest of his books.
Hassan, John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines
Hassan, how are you me, JFC it’s like looking into a mirror. A very unflattering, but truthful, mirror.
John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines
how is this book a giant GPOY of my life
“How do you stop being terrified of getting left behind and ending up by yourself forever and not meaning anything to the world?”
“You’re pretty fugging smart,” Hassan answered. “I’m sure you can figure something out.”
" — John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines
