For readers drawn to high-concept literary fantasy that uses an impossible premise to explore grief, connection, and mortality, How to Stop Time is a rewarding and emotionally ambitious novel. Critics praised its energy and momentum — noting 'the energy and zip of this book are hard to resist' — and Haig's genuine feel for what it means to be an outsider makes Tom's centuries-long weariness believable. The important caveat is that readers who came to the book expecting the sharp-edged black humor of The Humans may find the more earnest, wistful register here a disappointment — the split reception (starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly versus mixed notices from The New York Times and PopMatters) reflects exactly that divide.

Matt Haig

About This Author

Reviewed

August 19, 2026

Read Time

9 min read

Age & reading levelAdult

Reader rating

4.3

· 35,956 Amazon ratings

reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

$9.99 on Amazon

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How to Stop Time

Name: How to Stop Time
Author: Matt Haig
ISBN: 0525522891

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig Review: A Century-Spanning Historical Fantasy Novel

by Matt Haig

How to Stop Time is a historical fantasy novel in which Tom Hazard — born in 1581 in France and cursed with a condition that makes him age at a glacial pace — navigates centuries of human history before returning to present-day London as a high school history teacher. Reception was split: starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly sit alongside mixed notices from The New York Times and other outlets, making this a novel that passionate Haig fans and readers of high-concept literary fantasy are most likely to embrace.

$9.99 on Amazon

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers drawn to high-concept literary fantasy that uses an impossible premise — centuries of accumulated grief and connection — as a philosophical lens on what makes a human life meaningful.

Worth it if

Worth reading if you gravitate toward wistful, meditative fiction that blends historical sweep with quiet emotional ambition, and are happy to trade sharp comic wit for a more earnest, melancholy register.

Skip if

Skip it if you came expecting the sharp-edged black humor and incisive comedy of Haig's earlier novel The Humans, as this quieter, more philosophical book occupies noticeably different emotional territory.

What readers & critics say

According to en.wikipedia.org, the novel earned starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly alongside positive notices from The Guardian, NPR, The Washington Post, and Kirkus Reviews, while also drawing mixed or negative assessments from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and PopMatters. Kirkus Reviews, whose review page was retrieved directly, describes it as "an engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning," capturing the philosophical ambition that both attracts and divides its readership.

“An engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Tom's condition places him at a mournful distance from the rest of humanity, doomed to see everyone he loves age and die.”

— The Guardian

“The time traveler's most notable experience is meeting other people who weren't time travelers — who were, in their proper moment, just famous as all hell.”

— NPR

Sources: Wikipedia, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian, NPR

4.3from 35,956 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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How to Stop Time follows Tom Hazard, a man born in 1581 who has spent centuries witnessing human history, and now returns to present-day London as a high school history teacher, wrestling with whether to risk love and connection once more. Matt Haig uses Tom's impossible lifespan as a philosophical lens on grief, mortality, and what makes a human life meaningful — earning starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly, alongside positive notices from The Guardian, NPR, and The Washington Post. The key caveat: readers who loved the sharp-edged comic wit of Haig's The Humans may find this quieter, more earnest register a departure that doesn't fully satisfy.

