A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While they were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction without ever lifting a finger. Well, that’s not exactly true. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories. 

Months later, the world is as confused as ever. Andy has picked up April’s mantle of fame, speaking at conferences and online about the world post-Carl; Maya, ravaged by grief, begins to follow a string of mysteries that she is convinced will lead her to April; and Miranda infiltrates a new scientific operation . . . one that might have repercussions beyond anyone’s comprehension.

As they each get further down their own paths, a series of clues arrive—mysterious books that seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers; unexplained internet outages; and more—which seem to suggest April may be very much alive. In the midst of the gang's possible reunion is a growing force, something that wants to capture our consciousness and even control our reality.

---

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was a great read. Interesting premise, great characters, well written. I was very excited for this one to come out, and really happy when I got my hands on a copy.

Yeah, you can see where this is going, can't you.

I didn't hate it. It wasn't awful. But I wasn't in any hurry to read it, I found myself putting it down, going away to do something else. Partly, as ever, because there's no recap at all, which makes some things confusing. For example, a big thing is made of the fact that one character slept with April at one point. I didn't even remember that plotline, so when it came up I struggled for a bit. I'm not saying we needed a blow by blow recap, but a little bit might have been nice. It could even have fit in beautifully here as a newspaper article, given the inclusion of other articles and tweets!

The multiple plotlines confused me a little as well, especially since they weren't running in tandem. The new plot elements felt tacked on, and some of Andy's decisions...

But this is a wonderful attempt to tackle some big questions, stuff we should all be thinking about. It's worth a read. But maybe reread Absolutely first, and then lower your expectations for this one.