Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Ein wirklich erstaunliches Ding

For starters I would totally give this book 5 stars (and I may change my mind) but the reason I didn't was because how genuinely tense this book made me feel. I was worried about April's fall to fame and her social and parasocial relationships and political repercussions.
The first few pages of the book made me roll my eyes a bit in a jovial way. Oh you wiley Hank Green and you're Mc named APRIL MAY whose a funky art major bisexual who finds a samurai type mech and becomes a social media star! What a little fun idea! Guess I don't really need to read the sequel....I got the point. Alright! And then....it just kept accumulating and building between consequences of actions on other people's lives, her life, politics, and just Twitter related angst. It became a riveting conversation about the determinants of fame and false leadership and so much more but also the glories and goodness of trying to be a better person and how the internet can raise people together. And now I'm desperate for the sequel.
April feels a little bit of a good-hearted yet still selfish cousin to Dorian Grey (which I love).

Also yes this book is wacky but roll with it

I did but cw for violence because there is violent attacks in the book but not much is "on screen" and when the significant one happens there's a warning that proceeds it. Well done!

Content Warnings

itsheyfay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

bessadams's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.25

Content Warnings

lizziaha's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Damn there were some hard-hitting truths cooked into the story in this one. I saw a negative review of this book that criticized that the “alien book” wasn’t about aliens, and I have to wonder how someone can so entirely lack reading comprehension. As most alien books are, at their core, this book was about humans, in all their wonderful fucked up glory. It was about social media and how, like humans, there are two sides to that coin. It’s about fame and what it makes people do. And it’s about April, who is seriously seriously flawed. Just like everyone else.

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arieloley's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Just really well written and relatable. It’s so hard to find male writers that accurately depict a non-male protagonist, but Green did a great job and focused on the humanity of April vs her gender or anything irrelevant.

I loved that I couldn’t predict any step, everything felt new and original. Loved the casual LGBTQ+ representation, loved the twists and turns, loved how much I learned even from a fictional novel.

I’m genuinely excited to read the next one.

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