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A review by livslib
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Well…lol. I have deeply mixed feelings about this book. There are a lot of pros and a lot of cons, but here’s the gist:
Pros:
Pros:
- I think Hank Green offers a very timely (very consumable) examination of VR and AI—though overly descriptive and belabored at times, I do think many of the conversations presented in this book are conversations that we should be having at the dinner table.
- I found his attempt to examine and relay Maya’s experience as a black woman to be quite refreshing. Although he missed the mark a couple of times, the effort is what matters to me as a black reader. Less than 0.02% of the books that I’ve read by white authors have even given their black character’s an identity beyond a name, and Hank Green pushed the envelope with thoughtfulness, tact, and willful ignorance, and by doing so, he has earned my respect.
Cons:
- This book does so much, but at the same time, does absolutely nothing. If it weren’t for the premise, I would’ve DNF’ed about 40% through the book. I think we can all agree that Book 1 was better than this one by great measure, but even Book 1 was “so close but not quite”.
- The switching back and forth between characters didn’t work because all of them sounded like Hank Green lol. No one (except MAYBE Carl) had a distinct voice.
- Where was the emotion? Where was the deep, existential fear for humanity? Maybe it’s just his matter-of-fact writing style, but I just didn’t feel moved even though the stakes were so high and felt so personal.
In short, I think Hank Green is a brilliant man (and dare I say, a craftier storyteller than his brother, John Green) but sometimes I just found it hard to enjoy his brilliant novel. Maybe novels just aren’t his thing (and that’s okay!) but I’m glad he gave this series to us anyways.