The Midnight Library
Ratings1,713
Average rating3.8
A woman who no longer wants to live finds herself in a purgatory of sorts, where she gets to try on every life she could have lived, trying to find the right one for her. This was a quick read, maybe took a week or so. It was fine enough, but I knew how it would end after the first like 20% of the book. Filled to the brim with platitudes and just sloppy writing. And because she kept hopping through lives, the characters never stuck around to be fully fleshed out. A neat premise but a missed opportunity.
Há tanta coisa que quero dizer....mas quero pensar bem em toda esta experiência. Por enquanto, consigo partilhar que não queria que o livro terminasse
It was an ok story. Didn't hit me big with revelations or insights. Nice, quite a quick read.
I really liked the overall concept of this story, and found the plot cute overall. It was a bit predictable in terms of the overall arc,.but the steps taken along the way were fun and refreshing. Would have liked a bit less lightheartedness- and felt the abandonment of the arc about other “sliders” was missed opportunity. Still, overall was drawn to keep reading to see what would happen.
Finished! 3.5 stars, not quite more since it was dragging at the start.
Hell, that ending saddened me after finding out so much about Nora. Where her final life was too perfect, before she went back to the Midnight Library, I was hoping she would have some semblance of it by the time she was conscious. When she did have that, through her brother, I wished it was shown more through her relationship. It just wasn't enough to see her and Joe back to good relations. I must admit though, it was very nice to see Nora back on her feet and enjoying her life in a way she never did. And the wholesome Mrs Elm catch-up got me, almost.
Down on her luck and with one negative event after another, Nora decides to take her own life. But as she slips into unconsciousness, she’ll find herself in the Midnight Library. A place where each book is a different version of her life, led by the decisions she never made. Poised between life and death, Nora has the ability to see the different paths she could have taken. And as she journeys through each of these lives, if she can find one where she is truly happy, she can stay to live out the rest of her days.
Nora is able to reflect on all the decisions she made in her life. From break ups to chosen careers path, each book in the library will show her how life could have been. Not all are filled with happiness. Nora will find some of her decisions were for the better as the life she could have lived ended in heartbreak and suffering. And some of the more glamorous paths, painted over the cracks in her life in order to make them seem whole. It was fascinating to see the string of possibilities with each new journey Nora took and the positives and negatives each life revealed. It brought to light the notion that there is no perfect life, yet happiness can still be found.
There were some encounters in Nora’s journey that seemed out of place. In particular, when Nora runs into another person traveling through lives there was a quick romantic encounter with no charisma or spark. The focus of the story is on Nora overcoming her regrets and learning what would truly make her happy. There was no lead in or foreshadowing to say this encounter would help Nora along in her journey. If anything, bonding with another traveler on a more intimate level should have enhanced the experience, but not enough time was spent between the two characters.
However, there is a pivotal point in The Midnight Library where Nora faces an immense adversary. And while adrenaline and fear are running through her body, she comes to startling clarifications about herself and what she wants to achieve. In this moment Matt Haig personified Nora’s battle against mental illness. The way it can creep up on a person and take hold, not allowing them to take action and fight. Yet despite it all Nora fought her way through the fear and found it within herself to fight for her life.
The Midnight Library is a fascinating look into what can happen in alternate lives. Please note this book may be triggering to some as the catalyst is Nona taking her life. But it also contains messages of hope. Each life Nora experiences drives her towards a better understanding of happiness and how to let go of past regrets. This is a book for readers who enjoy motivational stories with a hint of sci-fi.
Originally posted at www.behindthepages.org.
DNF @ 9%. The description made it seem like it would be about whimsical adventures in a library but it's not. It's about a depressed women who is unsatisfied with her life and decides she's had enough of living. Then she goes into a mystical library to see if she would've been happier if her life panned out differently. If she had made different decisions would she finally be happy? Obviously not.
I had to DNF because oof this was just not for me. The main character is kind of unlikable because she's so mopey and dissatisfied with her life. And I simply cannot relate to her obsession with redoing her regrets in life. It was getting too preachy for me and I wasn't that interested in finishing. But I'm happy that this book resonated with some people or helped someone get through a tough time.
في مكان ما , بين الحياة والموت , وجدت نورا نفسها بين رفوف لا نهائية من الكتب. عقارب ساعتها كانت تشير إلى منتصف الليل. طوال الوقت. تستقبلها أمينة المكتبة اللطيفة لتساعدها في فهم هذا المكان الغريب الذي وجدت نفسها فيه. كل كتاب على الأرفف يمثل حياة محتلفة تعيشها نورا في مكان ما في كون ما , و بوجودها في هذا المكان, كان باستطاعتها اختيار الحياة التي تريدها ومن ثم العيش فيها ..
هذه ببساطة قصة الكتاب, أحادية البعد وواضحة دون حبكة معقدة.
استمتعت بقراءة الكتاب والتنقل مع نورا بين عوالمها المختلفة. كانت عندي عدة مشاكل سأذكرها في القسم الأخير من المراجعة, ولكن الكتاب بمجمله كان ممتعاً.
الكتاب ليس قصيراً, ولكن بساطة الفكرة و القصة تجعله مناسبا للمبتدئين في القراءة. لذا, أنصح به لمن يريد دخول عالم القراءة الجميل.
من الغريب في القصة, أن الكاتب لم يذكر مشاعر نورا عند دخولها في جسسم غريب عنها, فعلى الرغم من أنها كانت تواجه صعوبة في تدبير أمو حياتها في الاكوان التي زارتها, إلا أنها لم تذكر أي شيء عن جسدها, باستثناء المرة التي ذكرت فيها جرح العملية القيصرية في نسخة من نسخها الكثيرة.و النقطة الأخرى التي لم أعجبتني, هي عدم واقعية الكاتب في توقع أن نورا سوف تدخل عالماً متوازيا و تجد نفسها سعيدة تلقائيا لتقر البقاء فيه للأب, فهي تجد نفسها كل مرة داخل حياة ليست حياتها و عالم ليس عالمها, فمن الطبيعي أن تريد المغادرة والخروج منه عند أي مشكلة صغيرة, لهذا كانت النهاية بالنسبة لي متوقعة و هذه مشكلتي الثالثة.النهائة كانت متوقعة من الصفحات الأولى, نورا تتجول في عوالم عدة و من ثم تقرر أن حياتها جيّدة بما يكفي لأن تعيشها. وددت لو غّير الكاتب في هذه النهاية فطريقة ما , لو جعلها تختار كوناً آخر أو تموت في المكتبة أو أي خيار مجنون بطريقة ما لأعطى الكتاب بعداً جديدا , أما النهاية الحالية فهي ما سيتوقعه أي قارئ عندما يبدأ بقراءة الرواية.لم أقتنع أبداً بآخر سبب جعل نورا تترك العالم , فلقد كانت سعيدة و راضية فيه, حتى أنها بدأت بتذكر أشخاصٍ و أحداث لم تعرفهم من قبل في هذا العالم, وهذا دليل على انغماسها فيه و تقبلها له.
Trigger Warning: This is not a spoiler as it's the how the book starts off, but there should be a trigger warning for suicide here. Why don't we have trigger warnings on books? This book is so well written and a fascinating concept. But I have so many feelings about this one...
Contains spoilers
This riff on the It's a Wonderful Life concept never strays too far from the expected. There's a certain fun to seeing Nora's alternate lives, but it gets repetitive fast. The author's preoccupation with the relative flatness of her stomach strikes me as a particularly masculine way of gauging the levels of fitness of the versions of Nora. It is, naturally, the experience of motherhood that almost tips her in to an alternate existence.
I'm not qualified to speak to his treatment of her depression, but I was interested in the fact that the character seemed to stop noticing whether her versions were on antidepressants, only to pick that thread up again at the very end. Whether this is purposeful or shoddy editing, who is to say?
This is the kind of book I would recommend to someone that is just starting their journey into reading.
Very easy to read, somehow entertaining story but too long and - maybe - a bit too shallow.
On the one hand, The Midnight Library has the rare distinction of being a quick, compelling read that stirred me to serious introspection; I have always identified with Plath's fig-tree metaphor in The Bell Jar, and Haig's alternate take on the choices that make up our lives is an existentialist rebuke that resonated strongly for me personally. This is a page-turner: the chapters are short, with many bordering on abrupt (a stylistic choice that works well for the subject matter), and the prose is straightforward but contains more than a few pithy jewels. I loved the concept of a library wherein a visitor could flip through alternate lives as easily as through pages
On the other, I found this book to be predictable, heavy-handed, and overly didactic. (The further the protagonist, Nora, progressed toward self-actualization, the more The Midnight Library read to me like a self-help book, especially insofar as I felt free to assimilate what I wanted and scratch the rest.) With as much telling as the book does, it seems to show something different with surprising frequency; for instance, the book spends a couple of pages explaining in no uncertain terms that Nora should prioritize her own wishes rather than those of others, but, from start to finish, illustrates that her happiness hinges on her impact on others' lives. I also think it's dangerous and offensive to imply (as this book does) that depression is, or is the result of, a choice; so too is Nora's unnecessarily stigmatizing aversion to any of the many lives in which she discovers she is on antidepressants, as though this were a personal failing.
Ultimately, I found this novel a largely enjoyable and thought-provoking use of an evening, but it's no surprise that it's polarizing despite its acclaim and continued popularity.
Again the type of book that sophomore in high school me would have balled over
2.5 rounded up.
The premise was pretty good, but it also seemed (somewhat predictably) false.
And as much as I'm mad at Nora being denied what was repeated promised to her she chose and chose hard the life with Ash & Molly but it “took too long” for her choice to take effect or some nonsense
It's a quick, fun little adventure but it reads like a movie script (one's watered down from an actual book), and for what it's worth I think all the scenes lend themselves very well to Hollywood magic. The take-home message is little preachy but I didn't mind it so much because the story moved quickly enough.
Overall, enjoyable but not for those seeking something deep.
Very thought provoking and well written. Finds a way to not become too circulatory. Sweet ending too.