Book#3 Review

The books I have read are both realistic fiction. The first book is Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and the second book is An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.  Thirteen Reasons Why is a about a girl named Hannah Baker that committed suicide; she leaves tapes explaining why she committed suicide and each person on the tapes will receive them and listen to all of them.  One day they showed up at Clay’s house and when he started to listen to them all he could think about was what did he do to her to be on the tapes.  He wanted to know why “you don’t belong in the same way as the others” and that is why he needs to listen the tapes before he gets to his.  The story is told in a very unique way allows the reader to hear the tapes and see what Clay thinks and feels.  In An Abundance of Katherines, the story revolves around a boy named Colin who has dated nineteen Katherines; he doesn’t date anyone that has a different name.  Each Katherine also has to be spelled the same.  Colin is always the one that gets dumped and after the nineteenth Katherine he goes on a road trip with his best friend Hassan to try to forget Katherine nineteen.  They end up in Gutshot, Tennessee and they meet Lindsey Wells and they stay with her and her mom, Hollis for a couple of weeks.  For those couple of weeks they work for Hollis by interviewing people at the factory about what they liked about Gutshot.  When they are there, Colin tries to figure out the Theorem that predicts what the relationship will look like and who will be the Dumper and the Dumpee;“he hadn’t gotten Katherine III on paper, and one cannot take an equation that predicts eighteen out of nineteen Katherines to the Nobel Prize Committee,” when he figured out the Theorem, only Katherine III didn’t work and he didn’t know why.  He tries to figure out why it didn't work on her,but then he finds out the missing piece that happened with Katherine III. 

            Clay and Colin are very similar because they both change throughout the book; both characters choose to change their outlook on life.  Hannah’s tapes change Clay’s life because he learns her perspective. Clay learns to be more empathetic, to take a chance on getting to know someone different. While Colin is in Gutshot he is tries to break away from being a nerdy genius and lets himself have a little fun; he might even break away from his dating ways.  Colin learns to break free from some of his habits as well, allowing for a less structured life.  Both start out as quiet kids who keep to themselves, but each, through different circumstances learn to change.  The main difference is that Clay changes because of a painful event and Colin changes because of an event that turns out to be positive.  Clay tends to think with his heart, while Colin tends to think with his brain even though both just want to be normal.

            In Thirteen Reasons Why I really liked about that it had a very strong message to it and it made you really think about people who are going through a hard time or people that are getting bullied at school.  You see kids in the halls that are getting bullied and you don’t do anything about it, but after you read this book it changes you.  You don’t want anyone to be bullied and you don’t want it to go so far that they want to commit suicide.  This book doesn’t only change Clay and the way he looks at life, but it also changes the reader as a person.


            I give Thirteen Reasons Why 5/5 stars because I really liked the message to the reader and I would recommend it to anyone and people who like fast pace books.  For An Abundance of Katherines I give it 4/5 stars because it was a little boring in the begining and I though it wasn't one of the best books John Green has written.  I would recommend it to any teen or young adult reader and if you like to read realistic fiction.