Reviews with content warning for Vomit - A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Highly recommend the audiobook.

I think the first book had to do a lot of unfortunate fame- and internet-related groundwork to make this book possible, so for those who felt let down by An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, I urge you to continue with this sequel. I liked the first one fine, but this one is indeed remarkable.

I'm a sucker for an ensemble cast, and the plot offers a lot of insight into current affairs. Occasionally a bit too close for comfort – akin to reading 1984 in 1984, I imagine. A timely and skillfully executed science fiction story.

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lara_r's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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c95newman's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

[This is a sequel, MAJOR spoiler alert for the first book, an absolutely remarkable thing]

Following April's death the gang is attempting to pick up the pieces of their former lives and learn to live without her. But then they start getting mysterious books that seem to know exactly what they are going to do, and has some clues and advice for them. Cue an adventure with a few 20 somethings, a cyborg, a monkey, and a potato plant.

I REALLY loved this book. One thing I think Hank Green does super well is mix his huge life-changing stories with a bit of whimsy. It reminds me a bit of hitchhiker's guide. And it makes the story more fun in the heavy parts.

Each chapter of the book changes the narrator, and is titled with the name of the narrator. I like how we get the thoughts of all of the flawed characters, and I really resonate with Andy's character development. I feel like his flaws are easy to criticize from the outside, but are way more relatable when you see his inner monologs. I wasnt a huge fan of Carl's chapters, mostly because they were extremely confusing and while obviously Carl's powers are not real, Hank Green still tried to explain them in a scientific way that didn't make sense to me as a non scientist.

It focused really heavily on fame, the power of social media, and society. I really like how the themes carried over from the last book.

The queer representation in this book was perfect. Its really hard to find a book with queer characters that are characterized well and thoughtfully, especially by a (presumably) not queer person. Just like the first book, the relationships were realistic and the queer characters had traits other than "queer".

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lily1304's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I did NOT want to like this book as much as I did. I was skeptical, and then I was totally sucked in. I love that the sci-fi plot is SO absurd, and yet pieces of it are so familiar. Yeah, Altus is a very obvious metaphor for social media and this book is really just Hank Green's soapbox - the plot is a vehicle for the philosophy. But it's a really fun soapbox, and Hank's ideas are fascinating even if I don't always agree. I'm looking forward to rereading it eventually.

Not sure if this is a bug or a feature, but the book's philosophy tries to yell "humanism!" while the plot yells "cosmological dualism!", and I'm not sure how I feel about it - it certainly contains theological ideas and metaphors even though Hank is an atheist. I also actually don't love

how much Carl is explained in detail - I liked how mysterious Carl was in the first book.

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noodletheriddle's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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samchase112's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

People will just share the things that confirm their ideology, and those things will always exist. Our reality isn't about what's real, it's about what we pay attention to.

This is not a book about aliens or science --- it's a book about community, power, compassion, and how humanity uses and abuses the tools we have created in order to manipulate those things. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is deeply weird, yet profoundly true. I want to go back and highlight about 65% of Hank's words. It is obvious this is all coming from a place of caring and social media/celebrity experience; as well as the human experience we can all relate to. I cannot recommend this book and its insanely relevant messages enough.

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