Colin Singleton, a child prodigy in the mildest sense (meaning he didn’t grow up to be a genius, though still very smart), has a fetish of sorts about girls named Katherine. He’s only ever dated Katherines, and he’s been dumped by 19 of them. His last failed relationship hit him really hard, so his best friend – an overweight, Muslim funny-man named Hassan – convinces him to set out on a road trip. The two settle in backwoods Tennessee, where, as Hassan puts it, God shakes up the snow globe of the world for them.

Okay, I have to admit, at first I really didn’t like this book. (I know, I know, don’t hit me!) I couldn’t stand Colin, and could see why all the girls kept dumping him. He’s completely socially incompetent, and doesn’t seem to be working too hard to overcome that, not to mention he’s the most self-centered person I’ve ever read about. Hassan isn’t much better. Both of them seemed so much like stereotypes that I had a hard time reading for awhile. I just got really annoyed. However, as the book unfolded and more characters came into the picture, I began to enjoy myself more. Colin became not quite so ridiculously incompetent, and Hassan – around people other than Colin – became a much rounder person. The way they talked to each other alone still bothered me, but when they were with other people, I liked them okay. I can’t say the book was my favorite, but it was captivating and almost sweet by the end.

I guess, here’s my issue: the book tried so hard to be original in concept that it came across as completely unoriginal in my opinion. Colin learns not to be so self-absorbed. Hassan learns he has to do something in life. Lindsay learns she has to be herself. All of these are very simple, very unoriginal ideas. I don’t mind simple, unoriginal ideas!! In fact, I love them. But I don’t like them wrapped up in a “unique” package in order to try to make them feel original. It was all too gimmicky for me, the math and graphs and footnotes and stuff. It felt like Colin was writing the book but putting it in third person so we wouldn’t identify his voice, and I just didn’t like Colin that much. There was too much breaking the fourth wall for a third-person story. It wasn’t badly written, it was just not my type of book. Maybe it’s like my husband said to me about a year ago: “I’m just so tired of clever stories.” Maybe that’s how I feel right now. I don’t hold this against John Green, though, and I’ve been told this isn’t the best one of his to start with, so I’m hoping I like the next one better.

Not really much more for me to say about this book. It was fast, easy to read, and well-written, though not my style. Many people love this a lot more than I do.