The Midnight Library
Book - 2020
0525559477
9780525559481


Opinion
From Library Staff
4.23 Stars
With Rave reviews across the board, meet Goodreads Book of the year!
This title is also available in other formats.
This book is fantastic. It's a beautiful story with phenomenal writing. It digs into the human heart and exposes everything: the good, the bad, and everything in between. It's a story about life and appreciating the life that you have (similar to It's a Wonderful Life). Loved this. Highly recommend.
From the critics

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Quotes
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I'm feeling much better, generally," she lied. "It's not clinical. The doctor says it's situational depression. It's just that I keep on having new... situations."

"We only know what we perceive. Everything we experience is ultimately just our perception of it. It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

"When you stay too long in a place, you forget just how big an expanse the world is. You get no sense of the length of those longitudes and latitudes...it is hard to have a sense of the vastness inside any one person. But once you sense that vastness, once something reveals it, hope emerges, whether you want it to or not, and it clings to you as stubbornly as lichen clings to rock."

"If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don't give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise. Keep your head down. Keep your stamina. Keep swimming."

"The rook is my favorite piece. It's the one that you think you don't have to watch out for. It is straightforward. You keep your eye on the queen, and the knights, and the bishop, because they are the sneaky ones. But it's the rook that often gets you. The straightforward is never quite what it seems."

"Never underestimate the big importance of small things...You must always remember that."
Notices
Add NoticesFrightening or Intense Scenes: A cat dies at the beginning of the novel and people who are uncomfortable with death may also be worried about the idea of parents dying. Sensitive groups such as those who become triggered by the loss of parents should also take caution.
Coarse Language: In some parts of the book, Nora seed tends to swear a little but nothing severe

Comment
Add a CommentIn the space between life and death, Nora slips in and out of the parallel universe versions of her life. The book is a reflection of the choices we've made in life, and whether our regrets are truly regrets, or if things happen just as they should have. Charming and sweet at times, the book is fairly predictable but worth your time.
I was struck by the diverse opinions expressed in the reviews here. After reading it myself, I reflect that the book made me think about my own life, for me its rare that a book would have such an impact. So I'm grateful to have read it.
Interesting idea but rather superficially explored. Never was interested enough in the main character to really care about her. And went from lives related to her past into basically any life is possible. I also disagree with the simplistic concept that, of course, your current life, no matter how bad it may be in actuality or in your mind, is the best life for you if you just appreciate it properly.
This is the book that would come to mind when asked which book had made a memorable impression on me. A unique plot with thoughts that made me stop reading to reflect on and worth writing down. How many of us own a Book of Regrets that we carry around and that takes so much of our physical and mental energy? Come to think of that for a minute - why do we keep it in our souls, sometimes dwelling on certain chapters feeling sorry for ourselves? I learned a lot from this book and I enjoyed reading it and that makes it fabulous.
This book started out interesting, but then became sort of repetitive and predictable. I was ready to be done about halfway through. Nuggets of little life lessons (albeit predictable as well) gave it a melancholy and sweet ending.
Nora's life seems out of control. She's situationally depressed and has just lost both of her jobs. Her parents are both dead, her brother won't speak to her, her best and only friend lives far away and seems to have ghosted her, and her cat, Volt, has just been found dead, so Nora decides that she doesn't want to live anymore. Instead of waking up in the hospital after she overdoses on antidepressants, Nora finds herself in someplace called The Midnight Library, and the former librarian from her school is the librarian there. She tells Nora that she can pick any book off of the shelf and live the life in that book that is based on decisions she regretted in the past. Nora doesn't believe it, but when she pulls one of the books, she finds herself in a time from the past.
The Midnight Library is an exploration of decisions, regrets, and the lives we make for ourselves. The character of Nora represents the "every man" in all of us. As the story progresses, Nora learns about herself and others until she makes an informed decision about her life. Overall, this is a good story with a very strong theme that comes across as a little preachy, but ultimately makes me think about my own life and choices.
The Midnight Library is about Nora's messy life, choices not taken and in no way memorable. Have no idea how it got on the best sellers lists?
This was a beautifully written book. The story was at times heart breaking and uplifting, and the writing was positively cinematic.
A great premise - there is a library of alternative lives to try out in the wisp of space between life and death. And a good beginning that grabbed me. But ultimately the premise and beginning were failed by a sappy and saccharine execution and an author that hammered his reader with self-help platitudes.
What an exceptional book! I have always had that feeling of "what if I would have done this differently", "what if I never dated that person", how would my life be different? IN Matt Haig's new novel The Midnight Library answers those questions for the main protagonist Nora Seed. Nora has decided to die, she feels as if this world isn't for her anymore. Then she ends up at The Midnight Library where she can choose from different books of her life and see how those life's would have turned out, if she did them differently. As long as Nora continues to stay alive in her 'root" life, the library will continue to exist. But what if when you can go back, you see that that life isn't for you either? Nora has tried many lives but is becoming discouraged with how she feels with each new life. Matt Haig is a wonderful writer that will captivate the reader of The Midnight library. Although this is a heavy book with heavy subject material, it is also a book about hope. About the hope that we have once we choose to live, and not just live until the time comes we are not alive anymore. But to actually live and love the life we are in. How we are the chooser of happiness and how we can't expect our life to be better without putting in that effort. Was very hard to put down this book once I got going. Was rich with characters and with life and hope.