An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

"An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" is the debut novel of internet personality and musician Hank Green. When April May stumbles upon "Carl", a ten-foot-tall robot, she thinks he's some kind of amazing art project. In order to share her remarkable find, she dedicates a YouTube video to him, which quickly goes viral. What she doesn't anticipate is the mystery that surrounds him and the other 63 "Carls" that pop up all over the world, and her almost instantaneous rise to fame that will forever change her life. Going into this novel I did know absolutely nothing about it, except that it was penned by Hank Green. At first I struggled to really get into the story, but it slowly but surely won me over. "A Truly Remarkable Thing" reads like a memoir, hooks its readers by way of its mysterious plot and also doubles as a social commentary. It tackles topics such as social media, the need of external validation, life in the public eye and radicalisation. I really admire the way Green manages to shed light on all of the afforementioned issues and more, whilst also creating a compelling and clever storyline. Side note: I know it's not the easiest thing to execute, but since Hank Green himself is a professional YouTuber, it would have been amazing if some of the mentioned videos would have been filmed and made available on the platform. That really would have been the cherry on top. This debut really took me by surprise in the best way possible and I wholeheartedly recommend it.