An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Book Title: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Author: Hank Green

Date Started: July 18th 2019

Date Completed: July 29th 2019

Genres: Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing thoroughly impressed me. Let's put aside Hank's connections and what I'm sure was considerable pressure and expectations from every angle, this is an absolutely remarkable debut whatever way you look at it, and I cannot wait to read more from him.

This is, at heart, a coming-of-age-(kinda)-meets-mystery-meets-adventure contemporary novel with a nice bit of science fiction thrown in for good measure. Often, these kinds of thing aren't my jam because the prose is convoluted or cliché or just plain dull. But Hank has given such a clear voice to April, the protagonist and narrator, that that was immediately not a problem. In fact, considering the very well researched and frankly quite sciency foundations to the story, I didn't feel like I was in a professor's lecture or reading a textbook. And I felt like I learnt a few things. Of course, the wonderful VlogBrothers history definitely helped Hank out here, but spoken and written words are still a jump to change between, but this book takes the best from both for a really solid result.

A good balance of action to talking to anecdotal events helps the story along, but even in its quiet moments there's a nice balance of being heartfelt without being pretentious, to the point where it absolutely moved me - and then had me laughing a few moments later. At the centre of this are the very human characters who, from small to large parts, all ring quite true. I can't help relating to Maya most of all, but there are moments when you can see glimpses of your own experiences in everyone's arcs. And yes, April gets on your nerves sometimes but that's the story that's being told. It's integral that she gets on your nerves sometimes because that's a big part of what she's going through and learning from. And you still root for her. Kudos for the three-dimensional, complex and flawed female heroine dude.

Even though it wasn't really my genre and was something I started reading on a whim, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing quickly found its way into my heart, kept me engaged the whole way through and made me very excited about what stories are brewing in Hank Green's head.