This is a book review of The Origin of Mass: Elementary Particles & Fundamental Symmetries by J. Iliopoulos, a popular-science book which explains why the discovery of the Higgs boson is important. The chapters cover symmetries, various problems of mass in particle physics, spontaneously broken symmetries, and the standard model (of particle physics). It is clear that the author understands the topic, rather than, as one finds in many popular-science books, repeating standard explanations adapted or even copied from another author. While the book is not a technical monograph, the explanation of the origin of mass is more involved than a superficial description and a good introduction for non-experts who might wish to investigate this in more detail.