#60 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

This book is about April May, a 23 year old design graduate who accidentally stumbles across a metal statue in the middle of a New Year street at 3am. April calls her best friend Andy who has been failing at becoming a viral sensation. They make a gimmicky video in which April pretends to interview the statue that she names Carl. Overnight the video goes viral and they wake to discover that there is a Carl in every major city worldwide.

At first when i read the premise i thought 'hmmm great idea but how will that span over 300 pages', but there were so many twists to this tale. This book massively took me by surprise. It was SO Hank Green, i even in parts read some of it in his voice. At first i was afraid to pick this book up as ive been so invested in John Greens books for years and if i didnt like Hanks then id be letting not only myself but my favourite vlogbrothers down. Im so glad that this wasnt the case. This read as so realistic, you can tell Hank is writing it as he knows what its like to be internet famous and for your videos to go viral. He probably knows a thing or two about trolls and people hating you for no reason also so it really added another dimension to this already fantastic story.

I have noticed a correlation to my some of my favourite books specifically sci-fi type books and that is that they need to have a few pop culture references to it, if a book mentions something geeky that i like it automatically has me on side and unsurprisingly Hank really delivered in this area. A few things that were mentioned in this book that made me fan girl it even more:

• NaNoWriMo
• Reddit
• Pokemon
• A female president! (off topic but still!)
• Pokemon
• Pop Tarts
• Queen

I thought John Green was the king of writing a relatable, realistic quirky geek girl but April May was just perfect! Way to go Hank! 

The dream sequence reminded me a little of Black Mirror Bandersnatch, it has similar vibes to a chhose your own adventure story which was really cool, I loved the idea that everyone was having the dream and were trying to figure out the sequences. it was so clever and well done. 

I loved the idea that the Carls were alien life forms that were on a mission to get humans to work together to figure it all out. It left me with so many questions though which i really hope he touches on in the next book! Is this book a metaphor for how the world responds to things we dont understand? Is this Hanks interpretation of humanity? One of my favourite quotes from the book is 'This is what humanity is, solidarity in the face of fear', I think he was verbalising (through April May) that we shouldnt be so quick to assume that something is evil just because we cannot understand it. It is a very strong and beautiful message.   

5 stars from me and i can already see this book making my top books i read in 2019 list and its still only January! Oh and dont worry Hank, i forgive you for getting a Carly Rae Jepsen song stuck in my head for days! Can we discuss that ending cliffhanger? I need the next book now! So far we have no title or release date *cries*