Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Loved the first book, and I loved the sequel!! A lot of my praise here is going to similar to my appreciation of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. Both books are truly of this time, of this exact moment in history. It’s really about what it means to be a human in this day, both what’s beautiful and terrible about that. Green touches on so many important issues like gun control, racism, and discovering your sexuality, all within the context of a fun, engaging story. But above all, Green focuses on two things. First, a discussion of power: who gets it, how they keep it, and what it means to use it. In our society, that’s mainly rich white dudes of course. Secondly, Green really dives into how the internet and social media have a huge impact on our lives, arguing that we live in these spaces. Yes, we’re citizens of the US, but we also can consider ourselves citizens of these online spaces. They’re where we connect with people; where we create art or content; where we spend hours of our day; where we make decisions about what we want to buy, where we want to travel, who we want to associate with. If we think of these social media spaces this way, should they be regulated and run like a country or like a company? How are those structures the same and how do they differ? So much to noodle on, but also, I just adore these characters and loved spending more time with them!

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adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book feels exactly like it was written by Hank Green, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. His unique perspectives and experiences make for a book nothing like anything I've read before.

I've found that usually, sequels don't live up to their predecessors, but in this case, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor was better than An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I think this is mostly due to the fact that we get a few different POVs. While I'm not usually a fan of switching between the perspectives of different characters, it was done so well here.

On top of that, Hank Green's wisdom and observations are so smart, meaningful, and comforting. This is exactly how I want my sci-fi to be written.

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