An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: A Novel (The Carls Book 1)

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: A Novel (The Carls Book 1)

E-Book
4.05

Durch das Verwenden dieser Links unterstützt du READO. Wir erhalten eine Vermittlungsprovision, ohne dass dir zusätzliche Kosten entstehen.

Beschreibung

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Sparkling with mystery, humor and the uncanny, this is a fun read. But beneath its effervescent tone, more complex themes are at play.” —San Francisco Chronicle In his wildly entertaining debut novel, Hank Green—cocreator 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.   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 best 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.   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 for 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.
Haupt-Genre
N/A
Sub-Genre
N/A
Format
E-Book
Seitenzahl
351
Preis
N/A

Beiträge

4
Alle
4

I have seen a lot of critique saying this novel is more like an unrevised nanowrimo project with an unrealistic and not well conceived plot. Personally, I enjoyed this novel very much and, to be fair, alien statues resembling transformes appearing all over the world does seem a bit unrealistic but then it is not called a sci-fi novel for nothing. April May as a protagonist is a character with a lot of human flaws which shows very well what unexpected fame can do to people, especially in the form of social media presence and today's interaction with the digital world. I liked her as a character and how she was portrayed as someone who at first struggles with the thought of being important while also simultaneously riding the high of internet popularity. I loved the supporting characters, Maya in particular is a character who I still love dearly and I really hope there is more for her to come in the sequel! I would have liked to see more character development though as the narrative is very focused on April and how she perceives the events so the supporting characters feel a bit underdeveloped. I liked the plot idea and how it was implemented but since I am not a frequent reader of sci-fi novels I will not say much about trivialities, only that I could not stop reading, especially when the situation reached its peak! All in all, I liked the novel very much and I am excited for the sequel. I really want to know what Hank Green has in store for the story of April May and the Carls and I hope we get to see more of the supporting cast!

5

A truly astonishing debut novel! This review is biased, because I'm a huge Hank Green fangirl. No day passes without me watching a Scishow-video before bedtime. I find it important to mention, that I agree with the biggest points the critics make against this book. Nevertheless I really enjoyed the audiobook. The story is simple but bears unmistakingly the stamp of Hank Green! The Carls (a sort of samurai transformers) appear one day out of the blue in every major city on the planet. April, our MC (the most dumb, ignorant, insensitive and annoying person ever written) discovers the mecha statue, which seems to be the important one of them all. Her friend Andy films it puts it on YouTube. From here things escalate quickly. April is caught in the middle of an identity crisis, relationship challenges and her new life as an internet celebrity. After the first sensational whirlwind dies down, people (last of them April) discover that all of humanity is dreaming one and the same dream, which is a riddle to be solved with united efforts of all nations. Ofcourse there's the obligatory bad guy, who tries to ruin Aprils public persona and beat her to the riddles solution. Being the obnoxious, privileged, snooty shit, that April is, she tries to solve the last riddle by herself. Otherwise she wouldn't be the special snowflake, she likes to think herself to be. I really abhor characters like April, but she's a good example for todays youth and internet fame and what it does to self perception. Hank Green did a good job here, exploring the topic social norms and internet fame. (It's a YA-book, why would someone expect deep character development here is beyond me) It is also true that the plot is not overly complicated, but excuse me, have you read the blurbs of the most hyped YA-books? Same comparison kills the complaints for one dimensional characters. What made "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" so special for me is the homey feeling it created. If you are a little older or especially nerdy, you will be reminded of NGE, Transformers, SAO and maybe a little bit of Black Butler. (April HAS a handsome, cute personal butler) I'm also lucky because I have never read Hanks brothers books. There's no pressure to compare these two. I liked the story, because I love space, sience, aliens AND robots. It's a quick and fun read, with a lot of things a lot of people with have a problem with. It's diverse, it's not diverse enough, April is too white, too snarky, too bi, not lesbian enough blah. Haters gonna hate. The ending is punchy and I really hope it's just a fake. Otherwise this review might lose some stars. Give it a go if you're not bothered by humour ala tumblr. The audiobook is a very good choice! Andys part is narrated by Hank Green himself.

2

this was pretty boring the president stuff was weird

Beitrag erstellen