Abundance of Katherines

Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

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.

“A sharp, intelligent story….”—Booklist, starred review

“A coming of age novel that is at once a satire of and tribute to its many celebrated predecessors.”—Horn Book, starred review

"Quentin Jacobsen, 17, has been in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, for his entire life. A leader at their Central Florida high school, she has carefully cultivated her badass image. Quentin is one of the smart kids. His parents are therapists and he is, above all things, “goddamned well adjusted.” He takes a rare risk when Margo appears at his window in the middle of the night. They drive around righting wrongs via her brilliant, elaborate pranks. Then she runs away (again). He slowly uncovers the depth of her unhappiness and the vast differences between the real and imagined Margo. Florida’s heat and homogeneity as depicted here are vivid and awful. Green’s prose is astounding–from hilarious, hyperintellectual trash talk and shtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths. He nails it–exactly how a thing feels, looks, affects–page after page. The mystery of Margo–her disappearance and her personhood–is fascinating, cleverly constructed, and profoundly moving. Green builds tension through both the twists of the active plot and the gravitas of the subject. He skirts the stock coming-of-age character arc–Quentin’s eventual bravery is not the revelation. Instead, the teen thinks deeper and harder–about the beautiful and terrifying ways we can and cannot know those we love. Less-sophisticated readers may get lost in Quentin’s copious transcendental ruminations–give Paper Towns to your sharpest teens."–School Library Journal, starred review

"Green melds elements from his Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines- the impossibly sophisticated but unattainable girl, and a life-altering road trip-for another teen-pleasing read. Weeks before graduating from their Orlando-area high school, Quentin Jacobsen's childhood best friend, Margo, reappears in his life, specifically at his window, commanding him to take her on an all-night, score-settling spree. Quentin has loved Margo from not so afar (she lives next door), years after she ditched him for a cooler crowd. Just as suddenly, she disappears again, and the plot's considerable tension derives from Quentin's mission to find out if she's run away or committed suicide. Margo's parents, inured to her extreme behavior, wash their hands, but Quentin thinks she's left him a clue in a highlighted volume of Leaves of Grass. Q's sidekick, Radar, editor of a Wikipedia-like Web site, provides the most intelligent thinking and fuels many hilarious exchanges with Q…[readers] will enjoy the edgy journey and off-road thinking."–Publishers Weekly

"Quentin has been in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, since early childhood. Their connection was forever bonded when they discovered a dead body together at the age of nine. Now they are ready to graduate from high school. Although Margo has not been part of Quentin's life for many years, she shows up at Quentin's window late one night, enlisting his help with a wild scheme of revenge against her cheating boyfriend. Despite his natural reluctance to break the law, Quentin goes along with her, imagining that this teamwork will signify a new, more romantic turn to their relationship. But then Margo disappears, leaving only wisps of clues to her whereabouts and a tormented Quentin in her wake. In this story set in Orlando, Florida, Green perfectly captures the tone of this grotesquely over-developed town when Margo comments, "It's a paper town . . . look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were meant to fall apart." This theme is echoed as both Margo and Quentin struggle to discover what is real in their own lives. The writing is as stellar, with deliciously intelligent dialogue and plenty of mind-twisting insights…a powerfully great read."-VOYA

"Printz Medal Winner and Honoree Green knows what he does best and delivers once again with this satisfying, crowd-pleasing look at a complex, smart boy and the way he loves. Quentin (Q) has loved Margo Roth Spiegelman since they were kids riding their bikes, but after they discovered the body of a local suicide they never really spoke again. Now it's senior year; Margo is a legend and Q isn't even a band geek (although quirky best friends Ben and Radar are). Then Margo takes Q on a midnight adventure and disappears, leaving convoluted clues for Q. The clues lead to Margo's physical location but also allow Q to see her as a person and not an ideal. Genuine-and genuinely funny-dialogue, a satisfyingly tangled but not unbelievable mystery and delightful secondary characters (Radar's parents collect black Santas)-we've trod this territory before, but who cares when it's this enjoyable? Lighter than Looking for Alaska (2005), deeper than An Abundance of Katherines (2006) and reminiscent of Gregory Galloway's As Simple as Snow (2005)-a winning combination."–Kirkus Reviews

"Green’s latest ode to suburban disconnect, feminine inscrutability, and the euphoria of seizing the moment opens with a dusk-’til-dawn spree of inventive mischief and ends with a snort-milk-out-your-nose-hilarious road trip. Though their friendship faltered in adolescence, staid, ironic Quentin has idolized Margo Roth Spiegelman, the enigmatic girl next door, forever. She enlists him for a wildly cathartic night of pranking at the end of their senior year only to disappear the next morning, leaving a breadcrumb trail of obscure clues in her wake. These center on the concept of paper towns, a term used to mean both planned subdivisions (“pseudovisions”) that never get built and towns invented by mapmakers to protect a copyright. Both exist only on paper, and this thread of metaphor illuminates the perceived emptiness of the teens’ small-town-Florida existence as well as Quentin’s growing recognition that he’s constructed a mythic Margo who doesn’t really exist. As Quentin, his two best friends Ben and Radar, and Margo’s confused friend Lacey unravel her plans, they grow closer, imbuing their final days of high school with new meaning. Ultimately, the mystery of Margo proves more compelling than Margo herself—instead it’s the four fumbling detectives, each with their own idiosyncrasies and foibles and secret strengths, who will capture readers’ imaginations."–Horn Book

"...Miles is a witty narrator who manages to be credible as the overlooked kid, but he's also an articulate spokesperson for the legions of teen searching for life meaning (his taste for famous last words is a believable and entertaining quirk), and the Colonel's smarts, clannish loyalties, and relentlessly methodological approach to problems make him a true original....There's a certain recursive fitness here, since this is exactly the kind of book that makes kids like Miles certain that boarding school will bring them their destiny, but perceptive readers may also realize that their own lives await the discovery of meaning even as they vicariously experience Miles' quest."Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review

"Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author."Publishers Weekly

"What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Green’s mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudge’s voice. Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska’s vanilla-and-cigarettes scent." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year

A Booklist Editors Choice

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year

"Fully fun, challengingly complex and entirely entertaining." —Kirkus, starred review

“Laugh-out-loud funny…a coming-of-age American road trip that is at once a satire of and tribute to its many celebrated predecessors.” -Horn Book, starred review

“Imagine an operating room at the start of a daring but well-rehearsed procedure and you will have something of the atmosphere of “An Abundance of Katherines”: every detail considered, the action unrolling with grace and inevitability.” --New York Times Book Review

“Funny, sweet, and unpredictable.” -The Minneapolis Star Tribune

“The laugh-out-loud humor ranges from delightfully sophomoric to subtly intellectual.” -Booklist, starred review

An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers

A 2005 Booklist Editors Choice

A Kirkus Best Book of 2005

A 2005 SLJ Best Book of the Year

A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

"What sets this novel apart is the brilliant, insightful, suffering but enduring voice of Miles Halter." --Chicago Tribune

"Funny, sad, inspiring, and always compelling." --Bookpage

"Stunning conclusion . . . one worthy of a book this good." --Philadelphia Enquirer

"The spirit of Holden Caulfield lives on." --Kliatt

"What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Greens mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudges voice. Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaskas vanilla-and-cigarettes scent." Kirkus, starred review

"Miless narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowless A Separate Peace, Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends." --SLJ, starred review

"...Miles is a witty narrator who manages to be credible as the overlooked kid, but he's also an articulate spokesperson for the legions of teen searching for life meaning (his taste for famous last words is a believable and entertaining quirk), and the Colonel's smarts, clannish loyalties, and relentlessly methodological approach to problems make him a true original....There's a certain recursive fitness here, since this is exactly the kind of book that makes kids like Miles certain that boarding school will bring them their destiny, but perceptive readers may also realize that their own lives await the discovery of meaning even as they vicariously experience Miles' quest." --Bulletin of the Center for Childrens Books, starred review

"Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author." --Publishers Weekly

“John Green has written a powerful novel—one that plunges headlong into the labyrinth of life, love, and the mysteries of being human. This is a book that will touch your life, so dont read it sitting down. Stand up, and take a step into the Great Perhaps.”

—K.L. Going, author of Fat Kid Rules the World, a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book