“The most impactful thing you can do with power is almost always to give it away.”
- Title: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
- Author: Hank Green
- Genre: Sci-fi
- Pages: 452 pages
- Publication date: July 7, 2020
I enjoyed the first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, so I was excited to get the next one.
The story continues not long after Andy gets a text from April saying, Knock knock. She should be dead though. Since she was the main POV in the last book, this one splits up into multiple POVs, including Andy, Miranda, and Maya. One by one, they go off on their own paths in an April-less world. But Andy finds a book that seems to know the future, which spirals the plot further.
Compared to the first story, this plot is different. It definitely seems influenced more by current times.
Hank wrote these characters well though. They all have distinguished voices. He lets us go deeper into them too. I felt more connected to them this round, especially Maya.
My main critique is the structure. I can tell Hank wrote this book faster than the last one, or at least it seems like it is. The plot flips mid-book. I wanted to know more about what was going on in the first part, but I had a whole other thing to worry about in the second-half. A part of me wishes that transition was smoother.
Minor non-plot-related spoiler in the next three paragraphs:
I did notice a weird part left out. A lot of people won’t care, but I do. Hank released A Supplementally Useful Publication to go along with his second book. I haven’t read it yet, but one bit of information came back to me: Robin—a character in the book—is asexual.
Which is a cool representation. If it was in the actual book.
Asexual characters are hard to find. In over 430 books I’ve read, only one character was an out asexual. Two other characters are cannon asexuals, but it was never mentioned in the book. So, in over 430 stories, I get three-ish characters like me. I kind of feel robbed by that. It would’ve been great representation.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing their conclusion. The ending wasn’t something I disagreed with unlike a lot of YA books. I’d recommend it.
Score: 8/10
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.31/5
Robin LeeAnn 
I love the Greens although I’ve not read Hank’s books. I’ll definitely have to give his first one a go.
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I love the Greens as well. I watch their videos all the time. I’m also excited for Project for Awesome coming up.
It’s good! Let me know what you think!
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They are so good to watch. I do need to catch up on some of their videos. I used to watch John all the time!
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Love the titles in this series of books! I have often read world guides and informational books on successful series like Harry Potter and Star Trek and it is often interesting to note strange discrepancies in information as opposed to what the character/story exudes. 🙂
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That is interesting to note. I hadn’t noticed that.
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