An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green
Date Released: September 21, 2006
Pages: 227

Summary:

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.

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 by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska.

My Review:

So I know those of you who are big John Green fangirls are going to kill me for saying this, but I wasn't crazy about this book. There were things I did like about it, don't get me wrong. But there were also a couple things I didn't like about it.

One thing about it was it just didn't really hook me at any point when I was reading it. Normally when I read a book the story will have hooked me to the point where I will make time to read it. Whether that point comes in chapter two or half way through, it doesn't matter. But I just didn't find that in this story. I mean I guess overall the story was good, it just didn't bring the reader in as much as I would have liked.

I also didn't like the character of Hassan very much. I think I finally started to warm up to him by the very end of the book, and had this been a series book I probably would have started liking him as the series went on. One thing that turned me off from him was how a lot of the things he said were very crude. And while my tolerance level for that kind of thing is very high when I'm hearing it in person, but for some reason that tolerance level shoots way down for books, so it just wasn't flying for me.

I also found the only three characters I really liked were Hollis, Lindsey, and Colin (not TOC, I hated him, but Colin Singleton). But this ties into the things I did like about it. I liked those three characters. My favorite was by far Lindsey though. I liked her immediately after she was introduced. Colin took a couple of chapters of warming up to. Same with Hollis. But I ended up liking them both.

Another thing that John Green did really well was the dialogue. Especially in the last chapter or so when Lindsey and Colin are talking. I was really impressed with the way that the author showed that they kissed without telling us. The way he had the four lines of ellipses and some dialogue and the reader had to figure it out.

If you are a big fan of contemporary or realistic fiction, then this book is probably for you. But in my case I'm more of a fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi reader who occasionally dives into the world of contemp fiction. If you're like me, then I would advise steering clear of this book.

My Rating:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
Date Released: April 9,2006
Pages: 335

Summary:

Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.

Jacob was there because his luck had run out - orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive 'ship of fools'. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act - in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

My Review:

Truthfully, I thought I would like this book a lot more than I did. It wasn't so much that the whole book was okay, it was really just bits and pieces of it that I didn't like. So, let me start with the things I liked.

I really liked the chapters that were told from the point of view from the older Jacob. In them I liked how he talked about his kids and how his wife had died, but he kept us hanging until the end as to who his wife was. Did he actually end up with Marlena? Or did their story not end in a happily ever after?

I also really liked Rosie. I liked the way Jacob fell in love with her just as much as he fell in love with Marlena. I felt like the whole story just got better in general after Rosie was introduced as a character, I just wasn't feeling the first half. But the second half I really liked. I even liked August and all his crazy problems because he added a certain dynamic to the whole story.

One thing that bothered me was the beginning of the romance between Jacob and Marlena. One second Jacob was just thinking about her beauty, and the next BAM he was all of a sudden completely in love with her. The author kind of cheated us out of the details as to how he fell in love with her. After that moment of revelation on his part, I liked their love story. It was just the start of it that bothered me.

The second thing I didn't like was the character of Marlena. The way the author wrote her it wounded like she was a secondary minor character that strived to be a main character, instead of sounding like she was the main character. She was flat and predictable, and I did not like her at all.

With all this said, I have to mention the movie version for a second. I actually liked the movie better than the book, and it was for one main reason. In the movie, the character of Marlena (portrayed by Reese Witherspoon) was actually likable. Witherspoon added a certain dynamic to her that made her a good character, instead of a flat predictable one.

My Rating:

Passion by Lauren Kate

Passion
by Lauren Kate
Date Released: June 14, 2011
Pages: 420

Summary:

Luce would die for Daniel.

And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.

Sweeping across centuries, PASSION is the third novel in the unforgettably epic FALLEN series.

My Review:


Truthfully I don't even know why I read this book. I didn't really like the first two in the series, but I am sort of glad I did. This one was by far the best in the series, which isn't hard to do considering the first two. I'm going to start off by saying that this book reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel.


While the time traveling concept sounding good, and was one of the only reasons I liked this book better than Fallen and Torment, the whole time traveling thing was executed very poorly. This ook broke the #1 rule in time traveling: You can't let your past/future self see the time traveling self. It just doesn't work like that because letting your past self see the self that is time traveling could forever alter the future. They also almost broke 2nd most important rule in time travel. This one would have been broken had Luce cut her sould out. See if she cut her soul out, she wouldn't be cursed in the present. If she wasn't cursed in the present she wouldn't know about the curse or any of the angel stuff, including the Announcers. If she doesn't know about the Announcer then she wouldn't know how to travel back in time. If she didn't travel back in time she wouldn't have broken the curse 5000 years ago. It's the same concept as you can't go back in time to stop your self from buying your time machine or stopping yourself from doing something, because if you didn't do whatever you stopped yourself from doing than you wouldn't have gone back in time to stop yourself.

The one redeeming factor in this book that made me like it better than the other ones was Luce and Daniel were apart for the whole book. Which is why the first two books annoyed me so much. This also made me realize that I will never be able to read a where the whole plot line is a romance.

The one thing I hated the most about this book was Bill. Ignoring the fact that he ended up being Lucifer, I thought that this character was completely unnecessary, and, frankly, the name was stupid. I mean Bill would have been a fine name if other characters had had names like that, but they don't. I mean when I first encountered Bill I thought the author had added him solely on a dare or something. Because why else would there be a character that is a GARGOYLE. I mean really, a gargoyle.

Unfortuneately I will probably end up reading Rapture just because I kind of do want to know how the story ends, no matter how poorly it is told.

My Rating: