Thoughts on : The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Posted by Kay on February 10, 2021 2:36 pm in 3 stars reads | 2 comments

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Genre : Fiction, Magical Realism
Stand alone

About the Book  :

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

The Midnight Library was the first novel I read this year, and what a good one to start with!

I’ve always loved books that ask “what if”: people reliving their lives and making different choices, alternate realities, seeing what could have happened if, if, if… These stories rarely fail to entertain and are usually good food for thought, too.

The Midnight Library was all that, but I think what surprised me was how sad, or depressing, the story was at times. I feel like the summary and the cover don’t really convey that, which isn’t a problem, just something I didn’t expect from it. In fact, once I started reading I thought it made the story all the more impactful.

Nora was a great character, flawed, complex, easy to relate to. I immediately cared for her and enjoyed following her as she worked through her stuff. Her reactions to the library and all its possibilities felt very true to me.

I’ll say though that the format makes it a little difficult to connect with the rest of the characters. Nora’s family and friends are often present in her new “lives”, but because of how this all works there’s no continuity there, so you’re constantly getting reacquainted with them to some degree. Luckily though, Nora’s other lives are diverse and always interesting, so I still enjoyed everyone of them.

All in all, I thought The Midnight Library had a nice concept that was well executed. This made me want to go back to The Humans, another book from the author that I started but never finished. Maybe this year will be the year!