The Midnight Library
Ratings1,638
Average rating3.8
This book has an unexpected start but then the rest just rushed over me. The ebb and flow of Nora's decisions are believable and feel so personal. Regret over the roads not taken is common but Nora let herself be ruled by it, worn down to her last thread of sanity. The Midnight Library is an interesting concept elevated to an exploration of Self, identifying internal and external motivators, and a search for happiness that almost reaches Odyssean proportions. Nora's journey feels truly earned as she realizes throughout her many lives that her decisions and their consequences extend beyond herself. The definition of a “perfect” or “good” life is completely subjective and this book fearlessly runs the gamut. I'll definitely be reading this one again!
I wasn't even remotely interested in this book until recently, in dealing with grief, but the idea to pick it up came to me when I needed some comfort about the possibilities. I loved it.
Not good, although I got through it quickly, and I've read worse; I'm vacillating on one star versus two. I'm pretty disappointed in it on basically all levels. It feels like the author wanted to convey a very specific destination and gracelessly composed a simplistic path to get there. The basic premise — the main character exploring alternate versions of her life — is okay, but the specifics are uninspired and poorly thought out.
Nora, the main character, is good at everything. Not always in the same life, but in whatever life she's in, whatever she decided to do, she's world-class. It's not enough for her to be a good swimmer, she has to medal at the Olympics. It's not enough that she has a career in academic philosophy, she has to be a lecturer at Cambridge. It's not enough for her to be in a band, she has to be selling out arenas.
The central conceit doesn't really work as executed. The author makes an attempt at explaining why it's the way it is, but it's very flimsy and doesn't stand up.
All this is rendered in mediocre prose, and I guess the author wants to show off his bona fides; there's a Sylvia Plath quote before it gets started, because of course there is, and philosophers are not just named, but quoted directly.
The editor was asleep at the wheel, too. I'm pretty sure I found a place where the dialogue, in a back-and-forth where speakers aren't explicitly identified, doesn't actually make sense and the speaking order can't be right.
It has a nice moment here and there, but this ain't it, chief. I'm donating this one to the library.
EDIT: Screw it, I'm downgrading to one star. I just made myself mad remembering how the author made a whole big deal in Nora's penultimate life about how the really important thing is love, and then never revisited that concept in the wrapping-up whirlwind tour of Nora finally making good in her root life. This thing is a mess.
A great book club book raising questions of regret or what you would do if you could change any choice in your life. Great for some lively discussions.
Super intriguing. Made me think More about how those smaller actions I take impact my overall life while still being a fun read
Sometimes a book enters your life not because you seek it out, but because some cosmological force made it seek you out. I have been going through a major career/life crisis over the past few months. With this crisis has come a lot of regrets. Regrets about not studying hard enough. About not being happy enough. About not being brave enough. About not having things figured out. About roughly anything that could possibly come to mind. One thing that I have never regretted is my love of reading. Reading has always been a form of escape for me. It's why fantasy and sci-fi are my favorite genres. It is so easy to escape into the world of a good fantasy or sci-fi novel and experience a life with no regrets. But life isn't about that. I say all of this as a very lofty preamble to me randomly picking up The Midnight Library and thinking ‘yeah I'll give this a shot' with minimal enthusiasm. This is not my genre. Under the vast majority of circumstances I never would have touched this. But I decided to for some reason... and devoured the entire thing in a day. The Midnight Library tells the story of Nora Seed, a depressed woman who decides to kill herself at midnight one night due to feeling like her life is worthless. While she is in a state of limbo, she enters the titular Midnight Library, a place that allows her to go into any alternate life she may have lived had she made any different choice. Some of these lives are radically different, others are very similar to her current life. Along the way she finds out that she wants to live in her ‘root life' and forces herself into consciousness in the ‘real world' and saves herself from her own suicide attempt. Writing this all out makes the book sound very cheesy and predictable. I'm sure if I were to go up to 100 random people and ask ‘how do you think a book where a woman is given the opportunity to choose between any other life she could have lived and the one she currently has would end' and all 100 people would say ‘she chooses her current life because she discovers the joy of her current life'. It's not exactly the hardest plot to figure out. But... this book just worked for me on this day. One truly magical thing about reading is that you can read the same book at various points in your life and those same words can hit you totally differently. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is one of my all-time favorite books, but if I had read it for the first time at 24 instead of 14 I doubt that'd be the case. On a similar note, had I read The Midnight Library at 14 I probably wouldn't have liked it. But this book is exactly what I needed right now. This is one that is going to stick with me forever. Thank you Matt Haig.
save yourself some time and read the fig tree passage from sylvia plath's the bell jar. that's the whole book pared down to one paragraph. you're welcome
i'm done with forcing myself to finish books even when i have no interest in them. this just did not do it for me. my expectations weren't particularly high but i didn't think it would bore me like that. i think the concept is just not for me. i couldn't get attached to the character like i guess i was supposed to. i tend to think that when i start a book i have to finish it but i realised that reading should be fun first of all and i shouldn't force myself to continue reading something i don't like! so here are my reasons.
It felt like it was slowly transforming into a self help book and I didn't sign up for that.
This is a pleasant story that might distract you from the unpleasantness all around us these days. If you like time travel story lines, and a reminder about how tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start, this might be a good book for you. I heard the audible version and appreciated the narrator also. Her British accent added to my escape.
Seems quite cheesy to be frank, but still a nice and light read that is rather emboldening and earnest in its ways.
The storyline was very intriguing and had me coming back to read the book. I kind of had an idea of where it was going but wanted to find out anyway (maybe a part of me wanted to see Nora live it through and finish her story... hopefully). Although the message was quite clear to the reader, I appreciated the continued epiphanies and discoveries by Nora that was beautifully expressed. I think we all wonder what would happen if we could choose different lives and I felt myself reflecting on my own dreams and wonderment. The book helped Nora and the reader land on the best conclusion...”we don't have to do everything to be everything, because we are already infinite”
The Midnight Library is one of those books that has a good plot, characters, and message, but for some reason it just didn't hit? It was really hard to pick up, but also hard to put down. Anyway, love the writing style and premise so I think in a few years, I'll do a reread
Contains spoilers
Nora Seed feels lost in life. So much so that she decides to end it. But instead of jumping into the endless black, she finds herself in The Midnight Library. This isn't an ordinary library. It’s a mysterious one, where each book contains a version of the life she could have lived. It’s like a multiverse of possibilities, where every decision she ever made takes her along onto a different path.
As Nora explores these alternate lives (becoming a rockstar, an Olympic swimmer, a loving mother) she discovers that none of them fully connects to what she sees as the "perfect life". Each one offers its own mix of hapiness and sadness, and some more fulfilling than others, but none seem to give her constant joy. Most importantly, these alternative versions don’t feel like her life, the life she has lived up to now.
In the end, Nora realizes that the life she had been living is the one she connects with the most. She just needed to see the alternative options life always provides, as long as you open yourself up to them.
The Midnight Library is a perfect read for anyone feeling stuck, haunted by regrets, or convinced they’ve made mistakes that can't be undone. While the ending is predictable, the book’s message is still inspiring and gives a reminder of life’s potential.
Originally posted at yordi.me.
ooooooh wanted to like it but a little too Inspiring???.. a little too incomprehensible-choices-mc?????? im sorry matt