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corriejn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Addiction, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence
Minor: Vomit and Racism
youreawizardjerry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Minor: Racism, Vomit, Kidnapping, Blood, and Death
adelal's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping
Moderate: Vomit and Gun violence
Minor: Gore, Racism, Sexism, Outing, and Biphobia
cheye13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
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.
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Cursing, Kidnapping, Racism, Violence, and Vomit
Not explicitly police brutality, but a scene with a police altercation may be upsetting. Some dicussions of and/or conflations of reality vs virtual reality may be upsetting.lara_r's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Addiction, and Racism
Minor: Gun violence and Death
lenaricharz's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Moderate: Kidnapping and Medical trauma
Minor: Racism
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
While the first book was largely about internet fame, this one is mostly about the future of the internet and the possibilities of virtual reality and other technologies, especially the darker implications of the corporate internet and the influence it has over our lives.
There were a lot of interesting musings about the internet and technology and fame from all of the characters, and most of them were super compelling. Miranda's chapters were definitely my favorite because of her specific outlook on the whole thing (and I like the book a lot less when we lost Miranda's point of view for a while for plot reasons), though Maya is my favorite character and I think that Andy had the most compelling character arc.
My main problem with this book is Carl. In book one, I enjoyed the science fiction of it all, and I was excited to learn more about Carl. Maybe I shouldn't have been because I feel like all of the alien elements were simultaneously under-developed and over-explained. Some of Carl's monologuing kind of felt like Hank Green trying to justify his own narrative choices in the first book, and I didn't feel like that was necessary.
In the first book, it felt like April was just at the right place at the right time, and in this one, we learn that she was actually chosen much more deliberately by Carl. This ultimately isn't all that different from an algorithm seemingly randomly choosing certain people to become internet famous, but it definitely contributed to April and Carl being the least compelling characters in this book for me.
Also, one more spoilery note about Carl:
I did really enjoy this book on the whole, though, so here are some more random things I enjoyed:
- Carl is officially nonbinary now and it's not because they're an alien. They just are.
- I loved Maya and Miranda's conversations about sexuality. Really well done.
- In general this book is much gayer than the first one and I always appreciate that.
- April hates John Mayer.
- SEIZE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION!
- The audiobook is excellent. Great use of multiple narrators, and all of the voice actors were perfect for their characters.
These books are more of their moment than almost anything else I've ever read. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing feels like an alternate version of 2020, which can't have been deliberate because it was published in 2019. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, however, knows that it's a pandemic book. It's specifically a book about post-pandemic life and readjusting to a world that has been changed and wants to pretend that it hasn't been. It'll be interesting to see how it ages.
Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Biphobia and Racism
noodletheriddle's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, and Vomit
samchase112's review against another edition
- 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.
Graphic: Kidnapping and Confinement
Moderate: Racism, Violence, Stalking, Police brutality, Gun violence, Cursing, Blood, Addiction, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit, Outing, and Grief
mxfahrenheit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, and Racism