Review: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines
John Green
Contemporary, Romance (?), Road Trip (ish)

19 Katherines and counting...

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is 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.

Do you really need to read the review? Everything John Green writes is uncontested sheer genius. It's not even gonna be long because what can I say? Katherines features a weird, lovable, social-pariah protagonist with a weird but cool obsession, a weirder and even more lovable best friend, a kickass girl and and some totally-bizarre-but-totally-could-happen circumstances. (This is true for Looking For Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green, and some of these elements are in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by JG and David Levithan. Link to my review)

Everything about JG's writing makes me laugh. In this book, things are explained through highly illuminating and highly hilarious footnotes- hence the cover. Through the journey Katherines took me on, I used my high school math FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER to understand the graphs Colin makes about his relationships. In the back, there's an appendix BY AN HONEST TO GOD MATH GENIUS named Daniel Biss, who talks you through all the calculations made in the novel. Thank you, John Green, for putting the object of my misery to funniest and best use in the world(:

Other pleasurable aspects of Katherines were the diversity and random and bizarre and no-way-I'm-gonna-go-look-that-up pieces of trivia. 

However, I did understand the critics who said this is legendary JG's weakest book, and while it didn't move me to tears and/or inspire big life revelations in me like the others, I'd hardly call it WEAK. It's just a different kind of novel. Sheesh, people. It's like we need another hit of our extreme-feels drug. TAKE IT AND LOVE IT FOR WHAT IT IS. 
Rating:

What is that you say? I haven't been on my blog in 2+ weeks? 
I knowwwww:( 
I'm sorry. 
Screw you, finals.
I'll be back soon.
Promise.
Love,
Esty

Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

13 Little Blue Envelopes
Maureen Johnson
YA Contemporary, Road Trip

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket.

In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.

The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.

Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. But will she ever see him again?

Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it's all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.

I have only ever read 2 other works by Maureen Johnson- Suite Scarlett and a Bane Chronicles story (a colab with Cassandra Clare). I also follow her on Twitter, and yes, she's as funny as her reputation. So needless to say, I really looked forward to reading this and was not disappointed.

Firstly, the book had a distinct feeling that the author had done some this herself. There were some authentic American-lost-in-Britain laughs that only come with experience, and I absolutely loved that. Of course you can't go wrong with a road trip, but this one being all over Europe and the fact that Ginny and the reader have absolutely no idea where they're going next added to the magic and unpredictability of the story.

Character wise, this book was just fascinating! Ginny meets regular people, artists, hermits, tourists, and plain old crazies from all over the world, each of whom could have had their own story. There was lots of depth and development and subplot that made the novel more and more intriguing as you kept going. 

Dialogue and romance were flawless. No insta-love, but some insta-lust- very realistically teenagery. Keith was actually hysterical, but not in the typical bad-boy way. Reminded me a little of Puck from The Sisters Grimm series of The Iron Fey series (Puck seems to have a similar personality wherever he appears:)) I loved how he showed up when he was needed, but ultimately it was Ginny's journey and she did most of it on her own.

Overall, 13 Little Blue Envelopes is a work of art, and I'm really looking forward to reading The Last Little Blue Envelope! Recommended for everyone! Rating: 4.5 stars

Love, Esty