Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

A massive transformer-esque statue appears in New York. Intrigued, April calls up a friend and they shoot a YouTube video. April wakes up the next morning an internet celebrity and finds herself launched into a world of TV interviews, hateful Internet forums, and—just maybe—first contact?

I put off reading this book for ages for two reasons. One, I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, and anything with “contemporary” in the subgenres usually isn’t for me. Two (and this one is stupid), I loved John Green’s books as a teenager, but I’ve completely grown out of them. I’ve adored Hank and John for over like 15 years so I REALLY didn’t want to be disappointed by this book.

And I certainly wasn’t. Hank’s debut is insightful, powerful, funny, and it whisked me right along for the ride. April is wildly unlikeable but still kind of charming and I couldn’t look away. I thought about R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface a lot while I read this. The themes (aside from the racial focus of Yellowface) are very similar. April’s less nasty than June, but she still ends up in the position she’s in because she’s privileged and lucky and little else. The books have similar discussions about online spaces and internet fame. AART, though, leaves you feeling hopeful about the human race, and it wants to point you toward compassion. Yellowface, not so much. Different approaches, and I found I preferred this one.

I’m genuinely shocked by how much I loved this, and I need to get my hands on book 2!

Content Warnings

abbysnofun's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i mostly liked this book. i was a bit taken out of the story at times because often the characters talk exactly like hank green, which is not necessarily bad but hank green is not a 23 year old girl.

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sylvestra's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

casira's review

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book made me feel a lot of things and consider a lot of truly interesting facets about how we all interact with each other in the world day. It wasn't a consistently enjoyable experience, but I was enraptured the entire time, and that was clearly the intention.

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maggiejean's review

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adventurous dark funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

koplomps's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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