Book Thoughts: The Humans - Matt Haig (BLOGTOBER Day 1)

"You are human. You will care about money. But realise it can't make you happy because happiness is not for sale."

So I've decided to do Blogtober and upload one blog post everyday throughout this month! I only decided to do it this morning and so tomorrow (the 3rd) I'll upload two to make up for the one I missed yesterday.  

Today's post is a review of The Humans by Matt Haig.  This was an impulse buy in Waterstones a few weeks ago and in all honesty, it was just because I liked the cover and was in a book buying mood. It has a kind of sci-fi feel and that's not really a genre I'm drawn to but despite that, I ended up really enjoying this book.  It centres around an extra-terrestrial being who travels to Earth and takes the place of Martin, a university professor on the brink of solving the Reimann Hypothesis.  The 'alien' is at first repulsed by humans and their ways of life, but slowly begins to sympathise with their happiness and their struggles.  His sharp observations of Western society and culture are spot on and really make you view things in a different way. It seems so easy to get stuck in a rut and see your own routine and customs as the only way of doing things, but viewing everything from an outsider's perspective really did make me question what we see as the 'norm'. 

A book rather outside my reading comfort zone but one I loved nonetheless. Studying English at uni has really encouraged me to try different genres and styles when it comes to reading and I'm really glad I'm giving it a go!