The Midnight Library was the hit of the pandemic. Matt Haig's follow up was not nearly as appealing. However, being a follower of Haig's on social media, I recognize that this book is almost a self-portrait of Haig's mental health struggles and it gave the story more soul and heart.

I was able to read this because NetGalley provided with an arc. I loved this book! I've never read anything by Matt Haig. Great Read. I would read more by this author.

Grace is a widower and a retired math teacher who has been gifted a house in Ibiza out of the blue. The gift is from a former coworker, Christina, who was helped by Grace many years ago and wishes to thank Grace for her kindness. Only once Grace arrives on the island, she realizes that Christina has left instructions for her that will help to reveal the real reason she left the house to Grace.

I have really mixed feelings after finishing this title. On one hand, I appreciate the themes of the book - the power of new beginnings and the appeal of the mystical side of life. But I also found it really hard to keep reading this one. It just didn't have the same magic as "The Midnight Library" and wasn't a particularly compelling story.

Overall: 3.5 rounded down

"The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig is a poignant exploration of the human experience, blending philosophical musings with an engaging narrative. Haig’s lyrical prose beautifully captures the complexities of love, loss, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world. The characters are richly developed, each facing their own struggles, making their journeys relatable and deeply moving. Themes of resilience and hope resonate throughout, encouraging readers to reflect on their own lives and choices. Overall, this novel is a thought-provoking and heartfelt read that lingers long after the final page.

When Grace, a retired schoolteacher, is gifted a house in Ibiza by someone who she once befriended, the story takes off.
Haig is a gifted writer and his prose is sublime. Yet, the combination of magical realism and imagination were a bit too much for me. It's almost as if the fantasy aspects of the plot were a bit too fantastical.

This was truly a 'suspend your beliefs'- type of novel. It was magical realism wrapped in literary fiction. I appreciated what the author was trying to do overall with this novel; however getting there was an arduous journey. I had a difficult time focusing on completing this novel because it was fairly slow paced and surreal There were several great moments in the last chapters where the reader is reminded of the beauty in the unknown and appreciating the simplicity of life along with the importance of respecting our plant and all it's wondrous living organisms. But I really struggled to finish and often found myself uninterested in Grace's journey.

An absolute stunner of a novel from Matt Haig, which I naturally had anticipated. A stunning ode to nature and to friendship. I adored Grace and all of her supporting characters, they were quirky and warm. The story was utterly beautiful, and the descriptions of the nature in Ibiza made me ready to visit.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC of this title.

I LOVED The Midnight Library so I was excited to read this one. I knew there would be elements of fantasy and magical realism, but this was just too much. Grace is a retired schoolteacher and receives a letter from a former student who is clearly depressed. Instead of responding like a normal person, she decides to tell him a story of this crazy circumstance she found herself in. Which involves going to Ibiza, living in someone's house and learning of mystical abilities that she has.

Weird.

Anyway, this seemed like a lot of rambling. It didn't make a ton of sense and it was hard to get into and stay invested in for me.

A story about connections, grief, and family...and a lot of philosophical musings. I was really looking forward to reading this book, and was disappointed that it wasn't as amazing as I expected it to be.

"Everything can be beautiful with the right eyes and ears," writes Haig, a lesson I needed to remember and the idea that sends our main character on a great adventure. "Every genre of music. Every sorrow and every pleasure. Every inhale and exhale." This book is filled with big ideas and mind-bending scenes, a dose of hope that cheered me up this summer as I was lucky enough to get an advance copy from the publisher.

Ugh, wtf?? Did the editor just let Haig write whatever he wanted based on the success of The Midnight Library? This felt like he just really wanted to write something environmental and magical set on Ibiza, and had to make it "life-changing" and "inspirational". I've hardly ever read something that was so scattered, boring, and weird. Why did Christina choose Grace? I'm still not sure. This book includes: techno nightclubs, seagrass that is a portal to another world, an olive jar full of glowing seawater, lobsters being freed from tanks, telepathy, old scuba divers, jellyfish revenge, poker playing, environmental protests, and guilt over a child's death. I could not wait to be done with this book. I only enjoyed it partly because I have spent time in Mallorca and Menorca.

