Book review: The Humans by Matt Haig

I recently read The Humans by Matt Haig, and since the main character is an extraterrestrial, I thought I should review it for my blog.  This alien is from a planet called Vonnadoria and has come to Earth to assume the identity of Professor Andrew Martin, a mathematician who may have discovered something that could change the world; the real Martin has already been killed, and it is this extraterrestrial's job to dispose of anyone Martin may have told about his discovery.  This Vonnadorian starts out thinking that humans are hideous and is generally disgusted by everything about them, but as he gets to know Martin's family (wife Isobel and son Gulliver), he begins to understand the human race and realizes that he does not want to kill Isobel and Gulliver, even though his superiors keep insisting that he must get rid of them.  At the beginning of the story, our otherworldly narrator states that The Humans is a book "about the meaning of life and nothing at all," but more than anything, it's the story of an alien who learns what it means to be human.  He learns that "caring is what makes you human," and he is turning out to be a better human than the man he's pretending to be. 

 

I really enjoyed this book, and even though it's about a visitor from another planet, it seemed believable.  I especially enjoyed the alien's interactions with Newton, the family dog, who he thinks is needy and annoying at first.  Of course it doesn't take long for him to love the dog...because even an alien can't resist a cuddly canine.

 

My score: 8.5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Humans-Novel-Matt-Haig/dp/1476727910/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375918343&sr=1-1&keywords=humans+by+matt+haig

Thought of the Day: We can handle it.

If aliens exist, I don't think the government needs to keep hiding it from us.  After everyone freaked out in 1938 when they thought War of the Worlds was real, I can understand why the government and military thought it was a good idea to say that what crashed in Roswell was a weather balloon (though threatening to kill people's entire families if they told the truth was a bit extreme), but now I think we can handle the truth.  When I hear about the horrible things that humans do to each other, I have to wonder if extraterrestrials are any more of a threat than the people we might come across on any given day.  Just when I think people can't get any worse, I hear something that proves me wrong, and I doubt that aliens (or any other otherworldly creature) would even be capable of doing things that are more evil than what the worst humans do on a daily basis.  If aliens landed on Earth right now, I have a feeling that instead of everyone being terrified (unless they were trying to destroy major cities like they always do in the movies), people would be uploading pictures and videos of them to Facebook and YouTube...and you know those aliens would have a reality show contract by the end of the day. ; )