Is it worth reading?: For readers drawn to high-concept literary fantasy that uses an impossible premise to explore grief, connection, and mortality, How to Stop Time is a rewarding and emotionally ambitious novel. Critics praised its energy and momentum — noting 'the energy and zip of this book are hard to resist' — and Haig's genuine feel for what it means to be an outsider makes Tom's centuries-long weariness believable. The important caveat is that readers who came to the book expecting the sharp-edged black humor of The Humans may find the more earnest, wistful register here a disappointment — the split reception (starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly versus mixed notices from The New York Times and PopMatters) reflects exactly that divide.
Similar books: Readers who enjoy How to Stop Time's blend of sweeping historical scope and philosophical interiority will find much to explore in the curated selections below. Matt Haig's own The Midnight Library shares the same core preoccupation — a protagonist confronting alternate versions of a life unlived — and is the natural next read. For literary fiction spanning generations and centuries, Min Jin Lee's Pachinko offers a similarly ambitious historical canvas and emotional weight. Clare Marchant's The Mapmaker's Daughter and Pip Williams' The Dictionary of Lost Words both explore history through intimate, character-driven lenses. Donna Balon's Sam Time: History Professor Slips into the Past is a more playful take on time and history that will appeal to readers drawn to the concept of living across eras.
Who should read this?: How to Stop Time is best suited to readers of literary fiction and high-concept historical fantasy who are drawn to novels that use an impossible premise as a philosophical device rather than an adventure engine. Haig's fans — particularly those who came to him through Reasons to Stay Alive or The Midnight Library — will feel at home in the novel's emotionally open, introspective register. It is also well-matched to readers who enjoy sweeping historical canvases populated by famous figures, and who appreciate melancholy meditations on grief, time, and human connection. Readers specifically seeking the sharp comic wit of The Humans are the group most likely to find it falls short of expectations.
About Matt Haig: Matt Haig is an English author and journalist.
Tell me about the adaptation: How to Stop Time has a television adaptation in development involving Benedict Cumberbatch's production company SunnyMarch, a signal of the story's perceived dramatic and commercial potential. No release date has been widely confirmed. Separately, Haig's novel The Midnight Library — which shares thematic DNA with How to Stop Time — has a major film adaptation in the works with Florence Pugh attached to star, and that project is driving considerable renewed interest in Haig's wider catalogue, including this novel.
What are the main themes?: How to Stop Time is fundamentally a meditation on time, grief, and human connection. Tom Hazard's centuries-long lifespan is less a fantasy adventure device and more a lens through which Haig examines what makes a human life meaningful — what it costs to lose everyone you love, and whether the risk of connection is worth the certainty of loss. Critics noted that the novel frames time 'not as a tyranny, but as a social glue,' suggesting that what binds us to one another is precisely our shared, finite experience of mortality. The novel also explores the experience of being a perpetual outsider — someone who witnesses history but can never truly belong to any moment in it.
How does it compare to The Midnight Library?: Both How to Stop Time and The Midnight Library share Haig's characteristic preoccupation with mortality, regret, and the question of what makes a life worth living — but they approach that territory differently. The Midnight Library is Haig's most celebrated recent work, earning wide critical acclaim and a devoted readership. How to Stop Time received a more divided reception: starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly sit alongside mixed notices from The New York Times and other outlets. Where The Midnight Library offers a high-concept but relatively contained premise, How to Stop Time spans centuries of lived history, giving it greater structural sweep but also a more earnest, less immediately charming register.

Summarize this book

Is it worth reading?

Who should read this?

About Matt Haig

Tell me about the adaptation

What are the main themes?

How does it compare to The Midnight Library?

Summarize this book

How to Stop Time centers on Tom Hazard, a man who looks 41 but was born in 1581 in France, afflicted with a rare condition that causes him to age at a glacially slow pace — what the novel calls being an 'alba' (albatross), as opposed to ordinary 'mays' (mayflies). The story opens as Tom returns to London to work as a high school history teacher, carrying centuries of lived experience and encounters with famous historical figures. The novel alternates between Tom's richly varied past and his present-day London life, using his impossible longevity as a meditation on grief, human connection, and the passage of time. At its heart, it's a story about whether a man who has lost everyone can bring himself to open up to the world once more.

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Our Review

This review covers the book's content, premise and published critical reception, not a first-hand reading.

Matt Haig's historical fantasy novel earns admiration in some quarters and measured disappointment in others — a divide that tells readers almost everything they need to know before picking it up.

What the Novel Actually Is

How to Stop Time centers on Tom Hazard, a man who looks 41 but was born in 1581 in France. Tom's rare condition causes him to age far more slowly than ordinary people — what the novel calls "albas" (albatrosses), as opposed to the "giddily short-lived" majority it dubs "mays" (mayflies).

When the story opens, Tom has just returned to London to work as a high school history teacher, carrying with him the accumulated weight of centuries of lived experience alongside famous historical figures. The novel unfolds as Tom must choose whether to remain safely anchored to the past or risk opening himself to the present — and to human connection — once more.

The Central Conceit and Its Historical Architecture

The novel's architecture allows Haig to move Tom through recognizable moments in history, rubbing shoulders with well-known historical figures across different eras. This structure is the engine of the book's appeal: Tom is not merely a man who has survived time, but a witness to it, which gives the narrative both its sweep and its melancholy.

As one review noted, "The energy and zip of this book are hard to resist," pointing to the momentum Haig generates by shuttling between centuries. Critics described the novel as "a meditation on the tick and tock of time and mortality," capturing how Haig uses Tom's impossible lifespan less as a fantasy adventure device and more as a lens through which to examine what makes a human life meaningful.

Haig's Range and the Novel's Emotional Register

Matt Haig is a writer of unusually wide range — children's literature, young adult fiction, and the bestselling memoir Reasons to Stay Alive all sit on his shelf — and How to Stop Time draws on that versatility. Critics observed that he has "a real feeling for what it is to be an outsider," and credited him with making the weariness of his centuries-old protagonist genuinely believable.

One passage that opens the novel announces Tom's predicament directly: "I am old — old in the way that a tree, or a quahog clam, or a Renaissance painting is old." That sentence establishes the novel's tone: philosophical, a little melancholy, reaching for grand analogy.