Grace is a retired academic who has inherited a rundown house on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza from a friend from her distant past. In this novel, she is answering a letter from a former student by telling him of her life-changing journey to Ibiza, the relationships there and what she discovered about herself. It's hardly believable that a return letter would be novel length, but Haig fans will be willing to accept this device. Some of the self-discovery seems a bit heavy-handed but is tempered somewhat for me by Grace's love of mathematics. There are lines like "The feeling is that of the whole world happening. It squares - no, cubes - no, quartics - the now. What I mean is that travel tesseracts experience." These kept me reading in spite of my annoyance with the somewhat preachy tone at times.

Grace Winters is a retired teacher and out of the blue inherits a house in Ibiza from a friend she knew briefly and hadn't seen in decades. She decides to take the chance and go visit, which leads her to making a magical discovery and helps her sort out her past. Overall, this had potential but it was very slow going and the magical realism aspect made it harder to get into the story.

The Midnight Library is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was thrilled to get my hands on Matt Haig’s newest release. Although the premise of The Life Impossible is very interesting and intriguing, the story moved too slowly for me. I actually put it down many times, and it took me almost a month to finish it. There were several good parts to this story, but I believe the magical realism aspect of it is what threw me off the most and made it just “okay”, in my opinion. I would still recommend it to everyone, but it’s definitely a far cry from The Midnight Library.

THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE by Matt Haig is a LibraryReads Hall of Fame title for September 2024 and I looked forward to it eagerly as I have read and recommended many of his other works, like The Comfort Book and The Midnight Library. Once again, he features a troubled protagonist, a retired math teacher named Grace Winters who is widowed and who lost her only child in a bicycle accident decades ago. She surprisingly inherits a home on Ibiza and (even more surprisingly) takes off to explore it. That pretty much summarizes the first third of this slowly moving novel. At that point, she goes for a midnight scuba dive (at 72?!), sees a magic light and starts to be able to read minds and predict the future. Calling it "Haig's magnificent latest" Publishers Weekly gave THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE a starred review ("magic comes to breathtaking life"). I was less entranced, finding it too slow-moving to keep my attention.

This story had a very interesting premise and was very different from the Invisible Library (the work that put me on to Matt Haig’s writing. I think this is a fascinating story that has a modern setting, but also features old world mysticism. It was enjoyable for sure!

Lots of Matt Haig fans at my library.
My favorite was How to Stop Time.
This book was good but not what I expected - a little more magical realism than I thought.
I will recommend to fans of his previous work.

When retired math teacher, Grace, receives word that an acquaintance has left her a home in Ibiza, she is certain there must be a mistake. Nevertheless, she doesn’t have a lot going on, so she travels abroad for answers. Once there, she begins witnessing odd happenings. First is that Christina has indeed left her home to Grace, in part because she feared for her own life. Add to that a bottle of glowing water, a random flower in a walkway, rumors of foul play, a missing body, a magical sea, and Grace wonders what she has gotten herself into. Still, intrigued, she stays in Ibiza. Through her experiences there, can she forge new friendships and heal her own tortured heart or is she destined to meet the same fate as Christina? Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Thank you to Matt Haig and Viking via NetGalley for the eARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This is a well-written and beautiful book, however it had a hard time keeping my attention. There are so many things I love about the book, including the main character being a woman in her 70s. It explores grief and the truth that there is always more life to live. There were things that pulled me out, mainly the non-realistic aspect to the story (I’m being vague to avoid spoilers). The book wrote it as being beautiful and a gift, but I never stopped viewing all aspects of it as horrifying.

I would recommend this book to someone looking for an uplifting and motivational book similar in a way to Haig’s other work, “The Midnight Library”.

Another thought provoking book by Matt Haig! The story is also amusing, with a host of interesting characters on the magical island of Ibiza.