Brian Jones

I enjoyed reading through An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. It’s my favourite of all his books. The story is well told, and doesn't leave any hanging pieces like Paper Towns. The story is about Colin Singleton, a high school graduate who is a child prodigy and has dated 19 girls named Katherine. Him and his best friend Hassan go on a road trip after Colin broke up with Katherine XIV to help him clear his head.

The story explores the value and meaning of relationships, as well as one’s sense of self: who we are and how we define ourselves. This is a theme somewhat similar to Paper Towns, but I find in Abundance of Katherines, John Green gives a more complete story. As the main character Lindsey Wells would say, it has a beginning, middle, and an end, as well as a good moral. Also, unlike Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska, the none of the main characters disappear for a major portion of the story.

I love stories that explore how we perceive relationships, and I believe John Green does a good job of this in An Abundance of Katherines.

Sorta Like a Rock Star is a young adult novel written by Matthew Quick, the same author who wrote the popular novel Silver Linings Playbook.

The novel has somewhat of a slow start, as you begin to get acquainted with the main character of the story, Amber Appleton. She is a girl who is living homeless with her mother on a school bus. Even though she is considered to be somebody at the lower end of society, she has an incredible amount of hope, which is challenged through the course of the novel. She’s has a faith in Jesus Christ that is true to herself.

The novels weakest quality, as observed by a few, is the main character Amber. In fact, I’ve read a few of the bad reviews of Sorta Like a Rockstar on Goodreads, and the trend seems to be that if you hate the novel, it’s because you hate Amber’s voice. Some reviewers can’t stand the way she talks because she doesn’t talk the way other teenagers talk. However, I believe this is intentional as Amber is not somebody who would fit in with the popular crowd, in fact she was placed in a special class by a social worker to develop her social skills. But in spite of her weaknesses, she is an amazing girl who gives of herself and time to help others.

In my opinion books main flaw is that since it’s written in first person, half of the story involving the other characters in Amber’s life goes untold. These other characters do something, in a brave fashion like something Amber herself would do, but the reader never finds out how their conflict gets resolved. If Matthew Quick could have pulled off telling their side of the story, I would have been very impressed.

Lastly, I like the significance of the title. It comes from a series of children’s books Amber had growing up called, “Jesus Christ was a Rock Star,” which talked about Jesus’s killer adventures. One thing that touched me in the story was how Amber would criticize some of the pastors she would hear speak about Jesus, because they got his story wrong:

“Only the priest there–Father Johns–told the Jesus stories all wrong. Father Johns was always going on and on about how Jesus was going to be disappointed in us if we sinned or didn’t do enough charity, and the way he talked about JC made the Son of God seem more like a mean, pissy old lady than a rock star.”

What were your impressions of Amber Appleton?