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An Absolutely Remarkable Thing cover art

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

By: Hank Green
Narrated by: Hank Green,Kristen Sieh
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Publisher's Summary

In his much-anticipated debut novel, Hank Green - cocreator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers and SciShow - spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes an overnight celebrity before realising she's part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined.

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., 23-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship - like a 10-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor - April and her friend Andy 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 quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world - everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires - and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the centre of an intense international media spotlight. Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are but what they want from us.

Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social Internet is changing fame, rhetoric and radicalisation; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanisation that follows a life in the public eye.

©2018 Hank Green (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group

Critic Reviews

'A fun, contemporary adventure that cares about who we are as humans, especially when faced with remarkable events' Kirkus

'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is pure book joy' Lev Grossman, number one New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy

'Fun and full of truth. To be honest, I'm a little irritated at how good the book is. I don't need this kind of competition' Patrick Rothfuss, number New York Times bestselling author of The Kingkiller Chronicles

What listeners say about An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

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had me hooked!

Badass female lead, aliens, thought-provoking themes, and its all written by Hank Green. What more could you want?!

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2 people found this helpful

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Couldn’t stop listening

This is such a great book to listen to. I finished it almost in one go. Wickedly imaginative and captivating story so different to regular sci fi. Loved it 100% and already on second book.

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Absolutely remarkable storytelling.

I loved every part of this book. Truly unique, wonderful, contemporary. Cannot recommend more highly

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An Absolutely Remakable Book and Audio book

Everything from the writing of Hank Green to the brilliant voice acting of Kristen Sieh had me feeling encapsulated by the story at hand. The way it sparked thought on topics such as politics, social medias effect on people, the human flaws we tend to forget when judging peoples of fame all amongst a strange alien occurrence makes me want more. So good, I enjoyed it because it made me excited, interested, anxious, mad, frustrated, and happy just made it so worth it.

I also cannot stress the brilliant work of Kristen Sieh as she brought the characters to life without missing a beat. She was the best person to play April May and I will definitely come back to this audio book to fall asleep to or engage with the story again.

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great mystery, character's hard to like

Wanted to first say that Kristen Sieh does an excellent job at bringing the story to life.
the book is ok. the ideas presented kept me reading. there's a great mystery here with the carls. it's part science fiction, part critique on social media and fame culture. But! I did find the characters here really difficult to like. I found them too wround up with their current problems & I find it difficult how they could continue in any sequel.

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Surprising

The story was so all-consuming, delivers exactly what you want and expect. I want more.

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Never gets old

I read AART back when it was first released. It is just as exciting the second time. Hank does a wonderful job at creating a story with many twists and turns, never becoming cliche or predictable. The narration was engaging and really got you into the head of April May. Loved it, can't wait to start the sequel... which I will be doing right now.

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Just one more page!

I absolutely *devoured* this book over a period of 48 hours. The story was amazing. The narration was phenomenal. The pacing was fantastic. I kept doing the audio equivalent of "just one more page!" until late hours of the night.

I can't wait to start the sequel.

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Amazing!

I adored this book! It was brilliant and the narrator was perfection! Would 100% recommend !

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Loved the story, but lead was hard to like

great narrator performance but found April made annoyingly stupid decisions sometimes. Hank was unusually wooden for him 😆 Maybr that has to do with time constraints. Still a great listen! 👍

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