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A review by ojtheviking
The Humans by Matt Haig
5.0
Last year, I read Matt Haig's The Midnight Library and thoroughly enjoyed it. A friend of mine said that since I liked that one, I should give The Humans a try. And wow, what a fantastic read this was! One for the "unputdownable" category for sure; I finished it in one and a half days.
The style is immensely British; draped in dry, awkward humor, but ultimately contains a lot of heart and wisdom. The humor is apparent right off the bat, and then the depth sort of emerges along the way, along with the main character, so to speak.
It feels like the story is partly told by means of a final documentation of the main character aimed at the culture he comes from, and partly as a study of humankind.
An alien clueless about humans and observing our behavior is, of course, a wonderful narrative tool to allow us to look more closely at ourselves: our strengths, our flaws, and our paradoxical and self-contradictory nature. This is not the first story to do such a thing - it's quite common in science fiction - but Haig's approach is very witty, very charming, with an emotional core, and with a writing style where he often manages to say a lot with very few words.
So, so many parts of the book were very quotable. Haig managed to hit the nail on the head about humans on almost every page, often in a way that forces us to laugh at ourselves. And it all reminds us that many aspects of life are often a matter of perspective, like this clever example: "Humans, as a rule, don't like mad people unless they are good at painting, and only then once they are dead."
What gives this overall story much more depth, though, is knowing that it ultimately comes from a very personal perspective. In the author's notes at the end of the book, Haig reveals that he had been sitting on this story for many years, inspired by some real-life experiences with mental health issues, and it took him a while to finally write it and get it published. This adds some extra context to the story. Beneath all the science fiction and supernatural elements, the book does touch upon some grand concepts, like life, death, purpose, the will to carry on, and so forth. And there is ultimately some inspiration to be drawn from it all.
A superbly written novel. I can already tell that this will hold the title of one of my favorite reads of the entire year of 2024.
The style is immensely British; draped in dry, awkward humor, but ultimately contains a lot of heart and wisdom. The humor is apparent right off the bat, and then the depth sort of emerges along the way, along with the main character, so to speak.
It feels like the story is partly told by means of a final documentation of the main character aimed at the culture he comes from, and partly as a study of humankind.
An alien clueless about humans and observing our behavior is, of course, a wonderful narrative tool to allow us to look more closely at ourselves: our strengths, our flaws, and our paradoxical and self-contradictory nature. This is not the first story to do such a thing - it's quite common in science fiction - but Haig's approach is very witty, very charming, with an emotional core, and with a writing style where he often manages to say a lot with very few words.
So, so many parts of the book were very quotable. Haig managed to hit the nail on the head about humans on almost every page, often in a way that forces us to laugh at ourselves. And it all reminds us that many aspects of life are often a matter of perspective, like this clever example: "Humans, as a rule, don't like mad people unless they are good at painting, and only then once they are dead."
What gives this overall story much more depth, though, is knowing that it ultimately comes from a very personal perspective. In the author's notes at the end of the book, Haig reveals that he had been sitting on this story for many years, inspired by some real-life experiences with mental health issues, and it took him a while to finally write it and get it published. This adds some extra context to the story. Beneath all the science fiction and supernatural elements, the book does touch upon some grand concepts, like life, death, purpose, the will to carry on, and so forth. And there is ultimately some inspiration to be drawn from it all.
A superbly written novel. I can already tell that this will hold the title of one of my favorite reads of the entire year of 2024.