The concepts of Matt Haig's books are always so interesting to me, but they just don't turn out the way they should. It's not the writing even, it's just that they feel like they've been written by someone who has only watched at being human and gosh that sounds so mean but it feels like there's not actually any life in them. I want to love them, I want to read them and be as obsessed as everyone else who loves them but I'm just not.

I’ve loved so much that Matt has offered the world, but I just could not force myself to finish this. That hurts my heart to admit. I struggled to get to 70% but lost all willpower, and frankly I don’t want to trudge through a story given the thousands of great books waiting to be read. Cool concept but not executed well.

I will admit that I haven't read Midnight Library in spite of the hype. But I wanted to give The Life Impossible by Matt Haig a try so I'd be able to chat about it with customers in the store. I thought the beginning was okay, though I was a bit doubtful about the "writing a letter to an old student" premise of the whole thing. But I persevered. Unfortunately, it all just got a little too strange for me, I didn't care a lot about the characters, and I found the "life lessons" I'm sure I was supposed to be gleaning a bit too saccharine for my taste. I'm sure I'm not the target readership for the book, but I decided to bail on it about halfway through.

What a premise and set-up! I was rooting for our main character the first time, and enjoyed the asides to her student. I will say that the book meandered toward the end, and the conclusion was somewhat predictable, but I think this will be a comforting read for many patrons. Recommended for fans of books that have them considering their role as a human.

Thank you to Penguin Group Viking for the ARC opportunity. I enjoy books by Matt Haig as they aren’t usually the genre I reach for but yet I like when I read them. This was an interesting read and it had me stopping to research Ibiza more than once.

Having devoured both How to Stop Time and The MIdnight Library, I was so excited to read this new book by Matt Haig. I’ve enjoyed his creativity in telling emotionally engaging, thought-provoking stories. However, as much as I wanted to love The Life Impossible, I had a difficult time getting into it, and didn’t actually begin to enjoy it until I got to 80%. Honestly, I felt lost and confused for most of the book.

Things I did enjoy:
Grace’s gumption and changed outlook on life;
Alberto’s quirkiness;
The short chapters with clever titles;
The weirdness of a glowing alien orb in the sea - seems very “Matt Haig”
The message of hope at the end of the book.

fun novel about a 72 year old woman who is (seemingly randomly so) gifted a house in Ibiza by a woman she knew long ago. Magical realism done well!

This touched me in ways possible other than intended. It's a fantastical story of Grace Winters who inherits a house on Ibiza from a long lost friend. While trying to find out more about her friend and her disappearance she experiences a magical conversion of her own person and life. What spoke most to me was Grace's journey from a woman closed down by guilt and sadness and her reawakening to what life has to offer. Often feeling mired in the day to day, it was good to be reminded that life is out there, we just need to go out and experience it.

I loved The Radley's and The Human. It appears I'm just not into his books that feature heavily on depressed people. I DNF this one at 18%. It was so boring. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

’ve read quite a few “just ok” books lately. This one finally broke the streak. I picked it up and finished it within 24 hours. It just grabs you!

The genre is hard to define…magical realism, fantastical, science fiction, literary fiction, and I really enjoyed all of the aspects that made it fit in each category. It transported me to the island of Ibiza in a magical way. I wish there really was a “La Presencia” to visit. 😉 #iykyk

My favorite quote:

“It’s so strange that we don’t want spoilers in our stories but we seek them in our lives. We want to know we will fall in love, or be healthy, or finish the degree in style, get the good job or the comfortable pension. We want the solution. We want it all mapped out. We want to know everything ends well. We want it all spoiled, with as little mystery as possible. But where is the fun in that?”

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Matt Haig is a wonderful and special writer. His new book captures the mood and feel of the island beautifully, and I highly recommend it. Thank you #netgalley.com for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Life Impossible was nearly impossible to finish. Although I was not a fan of The Midnight Library, I know many people were inspired by and loved the book. The Life Impossible has a mission of trying to inspire us with the story of Grace Winters, a retired mathmatics teacher who struggles under a mountain of her own guilt. When one of her former students reaches out via email and states he is having trouble finding a reason to life, Grace sends him a 300 manuscript describing how her own life has turned around.
A former co-worker that Grace was kind to many years ago has left her a house on the island of Ibiza. When Grace tries to find out what happened to Grace, she discovers an alien prescence in the water, and an unethical plot to destroy the nature of the island. To say the plot went in unbelievable directions is an understatement. Weird. and although I finished, it was not from a great sense of caring about the characters - I just could not buy into the plot. Maybe the books of this author are just not for me.

