An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

April May is your typical 20-something just trying to get through life as painlessly as possible despite working a job that is about as exciting as Wonder Bread™. She lives with her girlfriend, Maya, in New York City and her life is pretty, well, average. That is, until Carl and his merry band of other-Carls appear in cities all over the world. April May being the millennial child of the internet does what any of us would more than likely do in this day in age: wake up her best friend, Andy, and film a YouTube video “interviewing” Carl. What starts out as a silly 15-minutes of fame moment spirals into something larger than April May could have ever imagined. When the Backstreet Boys spoke of being “Larger than Life,” they had nothing on New York Carl, and April May is suddenly thrown into the limelight, forced center-stage, into the world of secrecy, backstabbing, and horrid PR-agents. And to top it all off, she has to find out what the Carls want as the safety of the world might depend on it.

I will start off saying that I really enjoyed this book. I liked the voice of the characters and the writing style and found it really easy to get into and stay into it. The story is told in a retrospective way as if April May is telling you the story herself of what happened with the Carls and her life, like she was actually in the room talking with you. I think that's why I liked the book so much; she felt real. She made horrid decisions and there were parts of the book where I kind of hated her for the things that she did. However, that is also why I loved her as a character. In real life, we can love someone but hate what they do, or find someone irritating and hate them for one reason but love them for another. She wasn't wholeheartedly black nor white; she was... April May.

I'm looking forward to the second book and I recommend this one for anyone wanting a weird kinda alien sci-fi read. And maybe if I ever meet Hank Green I can ask him the question that has been plaguing me since finishing the book: Why Arby's???