This weekend, I finished reading “An Abundance of Katherines,” written by John Green, the young adult genre’s most recently enduring darling.
Throughout ninety percent of the 350-ish page book, I was in heaven. It was silly but had relevant research to keep it grounded (Tesla cars, for example, are named after the Serbian-American engineer Nicola Tesla). The characters were predictable but given a fresh, natural flow (the nerd, the overweight kid, the smart girl who dumbs down to be cool). It is a funny coming-of-age, road-trip/inward journey novel done right…until the last two chapters.
Green stops telling the story and starts moralizing all the loose ends into a too-tidy bow. Of course, I wanted the book to end the way it did, but just not how it did. All of a sudden, the main characters figure life out and explain it to each other. The ending felt like “Revenge of the Nerds” on mute.
Still, it is a fun read, especially well-suited for hangovers, layovers and pregnant people.