The Life Impossible, an Environmentalist Fantasy Review
Book cover image from ChangingHands.com
At first glance, The Life Impossible by Matt Haig appears to be a thriller. The premise writes itself — a one way ticket, an idyllic island, and a mysterious death. But it is not thrilling, in the pure sense of the word, nor is it a pure fantasy; The Impossible Life exists in a plane of reality that is magical and precisely mathematical.
The Life Impossible: Synopsis
An epistolary novel written in the form of emails, The Impossible Life follows Grace Winters, a grieving retired math teacher, as she tells a former student the story of how she ended up in Ibiza.
Despite her retirement, Grace Winters is still a math teacher at heart and seeks out patterns and order in life. When her former coworker Catherine dies under mysterious circumstances and leaves Grace a house in Ibiza, Grace buys a one way ticket with the intention of finding out what happened to Catherine. Yet what she discovers is hard to explain with pure, mathematical logic.
The Life Impossible: Purpose
At the core of the diving adventures and clubbing sprees, The Life Impossible shows that you don’t have to be magical or have some sort of special vision to be able to do the one thing that matters — protecting the environment, protecting life. In fact, the enemy isn’t just some classic, all-evil villain; it’s a real-estate developer.
Retired and widowed, Grace is also not the usual fantasy protagonist, but she brings a fresh and wise perspective that shines through the emailed, second-person style of the novel. The tone is conversational and contemplative, though at times the prose becomes overly descriptive.
The Life Impossible: Magic
Because of her newly acquired magic, Grace observes life differently, and sometimes it feels that she exposes her every thought. However, her narration and the plot interweave to create a wholesome story.
Reading the novel, I was reminded of The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, but the scenery and magic system was also reminiscent of Rouge by Mona Awad. Fans of either one of those novels will find The Life Impossible to be a fun, cozy read.
The Life Impossible released September 2024 and is available for purchase or for checkout at your local library. Go take a look and find its magic and purpose for yourself!
Looking for more great reads? Check out some of our other reviews — and some of our contributors’ original fiction and poetry.
- Prized Myths and Fairy Tales of the MockingOwl Roost – Fantasy Fiction
- Emma’s Place, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 – Mystery Fiction
- Nothing More Than a Lesson – Poetry
- Death by Food Truck – Mystery Book Review
Zina Mona
Zina Mona is a writer and student from Texas. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Trinity Review and 34 Orchard. She studies literature and economics, but in her free time, she loves watching Audrey Hepburn movies.
Visit her website to read more!
