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A review by dembury
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
3.0
AART was one of my favorite books last year, so I was really looking forwards to this sequel. On the whole I mostly enjoyed ABFE and found parts of it thought-provoking, funny, or just downright entertaining. The main characters go through a LOT of development and I found each of their arcs fairly well-written, and I love them all as in team working together; I feel like that's when they're all at their best. Maya in particular I felt invested in: she's a really interesting character and I'm so glad she got more spotlight this time around! The cycle of POVs felt right for this book, too- it was nice to be able to be inside multiple heads.
The main downside was for me was that, in some fairly significant ways, the novel felt kinda sloppy? I can't fully figure out my words for this, but the first half felt seemed like it was going in one direction and setting certain things up (the Fish app, Maya's rocks, the strange occurrences, the books) that were later either dropped or given, in my opinion, weak answers. Along this same line, it felt like Green was just yanking around the plot/characters when it was convenient without actually giving them reason to be how they were. One example is Robin, who just kinda stops being mentioned around the 70% mark after essentially just being a minor plot device (this is a SHAME and I so badly want a standalone Robin book, or even a novella!) The explanation behind The Thread also felt too easy, almost gimmicky. Actually, one of the only things in the book that shocked me was the big reveal with Miranda later in the story. I just would have liked more genuine surprise or delight like what was in AART. Basically: questions were given weak answers or Green seemed to throw stuff in that didn't really stick or make an impact.
There's also the fact that this book is just much more "preachy" and info-dumpy than its predecessor. I'm putting "preachy" in quotes because it's just the best word I can find right now that describes how I felt. There is a lot of talk in the book about the distribution of power and wealth, the use of power and wealth, capitalism, the economy, how people succumb to other forces, politics, the question of could VS should...the list goes on. It's just a very HEAVY book in some ways, and that's not inherently a bad thing- these are important topics! Green brought up some good questions and I stopped reading at times to consider what he was asking. It felt like a pretty big shift in tone from AART and I wasn't really expecting it, and it just made for a more tedious read.
The info-dump side of this is the bad part; there are certain chapters or moments (like Carl's) that just seem to DRAGGGGGG as the reader get lengthy explanations for things that I'm not convinced we needed to know. Literally every time Andy started talking about money or investments or shares my eyes would glaze over and I'd struggle to understand what was happening. Not gonna lie, the fact that Andy's arc was so finance/money heavy and had him talk so much about it made him hate him just a little bit. Oops.
This all makes it seem like there was a lot I didn't like, but I did like it - at least, PARTS of it. It was fresh and pretty fun at times, and I was hyped to get more Carl weirdness. I love the way Green writes his characters, and I think the way he imagines plots and concepts is fascinating. I just think this sequel needed another couple rounds of editing and some rewritten plot points here and there. However, ABFE is definitely weaker than the first book; when I reread Carlverse stuff in the future I will only be reading the first one and lowkey pretending I don't know about this one... Personally I'm hoping the next Hank Green novel will be something outside of the Carlverse, because as much as I like it, I think it's best the stays as a duology and isn't dragged out.
The main downside was for me was that, in some fairly significant ways, the novel felt kinda sloppy? I can't fully figure out my words for this, but the first half felt seemed like it was going in one direction and setting certain things up (the Fish app, Maya's rocks, the strange occurrences, the books) that were later either dropped or given, in my opinion, weak answers. Along this same line, it felt like Green was just yanking around the plot/characters when it was convenient without actually giving them reason to be how they were. One example is Robin, who just kinda stops being mentioned around the 70% mark after essentially just being a minor plot device (this is a SHAME and I so badly want a standalone Robin book, or even a novella!) The explanation behind The Thread also felt too easy, almost gimmicky. Actually, one of the only things in the book that shocked me was the big reveal with Miranda later in the story. I just would have liked more genuine surprise or delight like what was in AART. Basically: questions were given weak answers or Green seemed to throw stuff in that didn't really stick or make an impact.
There's also the fact that this book is just much more "preachy" and info-dumpy than its predecessor. I'm putting "preachy" in quotes because it's just the best word I can find right now that describes how I felt. There is a lot of talk in the book about the distribution of power and wealth, the use of power and wealth, capitalism, the economy, how people succumb to other forces, politics, the question of could VS should...the list goes on. It's just a very HEAVY book in some ways, and that's not inherently a bad thing- these are important topics! Green brought up some good questions and I stopped reading at times to consider what he was asking. It felt like a pretty big shift in tone from AART and I wasn't really expecting it, and it just made for a more tedious read.
The info-dump side of this is the bad part; there are certain chapters or moments (like Carl's) that just seem to DRAGGGGGG as the reader get lengthy explanations for things that I'm not convinced we needed to know. Literally every time Andy started talking about money or investments or shares my eyes would glaze over and I'd struggle to understand what was happening. Not gonna lie, the fact that Andy's arc was so finance/money heavy and had him talk so much about it made him hate him just a little bit. Oops.
This all makes it seem like there was a lot I didn't like, but I did like it - at least, PARTS of it. It was fresh and pretty fun at times, and I was hyped to get more Carl weirdness. I love the way Green writes his characters, and I think the way he imagines plots and concepts is fascinating. I just think this sequel needed another couple rounds of editing and some rewritten plot points here and there. However, ABFE is definitely weaker than the first book; when I reread Carlverse stuff in the future I will only be reading the first one and lowkey pretending I don't know about this one... Personally I'm hoping the next Hank Green novel will be something outside of the Carlverse, because as much as I like it, I think it's best the stays as a duology and isn't dragged out.