An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: A Novel

I am a 70 y.o. 58 year science fiction fan - retired college health physician who also has a Master's in Biology (fish parasites). Hard to believe this is a first novel. I listened to the audiobook. The main narrator (not Hank) does a magnificent job in bringing April May to life.April happens to bump into what appears to her to be a surprise Transformer/Samurai sculpture on the sidewalks of New York. This occurrence changes her life - the lives of her best friends - and the lives of just about everyone on Earth. The hero(ine) is an engaging, flawed, optimistic individual whose story is well worth reading/listening to.I have been an admirer of Hank Green whose quirky sense of humor parallels my own since I found Crash Course Biology and Crash Course Anatomy and Physiology on Youtube. I recommend it to the community college classes that I teach (Hey, it gets me out of the house, keeps my wife from killing me and lets me interact with young people in the vain hope that this interaction will keep me young (FAIL: I get older while they remain the same age semester after semester.)The novel is a journey of growth and it appears, dawning self-awareness - I can see sections where Hank draws on his own media experiences and their effects on his own psyche. I am relatively (as Hank sometimes says in his Youtube videos "Tardy to the party" since the book has been out for some time - but I have a big TBR pile and can only read so many books at the same time. I found myself inventing reasons to get into my car and drive just to continue listening to this book, so I imagine it is quite the page-turner. There is plenty of room for a sequel, but it stands alone nicely. I hope he is working on a sequel or another science-fiction novel. Hank goes on my "he wrote it - buy it list."

I have so many emotions to unpack about this book, and I don't even know where to begin. The writing style isn't remarkable, the main character isn't all that likable or even a good person... yet I found this book throughly enjoyable and completely addictive. (Wow, that's an abundance of superlatives.) In fact, I'm all geared up in anticipation for the sequel.But let's backtrack a bit. One day, out of the blue, my best friend gifted me this book on Amazon. Before that point in time, I didn't know it existed. Frankly, beyond having a couple of John Green books in my ever-growing collection of things I may someday read - and watching the occasional video my bff links - neither of the Green brothers are on my radar. I'm more of a Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and Dope or Nope kind of girl: escapism is my niche. I was in the middle of reading a Riverdale novel - which may or may not say more about my preferences in literature than I would care to admit - and I decided to make this the next book I read after that. Give or take some obnoxious meme compilation "books" I for some reason wasted chunks of my life skimming, that's exactly what I did.As luck would have it, I ended up reading this book while trapped with very poor cell signal and no Wi-Fi. What else was there to do other than read, really? But rather than a chore, this book felt compelling and actually took my mind off the annoyance and stress. It sucked me into a fascinating and intriguing world where very odd things were happening to a selfish and short-sighted young woman who for some reason spoke as if everyone should know her story already. Also, her name was April May - her parents clearly took a page from the West family's baby naming handbook - and she was a socially inept bisexual woman. That last bit? Yeah, it sucked me in.I don't often see people like me in books. Bi women are often written in a very unflattering and promiscuous light, but April wasn't. I mean, she also wasn't a very good person in general, but she had some hindsight and the narrative never felt like it was taking her side when she did terrible things. I think that in particular is why I enjoyed the book so much despite its thoroughly unlikable main character. (And I do mean throughly; even before fame warped her and sent her on a psychotic spiral of horrible life choices, she was the kind of person who would call people with missing pets to make sure she could still get the reward money if she found a corpse instead of a living pet. She called that 'being a pet detective.') But yes, more to April: she was just bland enough to be reader-insertable, but I had no interest in imagining myself with such an icky personality.Instead, I related peripherally to some of her traits like not knowing how to handle popularity, being jealous of others' success, feeling attacked when debating people, and pulling away from loved ones when overwhelmed. No, those aren't flattering traits. No, I didn't even care for how they made her behave. But, yes, I could often relate to the underlying thought processes. I could understand how she got from point A to point B, even when I thought she was an idiot for not going to point C instead. And seeing how fame corrupted her? Yeah, it made me feel a tiny bit more secure in how much I try to avoid too much attention online despite wishing I could actually be someone of worth and value of that variety.As for the story itself... well, it's almost like two stories in one.First, you have the story of April May, a young woman with some mental health issues (of the narcissm and fear of commitment varieties) who has a decent heart behind the shell of atrocious behaviour toward other humans. She's a terrible girlfriend and the kind of friend who both looks out for and takes advantage of the people she values most. She does genuinely want to bring humanity together, yet also she wants to be at the forefront as the single most important of those humans. (And also she hates it, or claims to, despite chasing it full-speed to the detriment of herself and everyone around her.) She's an idiot, for the most part, but also the most dangerous kind: a famous idiot. She falls into internet - and then completely international, mainstream - fame accidentally, but chooses to milk it for all it's worth, slowly becoming a worse person in the process. By the time she narrates the story to the reader, however, she's become self aware and admits to the flaws in her thinking with some refreshing hindsight. As such, it's not an unbearable experience and instead is a fascinating delve into the effects of social media, internet fame, and global attention on the average person who was never prepared to handle so much attention. I love character-driven fiction, so I enjoyed these bits. (They comprise a majority of the story, so it's probably a good thing I didn't dislike them.)Second, and almost peripherally, you have the story of the inhuman beings invading Earth for reasons unknown (until the end) and the divide between humans who are wary of them and humans who blindly trust them. Considering the former group is portrayed as primarily monstrous jerks and homophobic bigots with no grasp of the concept of humanity, it's clear whose side we're meant to take. But honestly? I think - extremists not counted - they had a very valid point. Who in their right mind decides to just start fulfilling the requests of an alien invader with unknown motives and goes "aww it's okay, they mean well, we should perform like their dancing monkeys" when said invader and its counterparts begin altering human consciousness? It's a good way to end up dead, especially when one of those requests is to procure and deliver radioactive materials to the alien beings.Things work out some kind of way, of course, but I don't want to give spoilers. I will say I felt a little let down by the climax of that story, though. In fact, the final chapter and a half were nowhere near as engaging as the rest of the book. All the intrigue, all the mystique, all the blended seriousness and silliness all culminated in the ultimate moment... and fell just a little bit flat for me, despite all the chaos which surrounded it. It felt less like getting real answers and more like having a conclusion tacked on because it was remembered at the last second that some kind of explanation should he provided for the "Carls" (large statue-like alien beings) and their appearance. Granted, I still ended up surprised by the outcome; I guess it just wasn't as amazing and fascinating as I'd hoped.Overall, however, the very end managed to turn around and get me excited for more all over again (and fill me with the sense of emptiness and longing for more only the ending of an enjoyable book can provide). I liked the experience. I had fun speculating in my mind and sharing my thoughts with the best friend who bought me this book. I wanted more when it was over. I wanted more when it was only halfway.And most importantly: I managed to not want to abandon the book despite the story being written very much in the cadence and style of a millenial girl who comes from a privileged background. ('Okay' is written as 'OK,' 'WTF' is used in a sentence or two, she refers to a building as 'a dope Japanese pagoda,' and she 'wants to vom' instead of feeling like she may vomit. Ugh.) The fast-paced, conversational style - annoying dialect notwithstanding - worked very well overall and kept my interest even through the slow bits.That Hank Green managed to write a book which kept me engaged and entertained despite the obnoxious way the main character speaks and behaves may very well mean he's an extremely talented man. Or a wizard. Possibly both. But I'm glad for his potential wizardry all the same, and I'm already craving more from this peculiar, little world he's created.

