A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

" Our reality isn't about what's real, it's about what we pay attention to"

First of all, I'm biased as heck when it comes to this book, specifically the author. Hank Green is probably my favorite person on the planet so this review was never gonna be impartial. That being said, this story was a masterful mix of sci-fi, comedy, and philosophy. There was definitely some slow bits in the middle, but the climax was satisfying and the characters were wonderfully complex. I wouldn't recommend this to get you out of a reading slump (450 pages is a bit of an uphill battle) but if you're feeling a bit lost in the world right now, I'd suggest you go find a copy at your local library.

stayed up reading the whole thing, truly a fantastic sequel. thanks hank.

I hate to admit that I was a little disappointed by this book. I loved An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and even reread it before I read this one. One of the things I loved about it was April's voice. Yes, she was annoying and self-centered sometimes (or maybe most of the time), but she was genuine and she was learning. I loved her growth throughout the book. By necessity, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor rotates between character points-of-view. That's a device I generally don't mind. It's employed well in One of Us is Lying and masterfully in the classic (and one of my favorite books) As I Lay Dying. But in this case, the characters didn't have enough differentiation between their voices. Plus, some of them are boring. The book ended the way it needed to, and I don't know that I can criticize the action, but I was left feeling "meh" about the whole thing.

Loved this book! I enjoyed it more than An Absolutely Remarkable Thing — in part because this one was narrated by several people. The multiple perspectives did a wonderful job recontextualizing characters and moments from the first book.

Whereas the first book dealt with themes of social media and outrage in direct, literal ways, I felt like this one dealt with its themes of the alienating forces of capitalism, the growing rift between human connections, and the control that algorithms have over how we experience the world both more abstractly and more deftly.

This book is also remarkable — absolutely remarkable, even? — in how solutions to the problem it presents involves working within and subverting the systems our main characters are fighting against.

Let's give it up for duologies! 2 books. Get in, get out

Plausibly raises the stakes and expands the perspective. Genuinely inventive and satisfying conclusion

Love the narrative takedown of tech bros

I definitely read this book at the wrong time. Or maybe I read it at the exact right time. Either way this book closes the series off in the only way I can imagine. Terrifying, hopeful, peaceful and at war all at the same time. I have highlighted more passages in this book than in any other. If you know how to spot them, this book has many lessons. Carl has something to teach all of us, and we better listen.

A very compelling sequel that really built off the action of the first novel. I thought Green handled the multiple first person narration very well as each character had their own distinct voice, and the plot was paced in a way that prevented subplots from getting lost before they all came together. It did lean a bit too far into science fiction for the average reader, who may have been expecting more of a social commentary based off the first book. Furthermore, I felt the finale was a bit too far fetched as the antagonist Anti-Carl super conscious was described as so powerful that I had to really suspend my disbelief when April's team was able to beat it with the power of friendship. Still, had a lot of fun reading and was happy for the closure.

I could try to give you a summary of this book but honestly it isn’t just about the story itself, it what it represents and that is our society kind of. I fell in love with Hank’s writing with the first book of this series and this one just contiuned my love for it. He has such a unique style of telling a story and I can honestly say that I never read anything like it. It’s a SCI-FI book and normally I would never gravitate towards that genre but this book is so good. It touches on the human nature, economy, governments, power hungry people and so much more.

the first 30-40% of this book were too slow paced for my liking but in the end it all paid off. the finale is so good. I also highlighted so many things cause I love the (more or less) subtle positivity in this book.

Hank Green's beautiful message carried through clearly in his sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I absolutely love how the storytelling evolved from April May trying to keep everything on her shoulders and tell the whole story herself to allowing her friends to both take more agency over the description of their actions and to participate more in the action. I really appreciated getting to know the other characters, especially because they were all dealing with their own problems. I recommend this book to anyone looking for reaffirmation in the inherent goodness of humanity. Also, people who appreciate good sarcastic humor.

This was an amazing sequel. And the series as a whole (I read them both back to back) was a wonderful exploration of fame and social media and identity and culture. I loved that Hank managed to integrate science and philosophy so well, because often books about one forget about the other. I live that it was an overwhelming interesting narrative with compelling characters, action and narrative while also being an insightful and thoughtful look at the mordent technologically endowed world. As someone doing research correctly into variability and complexity, it kind of blew my mind to be able to read a book for fun that dealt with and very thoroughly explained some parts of these concepts through the lens of Carl and One (there is no other suitable name given to this character in the book and this has the added bonus of being meaningful if you’ve gotten to that point of the story without spoiling much if you haven’t). Hank did an astonishing job of tapping into so many experiences of community and connection. Between the dream of AART feeling overwhelming like a call back to the Tuitaria scavenger hunts, references to NaNoWriMo, what I saw as a nod to ready player one, the SOM, social media excerpts, the nerdfighter census and even a nod to p4a... I think it would be impossible to read the book and not find touch stones for your own experiences. I know I found more than a few, but I am also a pretty nerdy person who is fairly entrenched in nerdfighteria and associated communities. I listened to these both as audiobooks, and I really enjoyed them. I think I might like a physical copy for the sake of having a physical copy. I even already own a signed tip in page of AART, and was embarrassed to find that I did not in fact own a copy of the actual book when I went to find it. I wanted to buy a signed copy during p4a, but they were not offered. Oh well. I realize this is more of a review of both books together, but I’m not sorry. Hank did a great job. I think this story will appeal to a lot of different readers, and have different meanings to each of them. I am impressed by how much is packed into such a compelling story.

