Book Review: How to Stop Time

Book: How to Stop Time
Author: Matt Haig
Genre: Romance fiction, Historical fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 325
Source: Amazon

Rating:

★★★★

Eternal Mind Review:

Hello readers!!

Plot:

The story revolves around Tom Hazard, a man that ages SUPER slowly and has an extremely long life span, but he’s not immortal. Throughout the book, we transition from the present day in Tom’s life to various times in the past from his point of view. Tom has lived through many centuries and has had the opportunity to interact with Shakespeare and F. Scot Fitzgerald. He is a member of an organization that protects him, but he must follow a few rules. The most important one is to NEVER fall in love. But that is exactly what Tom does, he falls in love.

BOOK THOUGHTS:

“How to Stop Time,” by Matt Haig uses the concept of time to explain human nature, and the way fear, anger, love, and other emotions can change our thought process which makes us react to life in a different manner. Haig also asks a lot of rhetorical questions throughout the book compelling the reader to reflect on these ideas that are repeatedly visited in the book.

Haig uses a lot of historical references throughout the book which makes the book more interesting to read. It was like reading about behind-the-scenes, getting a “real” glimpse of some well-known personalities, like Shakespeare. The witch hunt time period is repeatedly mentioned throughout the book, which was really sad and disturbing at times. But it was necessary to speak about the witch hunts in the way Haig did in this book. Also, it made me question if witch hunts have actually stopped or throughout the years humans have just been changing the description of witches. The fear of the “odd” person, a person we cannot relate to still seems to be present and it can lead humans to hunt and disturb those “odd” individuals. Looking into our fears is important so we can truly realize if there was ever a need for that fear in the first place. Living a life in fear is simply a life wasted.

During the 4th part of this book, Haig uses sound to describe the settings, time periods, and feelings of the characters.  He described the 1920s as loud, noisy, roaring, but when he speaks about playing the piano and music in general he describes it as being, “a distant safe haven.” The thought of a safe haven makes me want to learn the piano again. Additionally, Haig uses the terms pattern and rhythm to describe how one lives life.

This book is perfect for people who enjoy reading a medium-paced book about the history and about life. This book had a lot of thoughtful quotes that make you reflect on your own life, and I really liked that. I gave this book 4 stars because it was an enjoyable book but the romance was a bit dull in this book. Since this is romance fiction I was hoping this book would have more romantic themes, but it didn’t. It was a very subtle romance, and because the author didn’t describe the relationship to the extent that would be necessary for romance fiction it made it difficult for me to root for the couple to be together. I honestly didn’t care for the couple. But don’t let this hold you back from reading this book, I still enjoyed this book a lot. I LOVE the quotes from this book.  ❤❤❤ The book was very insightful and the themes of life and human nature were very well written.

Final Thoughts:  Fear often holds us back and keeps us from living our life. Once we let go of our fears everything lightens up, the headaches vanish, and we finally start to live, live in the present. The present was once our future and will soon be our past. If we live in the present we can ensure to have a better future and a memorable past. ❤

FAVORITE QUOTES:

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world”
“The progress of humanity seemed to be measured in the distance we placed between ourselves and nature.”
“The past is never gone. It just hides.”
“Everything changes and nothing changes.”
“Everything gets smaller overtime. Computers, phones, apples, knives, souls.”
“You see, when you look at events in history there is a two-way perspective. Forwards and back. But at the time everything is one way. “
“People you love never die.”
“All you know is the moment you are in.”

– How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!!!

Please let me know what your thoughts are on this book in the comment section below.

by Nav ❤