Matt Haig's Novel "The Humans": A Story of Love, Loss, and Redemption

S. D. Schwaitzberg: I truly enjoyed the midnight library. I stumbled on it cuz it had 40,000 reviews at the time and that's just crazy. As I poked around for other things to read, I found this and give it a shot. It is also very clever and a good read

United States on Oct 28, 2023

Soledad: Muy buen libro te entretiene y te deja pensando al mismo tiempo.

Spain on Oct 22, 2023

Laura, the Mainah: He’s a great author. This is a great book. Laugh, cry, get angry, get sad, be happy. All the emotions.

United States on Oct 16, 2023

Vin: ....but still worth four stars for all that. An alien is sent to pose as a human and report back on all our flaws and qualities, but what Robin Williams didn't have to do was kill to stop us venturing into the Universe and causing havoc. Haig used the plot device of someone inhabiting another's body again in the Midnight Library in 2020. I wonder if he'd also read State of the Art by Iain M Banks (1989) in which an alien, more evolved than us, is sent to live among humans in 1970s New York. This story loses its way in the last third as Haig muses on the human condition; it becomes exposition-heavy, the pace drops and the plot meanders before petering out. But the first section is strong as the alien, posing as Andrew Martin, struggles to understand humans and slowly goes native. Narrated from an outsider's perspective, it examines our many contradictions and flaws. But ultimately it is optimistic with a feel-good vibe.

United Kingdom on Oct 03, 2023

Michael Schubert: The story is quite light at the outset and frequently funny, but it gathers gravity as it goes forward, and the writing is consistently beautiful.

United States on Sep 25, 2023

Ruchi: Book arrived in perfect condition

India on Sep 19, 2023

Stewart F. Hoffman: The idea that the narrator was an alien on Earth seemed to my mind to be the low hanging fruit of story ideas. And for maybe the first third of the novel it plays out as such-comical observations on human behavior and history.

Thankfully, this phase of the novel lasts about as long as it should before Matt Haig gets into meatier more philosophical territory. This is a story that points an accusatory finger at our faults, but ultimately makes you feel okay about who we are.

It’s a good read, with some unresolved story threads that makes me wonder if there’s a sequel. If there is a second book (or going to be) I’d certainly pick up a copy.

United States on Jul 27, 2023

Girl_ontv: The Humans is a story about an alien who is sent to earth to stop an important mathematical discovery that would advance human development beyond our capacity to control it.
Starting off to hilarious repercussions as the alien inhabiting a human body knows nothing other than what the greater universe thinks of humans which is not much at all. He doesn't know the language, social interaction or even the need for clothes. One hilarious interaction after another and this alien soon learns what it truly means to be human and live life on earth. As he learns to love humanity and life and sees the beauty and flaws in all of it he learns the meaning of life...love itself a concept so alien to him as he is.
Will he accomplish his mission? Or will he betray all he knows for an alien existence and what would the repercussions of his decisions be?
The book will have you chuckling to yourself whilst pondering the meaning of the universe all at the same time!
Matt Haig has a unique perspective of life that always makes you re-evaluate yours!

United Kingdom on Jul 27, 2023

Ralph Blumenau: Professor Andrew Martin has solved the Riemann Hypothesis. (Such a mathematical hypothesis, put forward by Bernhard Riemann in 1859, actually exists.) Its solution is supposed to give humans immense power.

The aliens on Vonnadoria - immortal, far in advance of humans in what they can do, unemotionally rational, and worshipping mathematics - think that humanity, with all the damage it has already done with its existing mathematical knowledge, cannot be entrusted with more of it. They despatch one of their number (who narrates the story), giving him the mission to destroy not only Martin, but also to find and destroy any other humans to whom he has communicated his solution.

What is never explained is how it happens that, while the aliens know Martin has solved the hypothesis, they don’t know to whom he might have imparted this knowledge: this is something the narrator will have to learn.
The narrator arrives on earth, looking exactly like Professor Martin. (We are never told how the real Martin was done away with. He never puts in an appearance in this novel.)

The narrator does know a lot of dry facts about humans and their history; but, though he is a...

United Kingdom on Aug 12, 2020

Marty: All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed - there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask!
Herman Melville

First off, let me say that I kind of liked the book. It was a sweet (if slightly sappy) love story about a godlike creature from beyond the stars that gave up immortality for love – the love of a woman, the love of the “finite spaces” that make up the story. A little like City of Angels…

But what truly ignited my interest was in the afterward. The author says he got the idea for the book during a period in his life punctuated by anxiety attacks. These “spells” are characterized by a sense of unreality, dissociation and a whole host of physical symptoms. But what really makes these episodes “special” is the unrelenting perception of a meaningless universe.

We’ve all heard about the ravages of bipolar disorder or the crippling effects of schizophrenia. But in panic disorder, one looks at the world through a telescope backwards. You see everything...

United States on Jun 21, 2016