Goodreads Summary: When an extra-terrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a prominent mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor is eager to complete the gruesome task assigned him and hurry home to his own utopian planet, where everyone is omniscient and immortal.
He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, their capacity for murder and war, and is equally baffled by the concepts of love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this strange species than he had thought. Disguised as Martin, he drinks wine, reads poetry, develops an ear for rock music, and a taste for peanut butter. Slowly, unexpectedly, he forges bonds with Martin’s family. He begins to see hope and beauty in the humans’ imperfection and begins to question the very mission that brought him there.
Praised by The New York Times as a “novelist of great seriousness and talent,” author Matt Haig delivers an unlikely story about human nature and the joy found in the messiness of life on Earth. The Humans is a funny, compulsively readable tale that playfully and movingly explores the ultimate subject—ourselves.
Goodreads Rating: 4.09 stars with over 82,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Humor, Contemporary, Fantasy, Aliens
Goodreads Challenge: 5/48
2022 Reading Challenge: #2 Read a book under 350 pages (You can find the entire challenge here)
Book Review:
I read a book? I read a book! This feels more and more like a surprising feat lately. I'm still not really back in the full swing of reading as I had hoped. I'm still working through The Octunnumi, but I think other than that I'm going to take a break from the really heavy books for a while. It will be interesting to see what I can find that my brain will actually process.
Anyways, on to the book review. I thought the whole concept of The Humans by Matt Haig was really interesting and unique. I don't really read a lot of books about aliens, but based on some movies I've seen, it was a nice change from the Aliens are invading trope. I found myself interested in it pretty quickly. The way it is written is very easy to read.
There is a lot of humor in the book, and it reminded me a lot of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I love humor that's a little dry, dark, and sarcastic, and this really fit in well with that. There were parts where I was actually laughing out loud and would have to read the funny part to my husband. I really needed the laugh it provided.
Even though it was humorous, there were some dark parts as well. The book does discuss teenage suicide. I'll try to get better at pointing out subjects I know can be a concern for others. If you are considering reading a book I've reviewed and have a specific trigger, by all means please ask in the comments or by using the contact form. Really, if you have any questions about the books I review, please ask. I don't mind answering, I just try to keep the reviews as spoiler free as I can.
I think this book is one that could be enjoyed by a lot of people, even if Science Fiction or Fantasy isn't really their thing. At the core of a book is a character who ventured out of their comfort zone and experienced new things for the first time. I thought the way the main character was able to experience music, food, and love for the first time was beautifully written. There is a lot of growth and development, and a lot of setting preconvieved biases aside and seeing the good in someone.
One last point on this book. It didn't dawn on me that since the person the alien impersonatees is a mathematician that there would be math.
Math trauma aside, I loved the book, which surprised me. I did not expect to.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading my book blog. Please feel free to leave a comment to further or start a discussion on the book reviews and other posts. If you have a book recommendation for me, I would love to hear it!