I first heard of Hank Green through his Crash Course YouTube videos. I had previewed a couple first and now use several in my classes. And after hearing about this book, his quirky personality was something I could see myself reading in novel form…Late one night April May is on the streets of Manhattan when she sees a sculpture on the middle of the sidewalk. It looks robotic, almost like a Transformer, and April is drawn to it. Like most of us in our rat-race lives, she has to check herself, slow herself down, so she can step back and enjoy the piece of art. She is so mesmerized that she calls up her college buddy at 3 am, and tells him to get down there with all his video equipment. A quick setup and a couple takes has them uploading the first reveal of what she dubs “Carl.” They soon find out that these sculptures have landed or been placed in major cities all over the globe, but April and Andy’s video is the first to document the appearances. The YouTube clicks blow up as does April’s social media accounts…What ensues is an exploration into stardom, the media spin, and the power of personal reflection. Told in first person by April from some time after the events of Carl, the book hits its plot points almost perfectly. Every time the story even remotely tries to slow down, something happens to move it forward… A pressing need. A discovery. A new character. Much of this is made possible by Green’s use of the reflective narrator. But this also makes for an excellent character sketch. April admittedly makes some questionable decisions over the course of the novel (at one point she is told off by the President). Andy’s father is an entertainment lawyer and they fly to LA to meet with him at his company to sign contracts ($$) and discuss the image that April wants to portray in the media. She gives up a bit of her personality to round out and scrub her image for public consumption, including the fact that she is bisexual as opposed to simply a lesbian because one is more “marketable” than the other. I was struck by this and the other changes she agrees to change.Overall, this is a fantastic book and I haven’t even mentioned the ‘alien’ factor… And the reason why is because this is one of those scifi-light books that focus on the characters and not so much the possible first contact event. It reminded me of books by Mike Chen that I have read recently.

Once every few years I find a work of fiction that I just fall in love with; the tone, the characters, the whimsical storyline. This is the most recent one of those. Can't wait to read more by this author!

Llegó a tiempo y en excelentes condiciones.No esperaba que tuviera la franja amarilla que dice #1 New York Times Bestseller, pensé que era parte de la imagen y a manera de publicidad de ahí en fuera todo bien.

Com certeza foi uma das melhores leituras que fiz esse ano! Iniciei essa leitura com expectativas altas e, felizmente, todas elas foram atendidas e me surpreendi tanto com a história, que ainda sigo chocada com esse enredo. Hank Green foi brilhante no que ele se propôs a apresentar com um plot diferente (e meio confuso, no início) é impossível não ficar fascinado em como a história nos faz refletir tanto sobre a imersão nas redes sociais, sociedade, fama e política. Hank conseguiu tratar de assuntos tão distintos de uma maneira tão incrível e é surpreendente como esse livro conversa tanto com a atualidade. Ansiosíssima para ler a continuação assim que possível.

All great

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing had me excited and confused almost throughout the entire story. If I'm being honest I've never been more terrified by any book. I'm still not sure if I find my reasoning to be, well, the reason for this horror, but I described it as the idea of the story, the plot, leaving me at a complete lack of control, the description of the Carls leaving no room of explanation and justification with human science. I felt helpless, scared. I don't see this as a negative, but a huge positive and compliment to Hank Green, who successfully managed to write something that genuinely kept me in terror for days. This story talks about humanisation and dehumanisation of others and the self, while somehow having done the same to me. In reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, I felt detached from my own humanity and it scared the shit out of me.After a couple of chapters it got better (or did it?) and I got lost in a story that I could allow myself to stay in. I am absolutely, genuinely in awe and, yes, this book is weird, but in a wonderfully perfect way!My takeaway from An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: Being human is actually pretty cool. It might just be the coolest.A book with an lgbtq+ main character and a look into the world of fame and money, if you like robots, aliens, mystery, mind puzzles and a lot of drama, this is definitely worth considering! I already recommended it to dozens of people. And you should too!