The Midnight Library

Wow. I inhaled this book. It was so rich, such depth. What a journey. As I closed the cover on the last page, I just felt overwhelmed with so many emotions. It is a beautiful book. It is just so....much. So worthy of being read. So worthy of existing. I am grateful this book exists and that I have read it.

que si me puse a chillar en plena clase de zoom por el libro? sí, y no me arrepiento
AAAA

I was SO excited to read this book! Being able to go back in time, and make different choices, and live your new lives over and over as many times as you want.... that sounds like a dream! And yet this book is boring and sad. And on purpose. I don't get it. It could have been amazing!!

Somewhere between life and death is a place of choice. A place to decide whether the regrets that dwell deep in the heart are worth trying to correct....to see if life could be different .. better. For Nora, her regrets are many, and life is not worth living. Who would miss her? Who would care?

Nora is tired, makes a decision to end that tiredness, and ends up at the Midnight Library. The library is her place of alternate and infinite lives and will stay in place as long as she is between life and death. Faced with her Book of Regrets, she has to choose...find a life within these infinite choices and live .. or let it go and pass on.

What a beautifully written book. I love books that have a way of immersing me into the story...so much so that I lose track of time. I may be done with this story but I definitely haven't stopped thinking about it.

I'm sure many of us have regrets we wish we could go back and change. If we did...would that change the course of everything as we currently see it? Would it change the important things that have come from it? It's about choices...decisions and irreversible movements.

After reading this, it certainly made me think about my past. While there are certain aspects of my life I regret, I realize I wouldn't go back and change it. There is so much that has come from my path (both good and bad) which I would lose if that path was tampered with. I would rather have gone through what I did, than to tempt fate and risk losing what I have now.

What an absolutely amazing read. Definitely recommend this one.

Since I love books, I could relate to this character's purgatory as a library. But I guess it wasn't really purgatory, but more of a self-conscience state, where she needed to look back at the turns (books) in her life and realize that each one made her who she became. I made many mistakes in my own life, but I wouldn't want to change them, because they define me.

One of the strengths of “The Midnight Library” is the depth and complexity of its characters. Nora Seed is a fully realized and relatable protagonist, with flaws and virtues that make her journey both poignant and inspiring. The supporting characters are also well-drawn and memorable, each with their own stories and struggles that add richness and depth to the narrative.

Haig's writing is both elegant and accessible, with a keen understanding of the human psyche and the struggles we all face in navigating our lives. The premise is original and imaginative, and the execution is skillful and engaging. The novel's themes are universal and deeply resonant, touching on the profound questions of human existence and the nature of happiness.

“The Midnight Library” is a beautifully written and compelling novel. It is both uplifting and cathartic, offering a message of hope and resilience that is much needed in these challenging times.

Um livro bem filosófico que toca em assuntos bem importantes, principalmente sobre saúde mental, mas eu fiquei com a sensação de que faltou alguma coisa para a história ser mais completa.

Loved it!

It should have trigger warnings—the first 24 pages are heartbreaking and devastating. Suicide is prominent throughout. Absolutely beautiful once you get past the devastation. I loved it and am so glad I kept going.

Emotional, corny, and compelling light sci-fi.

This was a really heart felt and emotional book. I usually read science fiction both hard and soft and the description of this book gave it that vibe but by the time I realized it was less sci-fi and more interpersonal it had already hooked me. 

Wonderful audio book. Very relatable as a someone who is constantly rethinking their future.

This is a four star for me.

Beautifully written. Relatable book. Short read. Read it in two days. Really great at this time in my life when I've been bogged down by my career.

Highly recommend

Trigger warnings:
Suicide
Pet death

Beautifully written and life affirming...that's how I would describe The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. After reading this book, I appreciate my life for all its good and bad moments.

The Midnight Library is a realm between life and death where Nora Seeds lands after a suicide attempt. Nora's life is not happy or fulfilling, and she sees no way that it will ever be any better. But in the Midnight Library, Nora can choose any book from the shelf and experience a different version of her life where she made different decisions and had different outcomes. In the process of trying out these other lives, Nora learns much about herself and about life choices. But is it enough to make her desire to live again.

This book is a beautiful story about second chances and learning to accept life as it is. Nora's experience in each alternate life teaches her something different about herself and the world. She gets to experience so many possible versions of herself and see different aspects of her personality in both good and bad situations. This leads to important self reflection and growth. Through her experience, readers also get a chance to reflect and learn to appreciate their own imperfect lives.

I really do not have anything negative to say about this book. The language is lyrical with many quotable lines. The story is inspirational with important life lessons. The characters are memorable and relatable. I enjoyed every minute of the reading experience and would highly recommend it to any reader.

Although the core concept isn't particularly new and ground breaking, the main character and the books philosophy was well written. This made it compelling and thought provoking and a really enjoyable book.

I feel like this book gave me perspective. It was a enjoyable book with an interesting premise. Is it deep and insightful? No. But it is structured well and good enough that you can find deep and insightful things yourself.

