Let's take a moment and appreciate this cover. Just keep in mind that it was designed by a fan! A fan! Not a professional artist, not the author, a fan. They had a contest to see if a fan could come up with a better cover design for an updated printing and someone did. It's definitely a fantastic cover: it shows the extreme nerdiness of the book, and each object shown has more than one significance in the book, metaphorically or physically; it emphasizes the use of footnotes, something common throughout the book (more on that later); it's simple, which is actually good in cover-making; and it has a nice big blank space, perfect for them to slap a shiny award on.
I also want to point out two of Ivy's tips for choosing a book that could have helped here. I personally knew this book would be great because it's by John Green, author of the great Looking for Alaska, the fantastic Paper Towns, and the super-dee-duper mega-ASDFGHJKL The Fault in Our Stars. The other tip I could have used if I'd never heard of John Green was the fact that this is a New York Times bestseller.
Now to the premise of the series. Colin Singleton is a child prodigy—not a child genius, as he will repeatedly tell you. He's fantastic at memorizing irrelevant trivia and is fluent in eleven languages. However, he's clueless in a lot of more important ways. Metaphors and other types of subtlety are completely lost on him, and he's not very creative. He desperately wants to create something, something that makes him matter to the world. He's pretty much a complete nerd/loser in his social life, and girls don't go out with him—unless they're named Katherine. Colin has dated many Katherines, nineteen in total. Every one of these relationships ended with the Katherine breaking up with Colin. So, naturally, when Colin is dumped by Katherine XIX (aka K-19), his friend Hassan decides Colin needs a break. They go on a road trip and end up in the tiny town of Gutshot, Tennessee. There, Colin get an idea: to use his crazy math skills to prove if there really is a reason that Colin has been dumped by all nineteen Katherines. And so, the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability is born.
John Green's style of writing includes a lot of dry humor. This book in particular uses footnotes, and it provides the author with a place to provide hilarious little side comments. I know a lot of people would skip over these at first sight, but please don't!! They're hilarious!
Frankly, the main character, Colin, is insufferable. He's a bit full of himself, and is selfish at times. But he's a good main character, and I will let the author himself explain why:
DFGHJKLÇASDFGHJKL!!! :P
With that said, Colin is relatable, especially to us nerds.
Minor spoilers in the next paragraph. I don't know if saying what doesn't happen is a spoiler or not so…
I didn't think could happen, but the book had a happy ending. No character deaths, no breakups, nothing really sad. There's a few things without loose ends, but still. It's the first John Green book I've read that has a happy ending. That's not bad, just different.
In conclusion, I loved this book. It was hilarious and kept my attention the whole time. I can't wait to see what John Green cooks up next.
Final score: 9.4 out of 10
– Nick
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