A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

In the much awaited follow-up to Hank Green's #1 New York Times bestselling debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, April May and the Carls are back.

In a moment, the Carls vanished in the same manner that they had appeared. Without ever moving a finger, they wrecked havoc and chaos during their time on Earth. That's not quite accurate, though. The sudden viral renown and tragic death of April May, a young woman who happened to cross Carl's path and gave them their name, advocated for them, and found herself in the center of a deluge of conspiracy theories, contributed to their chaos.

The world is still as confused as it was months ago. April's reputation has been taken up by Andy, who speaks about the world after Carl at conferences and online; Maya, broken by grief, starts investigating a series of mysteries that she thinks will lead her to April; and Miranda infiltrates a new scientific operation that could have unimaginable consequences.

As they go about their individual paths, a number of hints appear that seem to indicate April might still be alive, including enigmatic books that seem to be able to predict the future and manipulate the behavior of their readers, unexplainable internet outages, and more. While the group may be getting back together, there's a growing force that wants to take over our world and even our awareness.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing's bold and spectacular sequel is A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. It's a fast-moving adventure that poses difficult and pressing societal critique. How are we going to live in cyberspace? What free powers over our lives are we handing over? Who is able to alter the course of history irrevocably? And in a world where isolation is growing, how do we find solace?