Author: Matt Haig
Rating: ⭐⭐ 2.5 / 5
Medium: Hardcover
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Fantasy?
Synopsis
Between life and death there is a library.
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
My Thoughts (Spoiler-Free)
I read most of the book in one day, so it is quite an easy, quick read. The story and the premise of the book interested me, especially as someone who contemplates a lot about past choices and future actions (probably more than necessary). And I imagine this book would hit home for a lot of people who think like that and have gone through similar experiences as Nora.
The biggest message in the book revolved around regrets and choices, and how you might not realize the impact you have on the people around you. It also talks about the downsides of various golden paths of success that you either imagined growing up, or someone else envisioned for you. And that there will always be disappointments, and how it’s important to accept them as part of life rather than try to avoid them. That said, the book was very clearly written in a way to force that message on the reader. I liked some of the adventures and lives Nora lived, but it was obvious that every event and situation was there to put the same message across, even if it meant using examples that are quite extreme. And to me, that took away from the message a bit. It’s like telling a depressed person, “don’t worry, if you did things differently, things would still be bad. All you really need is a change of attitude”. And somehow that’s supposed to make things okay? The book also tends to be quite cliched and predictable because of this, including the ending.
There wasn’t much in terms of characters either. We hardly spend much time with anyone other than Nora, and Mrs Elm I suppose. Though, we hardly go into Mrs Elm’s character beyond being the librarian. There’s nothing directly wrong with Nora’s character but she’s not exactly memorable. And everyone else around her basically existed as cardboard cutouts.
I also question the genre of the book. I wish the book spent a little more time exploring the library and what all is possible in this multiverse with its parallel universes, to really classify it as fantasy rather than a self-help book in disguise. There was also no complexity or depth in any particular “life” that Nora went through. It was over before we really got too far
The reviews I’ve read of the book clearly show that it helped a lot of people. And by no means do I mean to invalidate their journeys. I just don’t think this was the book for me.
Spoilers Ahead
The book clearly put forward the idea early on that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, each based on a different choice Nora made. But in each case, whenever Nora wanted to see a life where she chose something different in her past, the life Mrs Elm decided to put her through had something quite extreme happen. For example, the life where she was an Olympic gold medalist, her mom had died after her dad had an affair. Or the one where she was the lead singer of a chart-topping rock group, her brother died due to a drug overdose that came with the rockstar lifestyle. But my issue is, if there are truly infinite parallel universes, surely there must universes where the “disappointment” doesn’t have to be death of a close friend or family member. This is what I meant by the lack of complexity in any particular life Nora went through. Just a blanket “you are successful but at a great cost”.
Kavi Reads 
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