An Absolutely Remarkable Thing / A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour, by Hank Green - Sian
Remarkable is the right word! Everything about this dynamic duo of books was exciting, enlightening, unexpected, and daring. But also weird. So very, very weird. I loved every single moment of them. Unfortunately, if I tell you even the tiniest morsel too much, I will ruin the whole story for you, so I am going to tread lightly…
April May – yes, that is her name – is stuck in the mundane. Being an arts graduate isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and things are just plodding along. Until she sees Carl. And I know what you’re thinking: another sappy, romantic Young Adult book. Well, you’re wrong! Because Carl is a 10 ft tall Samurai robot statue that appeared out of nowhere in New York City.
And in Beijing.
And St Petersburg.
And Buenos Aires.
In fact, Carl appears in 64 cities across the world in the blink of an eye. No one knows where they came from, who built them, or if they have a purpose. But since April May saw them first, and posted them on the internet, she is the new co-star of the universe, shoulder-to-shoulder with Carl.
And things just get more bizarre from there. Carl starts to change things, societally, psychologically, economically, politically, philosophically. This story is a sci-fi, technically, but it’s set in the world exactly as we know it today. No 'if's or 'but's. This is how we as a race would respond to Carl if he turned up tomorrow morning. And it is freaky accurate!
Too real, and too surreal to make sense, and yet it does. And after the cliffhanger of a lifetime in the first instalment, you’ll be racing to get the second one! So good. So, so good! Read it.
- Sian
