Kavi Reads

Have you ever read a novel where within just a few pages, you know you’re going to enjoy it? It’s the best feeling ever. It’s even better when the novel is a first-person narrative. It means that you’ve instantly connected with the character making the story that much more enjoyable. With Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, the feeling happened three pages in. Within just three pages I knew this is my kind of book. And I was not disappointed. The book was incredible. I loved every aspect of this story. You can judge this book by its cover all you want because, dare I say, the book was… absolutely remarkable (if you feel obligated to unfollow me after that one, I wouldn’t blame you).

No Spoilers

Coming home from work at three a.m., 23-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Ignored by most New Yorkers as they go about their busy lives, the ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armour stands in front of her full of energy and power. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship, April calls her friend Andy to make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News spread over the world that the sculpture, named Carl by April, is present in cities all over the world, from Beijing to Buenos Aires. April, being the first one to document their presence, finds herself at the centre of an intense international media spotlight.

As if giant sculptures that seemed to appear out of nowhere in multiple cities throughout the world wasn’t peculiar enough, an aura of mystery soon surrounds the Carls. No security footage exists of anyone installing them, and no one apparently saw anyone carrying a giant 10-foot sculpture around. Any cameras that were recording the areas in which the Carls stand have a five-minute gap in their video footage during which Carl was supposedly installed. To make things weirder, the audio those cameras recorded has a barely audible version of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. Another thing that April casually mentioned during her video was how Carl was warm to the touch. While most people glanced over the seemingly unimportant statement, it catches the eye of one UC Berkeley grad student, who is immediately suspicious of a heavy, metallic sculpture that is inexplicably warm on a cold New-York-winter night. Things only get weirder as the story goes on.

Meanwhile, April continues to rise to stardom as an internet celebrity. The book is an excellent commentary on the bright and dark sides of internet fame. As she goes from having a successful YouTube channel to making regular appearances on TV shows and News networks, April’s life dramatically changes as she struggles to balance between her private and public personas. As her fame turns into a high that she keeps chasing, she discovers it might not all be about taking selfies with screaming fans and Tweeting cute one-liners to get the most retweets. Green also does an excellent job of portraying deeply human themes. How life in the public eye leads to dehumanisation in the form of both adoration and vilification? How does one deal with the drive to remain relevant? How does a culture deal with uncertainty and fear? What happens when the most bizarre explanation to something is the only one that makes sense?

Overall, the book was extremely entertaining, with a very likeable main character. The book is written in first-person as if written by April telling us, the readers, her story in retrospect, which was something I thoroughly enjoyed. Her humour, style or writing and honest insights made the character much more relatable. The book was also powerfully relevant, as we live in times when things fall on and off the ‘viral’ chart constantly and internet celebrities struggle to keep their relevance and hope keep extending their 10 seconds in the limelight perpetually. The only thing I was slightly disappointed by was the ending (which I will talk about more in the Spoiler section), which was immediately rectified by the fact that Green will be putting out a sequel. And I can’t wait for it

Spoilers ahead

While I knew the book was a sci-fi, I didn’t realise how far was it willing to go. I mean, aliens are probably the most plot-friendly, scapegoat-y thing ever. Anything unexplainable can be explained by Giorgio Tsoukalos saying “Aliens”. So the fact that it was officially confirmed that Carl is an alien was something I did not see coming. That being said, I thought it added an interesting twist to the story, turning April into not only a girl with a viral video, but the human to make First Contact. And with the revelation that Carl is a reality-bending, mind-manipulating, indestructible alien came a certain amount of fear. And humans have always been notorious for not reacting well to fear of the unknown. While, as far as I’ve seen in reviews, the alien thing was a bit much for some people, I loved it. It was pretty spot on as for my kind of story.

As I said earlier, the ending was the only thing that I was disappointed by. It came across as a bit tacky. The fact that this incredibly advanced civilisation of Carls came all the way to Earth to remind humanity of its beauty was not where I saw the end going. And April, till the very end, spewing out motivational quotes that would go great on posters on walls, or as Instagram posts to be there but not really followed, got a bit old. Of course, the real kicker was at the very end when we find out April is still alive and the book suddenly ends. Until I found out there is a sequel in the works, I was a little annoyed by it. But since Green has let everyone know that the story will continue, that annoyance has turned into anticipation. Though I’m no book critic, as a debut novel, I call Green’s efforts a resounding success and a great start to a career in sci-fi.

Rating: 4.5/5