These books were so good!! Do you want to read something that is sci-fi but also feels like it could happen tomorrow? Then these books are the perfect read. Easy to get into and the plot just moves along at a great pace and doesn’t really get stuck at any point. I found myself satisfied at the ending while wanting more, and I think that is hard to accomplish for many authors.

Let me start by saying that I read this in One setting. So it IS entertaining enough to keep turning the page as you munch your way around finishing it. First, I read this because I really liked the premise of the first book: Aliens and Millennials. hip and entertaining, right? The first one was. From the snappy millennial hipster pop culture dialogue to a real mystery. The plot was Good. The second one didn't deliver that punch. Don't get me wrong, it IS STILL very millennial (always talking about their feelings and not wanting to offend anyone). But the story changed SO much. I really don't want to spoil anything here but for me it was like: Let's take all the characters from the first book, and now "create something that can be converted into a movie / series to sell netflix". Some important parts of the previous book such as villains and aliens, changed SO much, that it just feels so already told. I loved the first book because of how many things were fairly new in the genre, which to be honest is Hard to do. So in general, I wouldn't recommend it unless you really loved the first one and want more of Hank Green's witty millennial banter. The story continues to be interesting enough. But it's not new, or just doesn't feel that fresh. And a lot of stuff kinda takes a not enjoyable twist. Also I wouldn't have minded if it was 50 pages shorter. But overall I had a good time, catched up on some old friends and learned new gringo millennial expressions. Overall it was worth it. And that's what books are all about. A good comparison would be "like a Vin Diesel movie". Watchable, enjoyable, totally forgettable, and will not win any Oscars (or Cannes Lions)...But you did have a good time.. ... right?.

This was perhaps THE most anticipated book on my TBR this year, and it did not disappoint. It certainly builds on the themes from the first book, but it’s also a departure in that this sequel delves much deeper into science, commentary, and criticisms about the social internet and our society in general. I didn’t love it as much as book one, but I still significantly enjoyed it, and all around, Hank Green has some good and important things to say. It just felt a bit heavy-handed and dense during some chapters, and I missed the more playful puzzle-solving plot of the previous book.

Sequels are tricky and oftentimes pale in comparison to the first book, but this one was not the case. I loved this book even more than the first! More character development, trauma, just so many interesting topics!

Even better than the first! Loved this. Tore through it faster than I normally do.

HANK GREEN PLEASE STOP TELLING ME ABOUT STOCKS THE INTERNET HAS BEEN VERY BAD RECENTLY

This was a real joyride. I don’t want to spoil too much! If you liked the first book in this duology, I hope you will find this to be similarly enjoyable with beautiful writing and commentary on our society, but with maybe a bit more action.

** spoiler alert ** 3.8 stars but I rounded up While underwhelming in the mystery section, this sequel was able to still hold onto most of the appeal of the characters from the first book. I really liked the shifting perspectives, the book couldn’t have flowed as well without them. The very scientific answers to Carl and the dream and such were honesty in my opinion just boring. Now knowing hank from YouTube I can understand his approach to this, and I respect it, but the Carl perspectives were just a turn off the entire book. Overall, I enjoyed the sequel, but it lacked a decent amount of the charm and mystery of the first book, and even with the book of good times and the Altus space, I knew what those were and where they came from, unlike the dream and Carl. Still worth the read if you liked the first book enough.

I didn't really like this one as much. It was a lot of dialogue and math-sciencey things I didn't understand.

This MUST be read after the first book. If you liked that one, you’ll probably like this continued adventure. The excellent audiobook recording has a special interview with Cory Doctorow at the end.

I really ended up enjoying this conclusion. The audiobook was great and I really enjoyed consuming the majority of this book in that format. There's a good chance this would have gotten 5 stars if I'd read it faster.

I will say that if you are not a fan of science fiction and managed the first book, the second book is more plot and sci-fi heavy. Fans of Hank Green the internet personality may find this less enjoyable.