The emotional ambition is clear throughout; Haig is openly interested in the reader's heartstrings.

Where the Novel Divides Critics

The book's reception was notably split. Booklist and Publishers Weekly each awarded it starred reviews, The Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews responded positively, and it was named a bestseller by The Los Angeles Times and landed on IndieBound's Indie Next List.

Yet The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and PopMatters offered mixed or negative assessments. Critics compared How to Stop Time unfavorably to Haig's earlier novel The Humans, arguing that while The Humans was "warmhearted, sharply observed and often laugh-out-loud funny," How to Stop Time left readers "craving some of the sharp-edged black humor that made The Humans such a delight."

The critique is specific: not that the novel fails on its own terms, but that Haig's previous book set a bar of wit and incisiveness that this one's more earnest, philosophical register does not match.

Who This Novel Is For

Readers who come to How to Stop Time having loved The Humans may find themselves recalibrating expectations — this is a quieter, more wistful book than that sharply comic predecessor. Those drawn to high-concept literary fantasy that uses an impossible premise to examine grief, connection, and the passage of time are the natural audience.

Critics noted that "the strangeness of this parallel universe throws our own into relief, so that we see time not as a tyranny, but as a social glue" — a framing that captures both what the novel does best and what kind of reader will find it most rewarding. A television adaptation involving Benedict Cumberbatch's production company SunnyMarch signals the breadth of the story's perceived commercial and dramatic potential beyond the page.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

1
Matt Haig — author profile
Matt Haig, LuvemBooks
2
How to Stop Time - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
3
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig review – a high-concept romance | Fiction | The Guardian
theguardian.com
4
In 'How To Stop Time,' Immortality, Sadness And Drinking With Shakespeare : NPR
npr.org
5
How to Stop Time - Matt Haig
matthaig.com
6
"How to Stop Time" by Matt Haig | Summary and Review
booksummaryinsight.com
7
Summary and Reviews of How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
bookbrowse.com
8
How to Stop Time Summary, Book Review: Love Story Across Centuries – Your Summary
ursummary.com
9
“How To Stop Time” by Matt Haig – Book Review | Fictionophile
fictionophile.com
10
Review: How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - Book Club Chat
bookclubchat.com
11
How to Stop Time: A Novel: 9780525522898 - BooksRun
booksrun.com
12
Summary of 'How to Stop Time' by Matt Haig: A Detailed Synopsis
newbookrecommendation.com
13
How to Stop Time: A Novel | Barnes & Noble®
barnesandnoble.com

Age & Reading Level

Recommended age

Adult

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Heat level

Mild · brief romantic content, not a focus of the novel

Tropes

slow burnsecond chancedual timelinefound familymorally grey

From how readers and romance sites describe it, not our own reading.

who it suits

Skip if you're looking for the sharp-edged black humor and comic wit of Haig's earlier novel The Humans

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Books like How to Stop Time

Curated picks for readers who enjoyed How to Stop Time, with our reasoning for each match.

More by Matt Haig

In our catalogue

The Midnight Library

Matt Haig

Same author, same core question: what does a long life — or infinite lives — actually cost you emotionally?

Where Tom Hazard is forced to keep living across centuries, Nora Seed is given the chance to live infinite parallel lives and must decide which one is worth keeping. Both novels use a high-concept fantastical premise to ask quiet, personal questions about regret, identity, and what makes any single life feel meaningful. Readers who connected with the melancholy underpinning Haig's prose will find the same emotional register here.

On Amazon

The Humans

Matt Haig

An alien observer replaces a Cambridge professor — Haig again uses radical outsider perspective to strip ordinary human life down to its essentials.

If you liked How to Stop Time

In our catalogue

Pachinko

Min Jin Lee

Four generations of one Korean family across a century: history as a force that reshapes identity whether individuals consent or not.

In our catalogue

The Mapmaker's Daughter

Clare Marchant

Dual timelines — one present, one deep past — hinge on a single mystery connecting both eras, mirroring the novel's structure of a life lived across centuries.

In our catalogue

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Pip Williams

A woman living through late Victorian Britain collects the words — and lives — that official history discards; rich period detail, intimate emotional scale.

In our catalogue

Sam Time: History Professor Slips into the Past

Donna Balon

A history professor physically enters the past — the same collision of scholarly distance and lived historical chaos that drives Tom Hazard's story.

Not your thing?

On Amazon

The Age of Miracles

Karen Thompson Walker

If the centuries-long timeline felt too sprawling, this is a tight, intimate story about time itself going wrong — personal scale, slow-burn dread, no historical detours.