An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
written by Hank Green
I loved this book. Which is especially great since, as a *nerd fighter, I was highly anticipating this book's release. I've been a fan of both John and Hank Green for years now, admiring their work with Crash Course, SciShow, and decreasing world suck. They both have such a curiosity and appreciation for the world, and they show that passion in their Youtube channel, Vlogbrothers, and podcasts: Dear Hank and John and The Anthropocene Reviewed. There's so much more I could say about these two, but it's time to move onto one of my favorite things they've contributed to the anthropocene: books.
In Hank Green's debut novel, April May is a 23-year-old graphic designer working long, late shifts at a start-up company. One night as she's traveling back to her apartment, April comes across a large, metal statue that resembles a samurai. In a spontaneous decision, April calls up her friend, Andy Skampt to come and take a short film of the statue, and in that video she introduces the mysterious art installation as "Carl". Overnight the video becomes viral, and that's when things get weird. It turns out that identical Carls appeared all over the world in major cities and no one knows how they got there. The mystery of Carl is bigger than anyone could have imagined, and April through pure chance then later, intense strategy, becomes the center of it all.
It's been a long time since I read a book and had no idea how it was going to end. It's easy enough to imagine a statue named Carl appearing in multiple places and someone making a viral video about it, but that's only the beginning. The plot that unfolds is large, creative, and delightfully weird. That is all I can say about it without spoilers. [But who knows? Maybe this book is enough of a reason for me to start publishing some spoiler indulgent reviews as well.] What I can say about this book is that it covers themes that have only begun to emerge. April faces the mystery of the Carls, but she also faces fame. Fame so big that it has the power to warp your life, your friends lives’, and in the extreme case that April falls into, your own sense of self. Because when everyone knows your name and story and claims that they know you without ever having met you, it could be terribly easy to shape yourself into the image they claim to see.
In the electronic and social age we live in, with more and more people making careers out of inviting millions of fans into their personal lives’, a story like this that addresses and explains the phenomenon through fictional example is needed. Not everyone has thousands or millions of strangers examining their life in this way, but whether or not you are that person, it's important to understand the ramifications of fame and how it's perceived. It's times like these that I like to remember that once it was uncommon to know people and events happening outside your own town. Fame today is a new animal. I am glad that someone like Hank Green decided to use his own experiences of being a well-known internet personality to write an honest book about this subject.
This weird science fiction with a cautionary tale of present-day fame makes An Absolutely Remarkable Thing an incredibly compelling novel that is worth at least one read, maybe two.
*Nerdfighters are people who, instead of being made up of cells and organs, are made up of pure awesome. The nerdfighter community arose from the videoblog project Brotherhood 2.0, with brothers John and Hank Green. Nerdfighters are also known to be fans of John's books and Hank's music. (taken from a **wikiHow page. Click here to learn how to become a nerdfighter: https://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Nerdfighter)
**I love wikihow. I'm still laughing about this page.
Below:
One picture of me at Bookcon with Carl and a cardboard cut out Hank.
And another picture of my signed copy of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing complete with a Hanklerfish.
