Author: John Green
Narrator: Jeff Woodman
Title: An Abundance
of Katherines
Publication: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 272
Length: 6 hours and 48 minutes
Audience: 16 and up
Rating: 1 out of 5
Source: Public Library
Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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.
My thoughts: I have heard a lot about John Green and I have
purchased Fault in Our Stars, but it is currently on my bookshelf collecting
dust while I’m reading six other books. So I thought I would go with an
audiobook at the time because I had nothing else better to listen to and I
really wanted to try a John Green book. I guess I should have not gone with An
Abundance of Katherines, but our library is so underfunded, that this
was my only John Green option. I kept listening to it, hoping it would get
better. By the end of it I was tired of Colin Singleton, the term “fug” in any
format, anagrams, and math terminology. At one point, I was almost certain that
Colin had Asperger’s Syndrome. The
book never mentioned it so I guess he didn't. This entire book was about him and his wants and obsessions. He
never seemed to care about other people. It was annoying. However, his friend
Hasan was the comedic relief, but even he got annoying at times. The other main characters were uncertain about what they wanted as well. So it was full of coming of age angst. The book was a
good book about being yourself and coming of age novel. However, there was too
much stupid love drama with the Katherines, whining from Colin, anagrams, and
math for my taste.
The narrator, Jeff Woodman does a great job. He does a different voice for each character. His southern accent for Hollis and Lindsay and the other residents of Gutshot is over the top, but it works. Some people really do sound the way he narrated them. I think he did a fantastic job. You can tell when Hasan is speaking or Colin or one of the many Katherines. He is a wonderful narrator, but the book was kind of poop for me. If you love John Green I suggest giving it a try, but if you
are not a John Green fan, or have never read any of his books I was told to try Looking
for Alaska.
