An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

By: Hank Green

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh, Hank Green

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

The instant number-one New York Times best seller

In his much-anticipated debut novel, Hank Green - co-creator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers, and SciShow - spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes an overnight celebrity before realizing she's part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined.

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., 23-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship - like a 10-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.

Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social Internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye.  

The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.

©2018 Hank Green (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Grape jelly in the void

This novel is funny, gutwrenching, charming, and couched comfortably in a familiar world despite being properly absurD. In this story Hank Green peeks existential dread through optimistic curtains and tracks the most relatable of human emotions through subtle sci-Fi landscapes. The story is compelling. The characTers are dimensional, lovaBle, and deeply relatable. I


This novel is very good And I highly recommend it.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Incredible

This story was astounding! It was moving and vivid and, yes, #relatable. I started recommending it to friends and family before I’d even reached the halfway point.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Flawless Narration to a Truly Remarkable Book

Hank Green not only captures the current social media world perfectly, but also does the same with people. He manages to covey, explain but also never justify the actions of a 'caught up in fame' main character somehow managing to make you hate, feel sympathetic for and understand her actions all at once. Hank doesn't create a character, he creates a human, with all the complex and dumb thoughts and emotions we all have displayed in a very modern tale.

It frankly has the potential to become a very dated book, with social media platforms like Twitter , YouTube and Reddit being use candidly and without explanation, assuming that everyone reading can interpret without needing explanation. Instead of hinder, that only helps to elevate the story as even non-twitter users know and understand it's layout and basic rules.

But the story also needs a consistent story to follow and it is created with a mystery that is both as compelling as it is awesome. A world wide mystery that all who read it would feel pretty great being able to participate in. By mimicking the ideas of many projects that have existed it never feels off, in fact doing the opposite and feeling completely natural in a highly connected social media landscape.

But finally a shout needs to go out to Kristen Sieh, who narrates this book, the character of April May and all supporting characters with such emotion that it is hard not to think of them as real. Often a small line of dialogue will be said so well that the following description of "he sounded scared" is completely unnecessary. But the absolute best part is the amount of time between panicked words. On a page it will be separated by a few dots, but in this it is full seconds between crying, hushed words. It, combined with the completely open dialogue into April May's thoughts that Hank writes, makes Kristen Sieh's performance feel like you are simply listening to April May.

Hank Green has written a book so modern, real and raw, that if the starting events where to physically happen to our world, no one would be at all surprised if this is exactly how it played out.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

My first audio book

This was my first audio book, and this was an absolutely phenomenal experience. I listened during my hour long commute.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

Fame meets modern social media meets sci-fi.

This is a book maybe for young people who like the cameras, media, and over inflated self personification.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Holy Mackerel

It’s no secret that this Green is insanely talented, but what a writer!! So torn that it ended. More!!

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Absolutely Remarkable

Please take a moment to stop and listen to this book. Pause for a while and enjoy the art for the sake of enjoying art.
An amazing ride with a heavy message. I adore the fact that to me, it is not preachy but delivers a strong theme that makes you think.
Worth. A. Read.
Or listen.
Why not both?
....
Why not Zoidberg?

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Wow!

This book was amazing and was quite a surprise with the plot twists. I had never heard of this title, but knew it was John Green's brother who wrote it. I've read so many John Green novels, so I took a chance. Wow! It was a real treat! I won't discuss any plotlines because it is better going in "blind."

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing it is indeed!

This book, as the title implies, is Absolutely Remarkable. It's been a long time since I got so lost in a story, and possibly the first time ever in one set in a world so close to our own. I've known for a long time that Hank Green could tell a good story, but this...

I'm so glad that after years of keeping it quiet, this story is finally out there for the rest of us to share. Thank you, Hank, and thank you everyone who helped make it happen. I can't wait to find out what happens next!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

What a narrator!

This was a great listen. Wish I could give more than five stars for the
utterly charming narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful