A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Who has the right to change the world forever? How will we live online? How do we find comfort in an increasingly isolated world? The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While the robots were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction with only their presence. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories. Months later, April’s friends are trying to find their footing in a post-Carl world. Andy has picked up April’s mantle of fame, speaking at conferences and online; Maya, ravaged by grief, begins to follow a string of mysteries that she is convinced will lead her to April; and Miranda is contemplating defying her friends’ advice and pursuing a new scientific operation…one that might have repercussions beyond anyone’s comprehension. Just as it is starting to seem like the gang may never learn the real story behind the events that changed their lives forever, a series of clues arrive—mysterious books that seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers—all of which seems to suggest that April could be very much alive. In the midst of the search for the truth and the search for April is a growing force, something that wants to capture our consciousness and even control our reality. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is the bold and brilliant follow-up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It is a fast-paced adventure that is also a biting social commentary, asking hard, urgent questions about the way we live, our freedoms, our future, and how we handle the unknown.

I didn't like this as much as the other. There were still interesting ideas in it about access to information and social media, but it was just... too big? I think for me. I liked the more human story of the first book, and while this had a lot to say about humanity, it was just way more of a sci-fi book that I didn't care for.

What an exciting sequel.

I did not expect some of the things that Hank set out in the world in this book.

There are layers upon layers of how my mind was interpreting this book after I would set it down. Still now, writing this review months later, I can feel it. The characters grapple with big, big life questions in different ways. While we may not, yet, have Carl influencing our world, we do have the power to change our own stories. Yes, those stories are now influenced by the lightning-fast pace of communication and potential for massive communication for good or ill, but they are our stories nonetheless.

I don't think this book would make sense without reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.

These books are very on brand for Hank Green - a little technology and science, a little quirky, and a whole lot of optimism.

This is probably just on me but I have never in my life read a book that discussed gender and race and sexuality in such a great way or at all for that matter. This might be because I don't really ever read contemporaries but I choose to believe, from what I know of Hank Green that he thought about this a lot and included diversity and conversation about it very consciously and with great care.

I had a moment while listening to the audiobook that made me so stressed or straight up scared that I legit had to pause it. The moment when Maya was being harassed by this guy trying to buy her rocks from her. It felt so real to me and super comparable to situations I have been in before that I had to stop for a moment. And if a book can make you feel all that you know its goddamn good.

Sometimes I felt like the story started getting a little complicated and some parts in it I didn't like that Carl had such long monologues about their origin, though I understand explaining things like that is hard to do otherwise it felt kinda off compared to that way the rest of the story was told.

And lastly, I kept telling myself not to compare Hanks books with his' brothers, because besides the fact that they are related they are totally different people and the facts that both write books should be irrelevant. However, I can't help it. I have talked to a friend of mine a lot about how John Greens books always seem to have the same plot. There is one shy and timid main character who meets a very cool and interesting person of the opposite sex who throws metaphors left and right, then shit happens they fall in love and one person dies. Then there is some side character that is in some way diverse and is otherwise completely irrelevant. But Hank had so much diversity and way more main characters to be invested in. And it actually dealt with there diversities in a very human way instead of pretending like these differences don't shape our lives and experiences of it.

Sufficed to say I loved it. Tho it had some minor flaws.

This book was so enjoyable and was so real with the current state of the world. I do not know how Hank successfully crafted this story to fit so well with 2020 and the issues we as a world face. This story has always been about social media and how it impacts our lives, but Hank takes it to another level and adds this slight science fiction aspect. I loved how this installment expanded the POVs and we got to see the same cast of characters but actually get into their heads.

I've decided to start using the CAWPILE rating system to improve my ratings and make them more consistent across books.

CAWPILE Breakdown:
Characters: 7
Atmosphere: 9
Writing: 10
Plot: 9
Intrigue: 10
Logic: 9
Enjoyment: 9

Overall: 5