Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Umanii

Bleurgh. Listened as audiobook. Decided to read based on the aliens concept. I was kind of enjoying the alien at the start thinking humans re fucking weird and then thought to myself

'ugh hope this guy doesn't start to enjoy humans, empathise with them, become one and never want to go back...'

I won't spoil it *eyeroll*

I think I'm done with this guy's books now, I read midnight library and one other and it's all the same empty pseudophilosophical bs for me. It's mildly interesting for about 40% and then it's like the author just got bored an purchased a 'Live, laugh love' plaque from Wilko and called it a day. The cringiest part for me was the extremely long list of fly-away bullet points at the end.

The way female characters were written or referred to sometimes seemed a bit infantilising. Didn't like the way he made the alien guy the 'hero', wasn't at all touched by the story and chuckled once in total. And don't tell me the alien read a whole Cosmo magazine and, despite it's alledgedly far superior intelligence and memory, didn't have a clue that infidelity was an issue for humans.

The mathematical proof was just a construct to get the characters into place only to be basically dropped for the remainder of the plot when that was the most interesting part!
I'd have liked an interrogation of gender to give it more substance. Alien pops to planet, is puzzled by basic human anatomy/interactions/expressions but has no issues with 'this is a man?', 'this is a woman?' anatomically and how gender is presented? As if aliens have the same gender constructs....

not a vibe for me. soz.

Content Warnings

whirl's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book has a bit of everything: funny and lighthearted, but also sad and emotional. I think the way you read it might depend a bit on your own state of mind at the time

Very enjoyable

Content Warnings

adriana1's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

katrinarose's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is the only book I can think of that I’ve read recently that has made me laugh; I love the outside observations of humanity and things we don’t realize are as weird as they are. This book was fun, but I felt it got a bit bogged down by sappiness at the end and felt a bit slow compared to the the first half. Still, it was fun while still giving a lot to think about.

Content Warnings

paintedthree's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Very much enjoyed this. I might be seeking out more of Matt Haig's books

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