I had meant to post my review of Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig on Monday this week when it was out discussion book at the U3A reading group to which I belong, but sadly life got the better of me. Then yesterday when it was Mental Health Day it was my sister’s birthday so I put my energies into her day. Still, better late than never with a review – even if I am horrendously late actually reading the book!

I have, however, previously reviewed one of Matt Haig’s children’s books Evie in the Jungle, here.

Reasons to Stay Alive was published in paperback by Canongate on 31st December 2015 and is available for purchase here.

Reasons to Stay Alive

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEEL TRULY ALIVE?

Aged 24, Matt Haig’s world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again.

A moving, funny and joyous exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. It is a book about making the most of your time on earth.

“I wrote this book because the oldest clichés remain the truest. Time heals. The bottom of the valley never provides the clearest view. The tunnel does have light at the end of it, even if we haven’t been able to see it . . . Words, just sometimes, really can set you free.”

My Review of Reasons to Stay Alive

An insight into one man’s mental illness.

Now here’s the thing. When I started reading Reasons to Stay Alive I really didn’t like it. I was feeling fed up, following a foot injury when I wasn’t able to do what I wanted, and reading about Matt Haig’s experience of depression was making me cross. I almost gave up reading the book. I just wanted to say, ‘Oh get over yourself. We’re all fed up…’ until the penny dropped. Yes, I was fed up, but here was a man who had a severe mental illness far outside the parameters of my own feelings and experience. I suddenly understood that my emotions were nothing like Matt Haig’s experiences. Immediately I felt more positive. Certainly I was still in a bit of a slump, but I wasn’t depressed and I wanted to read on because, importantly, I was gaining an understanding of what it truly means to be depressed. Reading Reasons to Stay Alive was making me a better human.

Reasons to Stay Alive is both an easy and a difficult read. Matt Haig’s prose is engaging and accessible with a self-deprecating humour that made me smile, but his subject is uncomfortable and affecting so that his underpinning messages and the way he educates the reader to understand another person’s life is deceptive. The reader doesn’t truly grasp the impact and effect of the book until the end. 

It isn’t the checklist at the end of Reasons to Stay Alive, nor the list of useful contacts that makes the book so important and helpful; rather it’s Matt Haig’s honesty in outlining his experience so that others can find affinity, advice and connection. It doesn’t matter where on the scale of good or poor mental health a reader is, in Reasons to Stay Alive there is kindness, realism and a sense of belonging that gives a sense of humanity in a world where it can sometimes feel elusive. Mental health aside, this is a book about being human and humane.

Having begun the book irritated (and if I’m honest, totally selfish in my reading approach), I finished Reasons to Stay Alive feeling positive, uplifted, and more aware of what other people might be thinking and feeling. I went from a negative attitude to feeling that this might just be a book to save someone’s life when they are at their lowest ebb. It gave me permission to be myself and not just accept my situation, but to be content with what I have and who I am. I rather feel I owe Matt Haig, and all those with true mental health struggles, an apology for my flippant and ignorant approach prior to reading Reasons to Stay Alive. I’ve gained so much from this book and Matt Haig’s advice. I won’t, however, be taking up running any time soon!

About Matt Haig

Matt Haig is an author for children and adults. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children’s book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 40 languages. It is being made into a film by Studio Canal and The Guardian called it an ‘instant classic’. His novels for adults include the award-winning How To Stop Time, The Radleys and The Humans.

He won the TV Book Club ‘book of the series’, and has been shortlisted for a Specsavers National Book Award. The Humans was chosen as a World Book Night title. His children’s novels have won the Smarties Gold Medal, the Blue Peter Book of the Year, been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal three times.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @matthaig1. Visit his website for further information and find him on Facebook and Instagram.