Hank Green’s Debut Is An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

By Corrinalawson / September 13, 2018 at 11:00 am

Before Hank Green was a buzzy debut author, he was a social media superstar, so it’s no wonder that his first novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, is chiefly concerned with the plusses and perils of viral celebrity. It’s also a fun mashup Bridget Jones‘ style coming-of-age confessional that pivots on a science fiction event that changes the world by simply existing.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)

Hardcover $26.00

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)

By Hank Green

Hardcover $26.00

Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is the September selection for the Barnes & Noble Book Club. Find out more, and preorder our exclusive Book Club edition now.
That the breezy, intimate first person narration reads as smoothly as the best chick lit is no surprise coming from Green, who produced (among other things) the web series The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a YouTube-era reworking of Pride and Prejudice. The difference comes in the stakes: the young female narrator of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, April May, is dealing with events that are literally world-changing. One night, numerous Transformer-like metal statues appear in cities all over the world. Leaving her thankless app development job at a startup well after midnight, April spots one. Assuming it is the under-appreciated work of some struggling artist, she drags her best friend—a geek with a YouTube channel—out of bed to film a short video in which April excoriates her fellow New Yorkers for ignoring this absolutely remarkable thing in their midst.
How do I explain how I felt about it? …in New York City, people spend ten years making something amazing happen; something that captures the essence of an idea so perfectly that suddenly the world becomes ten times clearer. It’s beautiful and it’s powerful and someone devoted a huge piece of their life to it. The local news does a story about it and everyone goes “neat!” and then tomorrow we forget about it in favor of some other ABSOLUTELY PERFECT AND REMARKABLE THING. That doesn’t make those things un-wonderful or not unique…it’s just that there’s a lot of people doing a lot of amazing things so eventually you get a little jaded.
She dubs the thing “Carl,” a name that quickly catches on, because, equally remarkably, she is the first person to post evidence of the statues’ existence on social media. The video quickly goes viral.

Green obviously has great familiarity with the workings of internet stardom and the light and dark sides of instant fame. April’s journey to worldwide notoriety takes up a large portion of the story, while the Carls serve, for the most part, as the means to this end. More than anything, the book is more interested in people’s reactions to the Carls more than the why of the things themselves.

But there are fascinating aspects to Carl’s appearance: soon, it’s known he’s responsible for triggering a universal shared dream, one with different levels that must be unlocked to make sense of “his” message. That, naturally, gives rise to another internet phenomenon, as groups come together to solve the puzzle. April believes in the hope of this impossible new thing, and trusts that Carl has appeared to force humanity to work together. Naturally, a counter-movement arises demonizing her for those beliefs, assured the statues are dangerous in ways we can’t fathom. Cue the latest clash in the internet culture wars.

That’s as much as can be said without spoiling the wonderful journey that is this novel. I read it in one sitting, and the last line left me eager for the sequel (and to discuss what I’d just read). While April has flaws that might cause some readers to judge her—especially for her relationship choices—her engaging voice and wry observations on fame (she provides a helpful theory of tiered fame, from “popularity,” to “notoriety,” all the way up to “divinity,” which is where one assumes Taylor Swift hangs out) keep the story moving along, even as she figures out how to fit herself into her self-appointed hero role.

While it’s true that Green impressively inhabits point of view of a 23-year-old woman who identifies as bi/pansexual, speaking from my own experience as someone who doesn’t even rank on the tiers of fame who has nevertheless experienced blowback for being a woman on the internet, I found it surprising that while April receives a ton of harassment, none of it invoked sexualized violence. There are death threats and attempted murders, but no threats of rape or instances of stalking. This may sound like a cynical thing to note, but that’s the reality for many women on the internet, particularly queer women. But then, this is science fiction—and there’s no arguing that including those elemnts would affect the book’s tone, which is definitely on the lighter side of thought-provoking.

And there’s the fact that, by choosing this particular protagonist, Green is implicitly stating that LGBTQ+ geek girls and women can change the world, and that’s a positive message. April’s story is not over, and already she promises to be one of the more memorable protagonists in recent science fiction.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition is available for preorder now. Discuss it at your local Barnes & Noble store on October 24.