“Do you ever wonder whether people would like you more or less if they could see inside you? But I always wonder about that. If people could see me the way I see myself—if they could live in my memories—would anyone, anyone, love me?”
Meh. Not that great, but not horrible. You have to concede to the Katherine thing, even though it’s silly, or don’t even bother trying to read this one.
Colin’s dated 19 Katherines. He will eventually explain every one of them to you. None of them sound all that great, but then again, neither does he. How a self-loathing prodigy who likes to anagram things and spout off random facts managed to snag not one, but 19 girls over the course of his relatively short life is kind of amazing. But give him that point, and the rest of the book is pretty decent.
As in the other John Green book I recently finished, the main character is a bit of a bore but the supporting cast makes it all worthwhile. Colin’s best friend, Hassan is a Judge Judy-loving, Arabic-speaking, couch surfing good time. Hysterical. I don’t know why he hangs out with Colin (and there’s a couple points where he seems to question that as well). The girl is fun, too, even though she has bad taste in boys named Colin.
The road trip plot is decent: after his latest dumping, Colin sets out with Hassan to see the country. They land in Gutshot, Tennessee and end up helping a family chronicle their factory’s contribution to the community. It’s cute, Colin and Hassan expand their horizons and we all learn a bit about ourselves.
Primarily, I learned that not every John Green book is a winner.