An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (by Hank Green)

I put Hank Green's novel on my library list ages ago, and it finally came through right when I was in the mood to read it! Unlike his brother John, Hank Green doesn't write young adult; his characters are in their early twenties.

The premise is fairly silly: strange statues appear in cities all over the world, a woman and her friend make a YouTube video, they go viral, the statues might be aliens. Clearly it's a way for Green to explore the headiness of "Tier Three fame" around a fun sci-fi framework. The sci-fi elements are definitely fun, however, I have some nitpicks. I can suspend disbelief about the alien statues, but not the way the government operates in this book.  Also, I can't believe a twentysomething woman would use the phrase "got you by the short hairs." A dead giveaway that a dude is writing this.

I like the character of April May though; she's not very sympathetic and she does incredibly dumb things but I like her honesty about her unsympatheticness. I am very invested in her relationship with Maya. Unfortunately the book ends on a cliffhanger and is part of a planned two-book series. I hate this. Tell me before I start the book that it doesn't have a satisfying ending. Ugh, this ruined Crazy Rich Asians for me too.

It's possible to have a satisfying ending and also be part of a series -- J.K. Rowling manages this fine! But you need to have some kind of closure and not just abruptly end out of nowhere. Anyway I'm still mad about it, but I'll definitely read the next one anyway,