An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
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An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
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Narrated by:
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Hank Green
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Kristen Sieh
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By:
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Hank Green
About this listen
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 GroupCritic 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
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Daniel
- 22-09-2020
A Stumbling Start, But A Perfectly Executed Finish
My rating is for the series, not necessarily this book. I didn’t really like this book all that much (probably because the protagonist is a garbage human being), but continued because I felt like I shouldn’t leave a series half-done. I am extremely grateful that I continued on, as the story reached levels that I would have never expected it capable of. So, as a duology, this is a great piece of work.
Read this series if you enjoy books like Ready Player One.
Read this series if you enjoy movies also like Ready Player One, Inception, and maybe Bumblebee I guess.
Read this series if you enjoy TV series’ like Black Mirror.
Read this series if you enjoy video games like Life Is Strange, Detroit: Become Human, or Beyond: Two Souls.
This turns out to be quite an insightful and thought-provoking series, and I have been thinking on it now for some time after finishing it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hannah Robinson
- 05-10-2018
Astounding
Hank Green has already proved that he has a deep and nuanced understanding of the human condition through his work in the world. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a culmination of this and it is a rich and beautiful story which is both unbelievable and also the most true to humanity of any book I have read in recent times. Accompanied by a fabulous performance by Kristen Sieh and Hank himself, this is book that everyone should read.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 17-12-2020
Nice
Loved the narrator, good experience overall. One nitty gritty complaint is that sometimes the characters seemed to be speaking as Hank Green instead of a fictional individual.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- CRock
- 03-01-2021
Loved It!
Could not stop listening! An insightful story with week developed characters that felt like real human beings.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Patrick
- 07-10-2018
far out
I hated April the whole book, maybe because she reflected what I hate about myself. Either way it was a very well written book, even if I can't say I enjoyed it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emily
- 23-02-2021
Surprising
This was not the book I expected to read and every time I thought I had it figured out everything changed again. It was continuously surprising and extremely enjoyable :)
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-05-2019
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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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bron
- 19-05-2019
Glorious.
A great entry to the writing world. Real characters, in the current world, not like anything I have read before.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Christopher
- 21-02-2022
A wonderful modern allegory
An excellent read and very poignant, even prescient, of events since its authorship. The framing is soft-sci-fi but the focus, as with the best of the Sci-Fi genre, is profoundly the characters' humanity (think Gravity, Interstellar etc). Yes, a strange statue appears in 64 countries, and the mystery of it drives the events, but the story is of a young woman struggling to know who she is and her place in the world, all while coming to grips with being thrust into fame.
It was not a fast-moving book, but it was compelling and hard to put down.
Anyone who liked films like Gravity, Interstellar, and perhaps especially, Arrival, will find the book enticing. Am looking forward to starting the 2nd book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Devassy Vellanikaran
- 28-07-2020
Great story, amazing nuances
Amazing book. Loved every bit of it. Specialcredits to the narrator, she has brilliantly portrayed April May (and all the other characters *chuckle*).
Incredible story line, very intriguing. But more nuances that you can get lost in. Brilliant callouts to all social media attributes of today.
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