How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



HOW MANY LIFETIMES DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE?

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old history teacher, but he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen it all. As long as he keeps changing his identity he can keep one step ahead of his past - and stay alive. The only thing he must not do is fall in love . .


Not really sure about this one - its my first book by this reader so maybe it was not his best. Its a really good idea on the face of it, I was intrigued to find out about Tom Hazard and his condition that makes him age slower than most people - he's over five hundred years old so that has to be worth a read right? Wrong - there was a lot going on but no real cohesion to the story, I found it slow in parts and dare I say it boring in others.

He spends most of this time bemoaning the fact that he has been alive so long and the conditions he must adhere to by the albatross society whose members are like him. I liked the flashbacks to the 1600's and life with Rose who he later marries, he has to leave her and his daughter Marion to protect them from those who notice he is not ageing. Rose dies very young when Tom has gone away and he loses touch with their daughter Marion. He spends most of the book trying to find Marion and brokering deals with Hendrich who is the leader of the Albatross society to try and find her. I didn't particularly like Marion and at the end wondered why Haig made her so abrasive and cold.

I liked parts of the book and you have to 'buy into' the idea to appreciate the story but I felt it jumped around a lot and stretched credibility with his meetings with Shakespeare and the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald in the leap to the 1920's. It was a little too much jumping and celebrity name dropping for me where I had to constantly remind myself which era I was in and try and piece them all together.

It was unusual and I stayed with it to the end but really could only give this one 3.5 stars for the concept they style and story execution didn't live up to my expectations. This has been rounded up to 4* for Amazon and Goodreads.


I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.