"An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" by Hank Green | Book Review

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship - like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor - April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world - everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires - and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

OH. MY. GOSH.

Do you know that feeling you get when you finish a book and realize it might be one of your new favorites? Because I got that when I finished this.

And this was after I stayed up late reading, which is unusual for me because I'm 80-years-old on the inside and go to bed super early. So it says a lot when a book is so good that I can't put it down and have to stay up late reading.

There was just so much to love with this book. It's hard to talk about it without spoilers so just know that there's lots of amazing twists, turns, and puzzles that keep you guessing through the whole story. There's also some really cool stuff as far as "random trivia you learn while reading" and I absolutely loved all the nerdy science stuff.

While I didn't always like April, I think that was the point. As the story progresses and certain things happen to April, she becomes rather unlikable at times and it made me want to smack her. Some of the choices she made were just awful but that's what made her feel very human to me. Instead of loving the main character, like usual, I became obsessed with the side characters.

Maya, Andy, Robin, and Miranda are my favorite book characters in a contemporary novel in a while. I loved Maya's kindness and her cat comic that I cannot name her because spoilers. Andy certainly had the strongest character development through the story since he also experiences some of the fame, but differently from April. Robin and Miranda and can't talk about much cause spoilers, but just know I love Miranda because women in STEM are my jam.

Aside from the side characters, my favorite thing about this book was the age of the characters. I know, I know it's a weird thing to fixate on. But I am twenty-one, about to graduate college and reading about people in my age range is amazing! I love YA but the characters are teens and I don't fully relate even if I do enjoy the stories, which is expected because I'm not a teen. There's not a lot of early adult / late YA fiction out there that isn't filled with smut so this book was refreshing and I want a million more of them.

It had some many things I like: fun plot, quirky characters, queer characters(!!!), and a little bit of mystery. But no book is perfect and I know the issue that most people have with this book is likely it's a little preachy about the dangers of trolls becoming radicalized by internet echo chambers, the toxic political climate, and people being at each others throats about these issues. Personally, I hate no problems with this because these are valid points but I know some people don't want to read that kind of thing.

Overall, I loved this book. It's one of my new favorites and I cannot wait for the sequel!

Rating: 5 stars