If you enjoy lyrical writing and strange themes this book may be for you. I enjoyed the beginning of the book very much but then it really dragged on. Not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, Matt Haig managed to grasp my attention since the begining of the book, till its last pages ! Let's dive into magical realism and discover the hidden face of Ibiza !
Grace is a former mathematics teacher. She's a widow, has retired, and her heart is broken since she lost her son more than 30 years ago. She carries with her a lot of guilt, for her passed actions.
One day, she inherits a house in Ibiza, from a friend she had not seen since many years. And from that day, her life begins to change. La presencia seems to be an alien force, which is on Earth to help. And thanks to it, Grace sees the beautiful Colors of life once again.
Part ecological fable, part magical realism, part thriller, this book was really great and pleasant, and I loved reading it

I'm giving it a 3 for the story. But some things were a little too Sci fi for me and almost made me go lower than a 3. This is not a bad book and other readers may love it but was not my cup of tea.

Thought-provoking and unique. I found myself pausing to savor certain lines, either because of the idea expressed or just the turn of phrase. The descriptions really brought the island to life. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded and all the interesting characters.

Following up book club fave The Midnight Library, this is another agreeably comfy speculative novel about the infinite possibilities within an ordinary life.

72-year old Grace Winters has been in a trough of unfeeling despair and guilt for years, following the accidental death of her young son. Now that her husband has died, she lives a life of pointlessness and isolation in gray Lincoln. So when Christina, a woman she only briefly knew decades ago, leaves her a house on the island of Ibiza, Grace decides to have a look and also to find out more about Christina’s somewhat mysterious death.

Following some clues left by her friend, Grace encounters La Presencia: an underwater radiance that bestows unbelievable powers on her. She can feel the thoughts, past, and futures of people, animals, and plants, and it opens her up to a technicolor world of joy, passion, and emotion. But there is a lurking dark presence on the island that wants to bespoil the natural world and will remove any obstacles in its way.

Grace is a lovely character: an older woman who suddenly rediscovers her zest for life while never losing that English self-deprecating eye on herself. Her sidekick, Alberto, a slightly cliched sun-weathered piratical islander, moves the plot along while also providing Grace with a foil and a companion.

Where the book lost me was in the explanations of what was going on. I found the scientific ones to be incomprehensible, the spiritual ones to be woo-woo, and the ecological ones to be trite. But maybe that’s just me.

I’m sure this will be another book club hit. Though I rolled my eyes at the speculative elements, I enjoyed my time with Grace and the novel made me want to pack my bags for Ibiza immediately.

Thanks to Viking and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

I have always liked Matt Haig books, so this was a pretty good read for me. I am noticing he has a recurring theme with mathematics and alien life. There was plenty of both in this book.
Grace Winters is 72, widowed and alone, and she feels like a failure in life who doesn't deserve to be happy or feel any joy. But the a long lost friend Christina "dies" and leaves Grace her house... in Ibiza Spain! Grace flies to the island to visit and try to figure out what happened to her friend, but she gets more (much more) than she imagined. There is a "presence" at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Ibiza, and when Grace dives there with Christina's good friend Albert, she comes in contact with the presence and suddenly has supernatural powers of the mind. Now Grace, Albert, and Albert's daughter work together to figure out what happened to Christina, who was trying to kill her, and to stop a rich and ruthless hotelier from developing on sacred land. And along the way Grace learns to forgive herself for past mistakes, she learns to let go of grief and hold on to only love. In doing this she finds joy and life again.
I'd say this was a solid 3.5, rounding up to a 4.

** spoiler alert ** Yes, yes... I loved the Midnight Library, too - it seems all less-than-positive reviews of The Life Impossible start with that confession.

I requested the ARC weeks ago and finally got it last week, just a few days before the publication date. I was very much looking forward to it. The first chapters are lovely and set the scene nicely, but then everything slowly goes to sh*t.

There is a moment where Grace asks Alberto if he knows what "talking in circles" means. I found it funny because this book is a prime example of exactly that. We get stories upon stories, musings, scientific notes, words of wisdom, and very detailed descriptions of places and people. They went to the club? Here is a list of all the other characters who were also there. Grace is reading minds? Here is what every person around her is thinking. Do you want a side story about marine life? universe? clubbing history of Ibiza? Matt Haig got you covered.

The plot is not that complicated, and the main villain (gasp) could be guessed from the first description of the conflict between the island's environmentalists and greedy developers. The fact that the gist of the problematic proposal is to build a luxury hotel on top of the Es Vedra - an uninhabited 400-meter-tall rock with zero infrastructure - just makes the story even more cartoonish.

(Being a successful businessman also means choosing projects where development investment and future profits align - but who cares about that? He just wants to kill all the goats and ruin all the land, everywhere! This villain is so evil!)

I am all for magical realism, but this was just way too freaking weird. To the point where I was considering writing a story about a heroine who can "know things" about others without explanation, and now I am completely turned off by this idea.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking, for sharing an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

Whilst I did finish this, it was touch and go. Grace Winters, retired teacher, answers an email from a former student with a recounting of her recent life that is like a Carlos Castaneda journey. Apparently this is supposed to inspire the suicidal young man. Magical aliens are involved. The story seemed padded with lists- lists of animals she communes with, lists of people’s thoughts, to name a few without making a list! Reminded me of trying to add words to a college paper. I liked Haig’s past works but this was not for me.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC. My opinions are my own.