By Hank Green
Dutton, 2018. 343 pgs. SCI-FI
On her way home from work at 3:00 AM, April May stumbles across a giant robot sculpture (whom she dubs “Carl”) in the middle of New York City. She can’t find any information about it online, so, thinking it’s a new art installation, invites a friend to film a video about it for his YouTube channel. When the video goes viral she discovers that 64 Carls (whose physical properties defy all known science) have appeared globally overnight, and she has become an instant celebrity. April strives to understand where the mysterious Carls came from, why they’re here, and what exactly they are, all while navigating her complicated new life in the public eye.
This novel has several carefully crafted layers that make an absolutely remarkable whole. While the driving force is the mystery of the Carls and how the world reacts to their sudden appearance, it’s also about the power of social media, its effect on people, the struggle of adjusting to life in the public eye, and how others (friends, family, acquaintances, business, the general public, etc.) react or try to take advantage of celebrity status. Hank Green, who has a large online following, is in a position to write about these issues in a realistic way, and it felt genuine to me. I loved April May as a character, and can hardly wait for the sequel. Highly recommended.
ACS
1 comment:
Hank Green’s writing is clever and staccato. The story follows a group of smart young people who are educated and care about art and books and who also have social media savvy. They pull together as a little family in the face of the questions about the mysterious Karl robots that show up in major cities all over the world. April May becomes famous because she just happens to be the first to post her video to social media. Later, she finds herself a slave to the grueling schedule of trying to keep up with the tweets and the videos and the Instagram posts about the meaning of the Karls. The premise of the book allows the Green to do some deep thinking about what it means to be human and how we approach otherness. It also gives him a lot of room to explore the costs of celebrity. The protagonist, April May, is full of rye criticism of social media and society, yet her total lack of emotional vocabulary and people skills is often painful to experience. I get the sense that Green created April May very carefully, so that her character arc lends even more weight to the social commentary. The whole time I was reading, I was rooting for her to finally get a clue. Maybe she is the archetype of the emerging adult, completely lost emotionally, hollow and searching for something better than just a job that barely pays the rent and that won’t make a dent on her student loans. This is a really fascinating romp through Science Fiction and Social Media Land.
AGP
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