Random unstructured bits ‘n' bobs from my brain, having just finished this lovely story:
- The pacing of Nora's understanding was a little bit annoying. Like, in the beginning, she just seemed a bit thick, needing the same thing explained to her countless times. But then, in no time at all, she developed this astonishing self-awareness and recovered an inordinate amount of self-worth. It was a bit whiplash-y.- The story pace is great. The writing is simple and things move along very quickly. Sometimes I love getting lost in the prose and sometimes I appreciate that the words simply escort me to the world and leave me to get lost in there.- I was enjoying experiencing each one of Nora's lives. The transition to yeah-so-then-she-basically-lived-hundreds-of-lives felt rather abrupt.- I *get* why Nora felt the best life wasn't her own and ultimately had to give it up, but I don't have to be happy about it.- I appreciate that Nora ultimately recognised that she wasn't worthless, that without her bad things happened in other people's lives, BUT the tidy ending with the glimpses of the lives she'd experienced was just a bit too saccharine.- The message of you-don't-know-what-you're-missing-if-you-check-out lesson felt really heavy-handed at the end. I don't know about you, but for me it also completely missed its mark. On the contrary, almost-suicide seems *much* more appealing now. Living hundreds of lives, seeing the world, a choose-your-own-adventure version of my own life, all in a single minute, and returning to this version of me with the memory intact of all those lived experiences? Are you kidding me? That would be amazing.

tl;dr: Definitely not flawless, but a great story and one that will stay with me for quite some time.

Great audio by actress Carey Mulligan. It got a bit repetitive and the conclusion was clear about halfway through, but it was uplifting in a way that feels particularly needed now. Read a little about the book/author after completion and it added a little more complexity knowing Matt Haig is open about his own mental health journey and how that informed the book.

I can't stress how amazing this book is. It made me feel like I was the main character, examining my regrets and life choices. I also appreciated the dabbling in philosophy and physics.

Others can tell you what this book is about. I'd like to tell you—and the author if I knew him—what this book meant to me. We all have those deriding thoughts... Are we living our best life? Why are we comparing ourselves to others? Though this book claims to be fiction, and it is, it could in fact be very true. For we don't really know what happens when we stop living. And I don't necessarily mean when we die.

This book clicked with me on so many levels, explaining logical and illogical reasons why events happen the way they do. And what it means to each of us personally. Most of all, it gives us the strength and faith to believe in that self that is just ordinary, boring, but indescribably unique. Our true, plain self.

It's so worth the read. Beware. If you pick it up, you may not move for a while. Set aside some time for yourself and this book to get to know each other. You'll be so glad you did. I'd give it six stars if I could.

(Friends reference) Matt Haig made me want to put this book in the freezer like Joe did in the saddest/scary moments (that were a lot).

I loved the environment, the way the library was designed in my head chef kiss. I really saw myself there with Nora and sometimes I was in her own shoes, and that's was the hardest part of reading bc I think we all at some point though what would be our lives if we didn't made “that” decision, it's fun picturing in our heads when we don't see what would be the live of our loved ones (if they're alive for an instant, yepp! Never thought of that.. don't want to think again.. I'm happy with my root life bc in this life at least I have 100% sure my most loved ones are alive and well.)

Another thing I really appreciate in this book was science+physics. Scientists are my guilty pleasure! They're weird (in the best way possible), and I enjoy reading about their theories and the way they live, and made me smile a lot when I saw some of the theories and scientists that I already knew mention in this book like the theory of the cat in the box: “the cat in the box is both alive and dead. You could open the box and see that it was alive or dead (...) but in one sense, even after the box is open, the cat is still both alive and dead. Every universe exist over every other universe.”

I feel I was capable of writing 25 pages about this book, a lot to say, a lot to feel in this several lives that Nora lived + the physics. I'll not though

This book follows Nora, a depressed woman who doesn't have the will to live anymore. One night, she decides she is going to take her own life. But when she tries, she ends up in The Midnight Library. When given the chance to try out different versions of her life where she did things differently, she is confronted with the reality of what is really wrong in her life.

This book was pretty good. While the ending was incredibly predictable and the story telling felt preachy at times, I was still thoroughly entertained throughout. Nora is super funny and her reactions to each individual environment she is placed in left me laughing and cringing along with her. There were some great moments of realization and perfect, quotable lines that were really inspiring sprinkled throughout. The biggest let-down for me was how predictable the ending was. By the end of Nora's second “life” she visits, I figured out how the book will end. It made the stakes seem really low. But I do believe the metaphor of The Midnight Library itself was very successful and inspirational.

All in all, I would recommend this book if you need a pick me up or a little inspiration in life.

TW: alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, overdose, suicide

It's been a hot minute that I've read through an entire book but I'm so glad it was with this beautiful story. I felt like I was on an adventure while turning page after page. Even with the limited amount of time I had to read it was a quick read. Chapters though they were short I enjoyed the different transitions. Overall I would recommend this book but I caution on trigger warnings related to suicide, drug abuse, and depression.

I liked The Midnight Library more than I thought I would. That being said, I didn't expect to like it at all. I saw such mixed reviews that I decided I had to read it for myself and see.

While there were very thought-provoking and beautiful quotes and an overall important and powerful storyline, this was not a page turner for me. It's hard to get invested in a story when the situation and characters are continuously changing, and this is naturally the structure of this book.

I also f

Terrific writing style, good story overall, just slightly predictable and fluffy.

I feel like I say this with so many books, but I was incredibly resistant to start reading this book. I have read another one of his books and was not exactly a fan and only picked this one up because it fit the prompt for book club. This one, however, was a little closer to what I had expected than the last one.

The ending was utterly predictable and the main character wasn't entirely distasteful, which sets it above his last novel I read. I don't think the cure for depression and suicidal thoughts is working through a Book of Regrets or living endless possibities. I understand the author is pulling from their own experiences but the delivery just made this all fall very flat for me.

The premise, however.... I loved. To go into a library full of potential lives you could be living? Exploring the little changes that can set up cataclysmic changes to our own perceptions and reality? This is fantastic. Blake Crouch did it so well. I had really hoped that this one would be just as good.