An Absolutely Remarkable Thing | Hank Green

Book: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Author: Hank Green

Age Rating: young adult (12+)

Page Count: 352 pages

Star Review: 4/5 stars

Summary: The Carls just appeared.

Roaming through New York City 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--from Beijing to Buenos Aires-- and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us. 

Memorable Quote: "Even on this most terrible day, even when the worst of us are all we can think of, I am proud to be human."

Okay, I have a lot of words to say about this book. The first being I wasn't sure where it was going half the time. There were so many sudden twists and turns in this book I was honestly very unsure of how it would end and I'm just going to say, the direction it ended up going was NOT the direction I thought this book might go. And while the ending was somewhat a cliffhanger and I honestly don't know whether or not there's a sequel planned, I did thoroughly enjoy the book.

I'm going to start by saying I loved Andy. He was my favorite character for sure. But other than Andy, I loved all the characters. I loved the bisexual representation with April and I don't know whether Maya was just gay or if she was bi but it was great with her as well. LGBT+ representation in books is going up and I'm very happy about that. Even the character of Peter Petrawicki, though I wanted to tear his head off half the time, his character was remarkably well-written. I also loved how this book did take place in the future and they had a female president, which is something I very rarely see in any books, even other futuristic books such as The Darkest Minds.

Finally, the plot was iffy from time to time. About halfway through the book it hit a point where it seemed as if Green wasn't sure what to write about and just kind of started throwing things, but once that part finished and the end started I enjoyed it again. This isn't the first book I read where the middle slumped and it for sure will not be the last, so I can accept it. 

Finally, I just want to point out THIS BOOK IS NOT CONTEMPORARY!! As much as I thought it was, it actually is a science fiction. I feel like I should have known that due to the fact that it takes place in the future also due to the summary, but just in case people didn't know like me. 

Would I recommend? For fans of lighter sci-fi, of course.