Author: Matt Haig / Pub: Sept 2020 / 288 pages
This could easily be a complicated book review, but life has been life’ing lately so I think I’ll take the road travelled more frequently and land on the side of positivity!
The Midnight Library tells the story of Nora, a young woman dogged by depression and overall unhappiness. We meet her as she is attempting suicide (strong trigger warning!) but after life, and before death, she finds herself in a library. Her guide in the library tells her the books represent all the lives she could have led if for different choices and circumstances. (Hello lover!😜) Once she pulls one off the shelf and starts reading, she finds herself in the story. We follow Nora through several of these books as she experiences different things and comes to terms with some of her issues. Along the way she meets a gentleman that is traveling time same as she is, validating some of her fears and trials.
I loved visiting Nora in her different lives. Sometimes she spent years, other times she stayed just a short while. She was able to experience being married, having children, being a creative, rich, poor, the whole gambit. The author has a very descriptive writing style I enjoyed. I was able to easily see Nora’s journey through time and space and it gave the book an interesting sci-fi element I hadn’t expected.
Admittedly, Nora is a complicated character and Im not sure she and I would’ve kick it, ever, irl. Her motivations, responses and revelations were often different than what mine would have been, but, it didn’t make me dislike her overall. I don’t suffer from chronic depression and I’ve never had a suicidal thought in my life (murderous thoughts, DEFINITELY😏), so my perspective on life is very different than Nora’s.
Light research on this author returns that he suffers from depression and may have had a suicidal episode. Reviews on Goodreads seem to be mixed, with people that mention they’ve had experiences with depression, not liking the book. Saying the language was juvenile or the author didn’t get as serious as they would have wanted. Looking through that lens, I could understand. If your plan is to read this and walk away with some deep meaning of life or expect heavy conversation around death and depression or avoid talk about higher powers and purpose, move around, this ain’t it. For me, if it had been that, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.
I walked away feeling like the story celebrated life and its choices more than anything. As I advance towards 49, I believe Ive learned, life is a library of choices and you can, in fact, DNF your current read and pick up another fucking option. Just like that. 🫰🏾
Read these choices for more stories that travel through time:
She’s Reading Now 
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY made for a rich discussion at my book club – choices we made, choices we didn’t make.
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I really liked this book too – at a certain point this book was very predictable but I didn’t even mind
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Agreed! I enjoyed the writing!
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I actually checked out another one of his books because of The Midnight Library and with that one at least, I found that I really like the authors writing style (though the overall book was kind of a let down)
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I liked the book too. It was cool to travel through options in the character’s life and think about those in our own, like not finishing a book that we don’t like! 😉
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I pray some young person that could use that lesson finds this book! I know i would have appreciated it!
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