"when you're faced with something you don't understand, i think the most natural thing but also the least interesting thing you can be is afraid."
pages: 338
heard: 8/5-7/2020*
SYNOPSIS
The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship--like a ten-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 center 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 radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye.
THOUGHTS
I knew there was a possibility for a second book; with an ending like that, how could there not be....but because I read this when it first came out and I didn't really think about it after I read it, I didn't know the sequel was coming out this year. Of course once I found out, I pre-ordered it right away. It was such a nice surprise to see that book 2 was coming out this year in only a few short months (wtf is time now a days!) while randomly scrolling bookstagram. 🙂
I originally read this one back in 2018. I didn't blog about it then because it was during that time where I didn't care to give the books I was reading their own posts. Back then i knew not doing one for this book would come back to bite me in the ass because I really liked this book then but luckily, I did end up doing a re-read so it's all good!
.....except that this time I did it as an audiobook and while I was invested I know there are parts where I kind of glossed over. not because the story sucked, because it didn't, but because I already knew, I guess, subconsciously what was going to happen so idk, I zoned out. overall, I am glad I did a re-read since I never really do them in the first place.
i'm glad I got to it and now that I've read book 2 (its been a slow/lazy reading month) I can say I'm glad I dove into these books. They're kinda science fiction-y which hasn't really been my jam so im glad I liked these.
Its also eerie how this book touches on a lot of things that are currently going on right now. (yes I know a lot of those things were also going on back then but....you get my drift.)
anyway, ima make this one short cus im over blogging rn and so yea....but def read these books if you have a chance!
Anyway, jump over for spoilers.
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S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
April May discovers The Carl's, calls Andy to come help her film them, release the video and then becomes a bit of a celeb by the time she wakes up.
for as all about anonymity-esque as she claims to be she ends up eating all this shit up.
Eventually people start to stand against The Carl's because of the way they've now entered their dreams* (thanks to April) so of course they're afraid. Peter P (too lazy to look up the spelling of his last name) is like the main head of the anti carl movement and in one instance (NOT directed by him) terrorists decided to try to blow up the carls but instead ended up killing A LOT of people. A terrorist attack.
(* there was a puzzle, the very first one; the queen lyrics on Wikipedia that kept getting fucked up every time they edited them, that a biochemist (could be a 100% wrong) solved for April when they couldn't figure it out. It turned out that Carl was asking for certain elements i guess to activate him or whatever. So when April went to touch him with the requested elements, some shit happened, his hand came off and the dreams started that very night...its just no one knew about it.)
Anyway, so April and the gang become famous ish and have a shit load of money and decide to start an app where all the Carlies Angels (lol) can meet up and get together to solves puzzles. There's a shit load of dreams that require all types of humans to get together to solve them and when they do, they all log on and talk about it so everyone can help everyone solve the mystery. which they do. but there's one last piece and only April has access to it.
so she's working on it....when she gets woke up by Andy to the news that the anti carl dudes solved the puzzle.
long story short, all of the puzzles put together lead to i guess a giant ass code that they were meant to decipher. even after its solved, April still realizes what it is plugs the code and sees that it gives her a message giving her an address to go to by herself. Maya & Miranda both tell her not to but its April.
April goes, makes it inside the warehouse and live streams it thinking she's going to meet main Carl BUUUUUUT it turns out that for a bit of time, the safety whatever the fuck its called on the app was left open for anyone to fuck with when another hacker dude fucked with it and the whole point was to trap April and kill her so this Carl movement could stop.
and they do trap her.
and they do set the building on fire
and they do ultimately end up killing her.
and once she's dead she does meet og carl.
and he grants her 3 questions
and it turns out that there wasn't really anything special about April at all, she was just randomly chosen.
and she's believed to be dead.
and she's mourned by all.
and then one random ass day, Andy, the only one who remained in NYC in case April came back, receives a text message from April.
Knock. Knock.
and of course, there's A SHOT LOAD i left out but thats kinda the gist of it. 😃
hello! any chance you're re-selling this book?
ReplyDeletehi! im actually keeping this book for myself. but i did just see today that its on sale as an ebook! or might i recommend the library!
Deletethank you for the interest! (: