The Midnight Library: Reviews by 2021 Reading Challengers

[Winter, Group Reads]

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

Please make sure to mark your spoilers by typing "[spoiler]" at the start and [/spoiler] at the end but replacing the []s with <>s.

[Patricia]

It seems interesting to me. I haven't read that yet but I'll read it when I have time to read it.

[Becki]

I loved this book! It really made me think and appreciate the little things.

[Adrienne]

I gave this book 5 stars. As I said in my review, the book is fantasy, the story is intriguing, and the ending is uplifting.

[Steve]

Feels a little like a self-help book, and the pattern quickly becomes predictable, but this is a quick read and an enjoyable story. I appreciated Mr. Haig's perspective on the topic of regrets and the utility of overcoming them. I wonder if this book reminded anyone else of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. While Addie and Nora took different approaches, they each appeared to be slogging through infinite experiences in search of happiness.

[Bray]

This book was super different from the books I normally read but it surprised me. I didn't really know what to expect and I found it super interesting and new. I loved the idea of the book of regrets. I know that there have been times where I wonder if I chose something different or didn't say something and chose to say something else if the outcome would be any different. I liked how the story kinda came full circle in the end. It was a nice start to my summer reading. I think I gave this book a 4 star in the end. It was really good and I understand why so many people loved it.

[Rita_rs]

As someone who tends to overthink every choice I make, this book was very comforting. I liked the idea that even though the choices we made seem like the wrong ones, we can never be sure that any other choice would have a better outcome.

[Michael]

I reviewed it in my feed.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It's spoiler-filled, so read at your own risk if you haven't finished it yet.

[Meesh Reads]

I really enjoyed this book, the story resonated with me & it gives you a lot to think about. I found myself wanting a trip to the library.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

I read this in January. I had thoughts...

I have very mixed thoughts about this one. It was enjoyable enough to get through quickly. I always enjoy these types of "what if" storylines and this was an entire book of them! However, it was painfully predictable, and I'm not sure I liked some of the messages.

(view spoiler)[Nora kills herself because she feels... well the way one feels when they decide to kill herself I guess. Despondent? Lonely? Useless? She loses a lot within a short period of time, culminating in the death of her beloved cat. A nice neighbor helps her bury the thing and then she goes into her apartment and attempts suicide.

Instead of dying immediately, she ends up in the Midnight Library where she can now choose from any possible life she could have lived. She "undoes" some regrets that she's had (not marrying Dan, not going to Australia, not becoming a glaciologist, not becoming a rock star, not becoming an Olympic swimmer... those are the big ones). Turns out, surprise surprise, that even being rich and famous or having a successful career, or owning a vinyard or... you get it... is not the key to happiness! *gasp shock* In most of these lives she's still depressed or disappointed in some way. Along the way she sort of starts learning what to look for. Near the end she finds a life where she is married to the guy who helped her bury the cat and they have a daughter. She lives there for a while and really wants to stay but ends up back at the library anyway.

She then fights for her life within the library and comes to back in her root life, where, turns out, she has quite a few people who would care and whose lives would have been worse without her, or with her in a different place in her life at the time. Now she has potential and doesn't want to die anymore! And probably asks Ash out on that date and maybe they'll have a kid together in a few years.

I was hoping and predicting she'd end up living through the attempt and I was right, which is both happy (because happy ending yay!) and a little off-putting (wow so predictable!).

Most of the themes and messages were either super heavy-handed or felt a bit off somehow. Like, maybe the life she found so much joy in shouldn't be the one where she is a wife and a mother? Isn't society trying to get away from the whole woman's worth is measured by her household? I wasn't offended by it; it just seemed silly I guess. The author writes this off as her feeling love for the first time, which I guess sort of works but it still made me cringe juuuuust a little.

I'm also not sure I liked the mechanics of how Nora inserting herself into lives worked. It seemed like she was taking over someone else's life. She felt this way too but it made me not want her to find happiness. I was not rooting for her to stay in the life with the husband and kid. I wanted the Nora who actually married the husband and gave birth to the kid to be able to live her life!

I didn't even really like our Nora as a character. I felt like she got lost within all the versions of her and we never really did get to know her. We just watched a stranger get shuffled around so much that she was just busy reacting to and "learning from" all those things instead of having any sort of actual character development. (hide spoiler)]

[John]

4 stars out of 5.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Nora Seed is of a mind that she’s turned down too many opportunities and made too many mistakes. To that end, she decides to end her life.

Things go awry, though, when Nora happens upon a library of infinite breadth, kept by her old school librarian. The clock on the outside is stuck on midnight. And every book (save for one) is another life she could have.

So that is our opening conceit for The Midnight Library, the latest from English author Matt Haig. She inhabits herself from another existence, until she feels it’s not what she would have wanted, and slips back into this bibliographic purgatory, to try another. These life-hopping shenanigans are complicated mightily because Nora still has her initial memories, and has to roll with the situation until she slips out, which sometimes isn’t easy.

This baseline identity is critical to Nora’s redemption. If she just test-drives a life as that iteration, she’d take for granted what she has and doesn’t have. She could remember what she did, once she returns to the Library, but it’s vital that she retains what she found in each life, and carries it into another.

Nora’s struggle is one for personal meaning. She decides fairly early on that she’d rather still be alive after all, but that’s not enough to let her do so. She makes the most out of her time in the Midnight Library, but ultimately, it doesn’t take much for her to fall out of a life and go find another one. As she tumbles in and out of these lives, she gains priceless insights into what she believed sucked all worth from her existence, and gains priceless insight to what they really meant. Mrs. Elm, like many librarians, has to feel out what Nora wants to read, based on vague criteria.

The book is lightly philosophical, with such insights as “a want is a lack of something,” and nods to figured like Thoreau and Voltaire (at least, when it comes to the name of a cat.) Obviously, as a book about one person’s potential lives, much is made of the rolling effects and causes of one’s choices. Some attention is paid to the mechanics of the Library, making mention of quantum superposition and mental images, but they don’t bog down the crux of the story, of Nora’s need to find her life’s value. 

The book is approachable, though, thanks to its lean but tender narrative voice, and short chapter length. The worldbuilding of the Library and its governing logic is somewhat odd, but consistent, and serves Nora’s narrative purpose with a deft touch, without simply indulging her whims.

I was concerned, initially, that since the inciting incident is a suicide, it would have romanticized it, framed it as the opportunity for an exciting adventure, or a tonic for fixing someone’s crappy life. Fortunately, the suicide is framed as a minor element, and framed as something Nora must overcome. It rarely feels like her life is in much danger, but then, such tension might have damaged the story’s delicate fabric.

Overall, The Midnight Library sometimes feels a bit low-key and navel-gazing, but it understands what it’s about and how to execute it. It’s a warm yet challenging celebration of life, and we can benefit richly from its lessons.

 

[Valerie]

This was one of those books which spoke directly to me with its emphasis on the poisonous action of regret in our lives. It obviously owes much to the author’s own experience of depression and anxiety and there is a strong hint of mindfulness training but I think it manages to remain a novel rather than a self help manual. I agree that the ending is predictable but really it had to end that way as a celebration of life as it really is rather than a fantasy created in our minds.

[Tiana J]

“The only way to learn is to live.”

This book really touched me. My toxic trait has been collecting “shoulda, coulda, woulda’s” so the book’s focus of regrets was personal. I thought that the book was sometimes a bit cheesy with some of the hallmark quotes thrown about but overall, I couldn’t stop reading it.

[Shari]

This book was on my TBR list and I had forgotten what it was about until it came up as the group read. This was a really good book. I liked how Nora was able to just think of a 'new' life and she was there and living that new life. This book made you think about the large and small decisions we each make everyday and how they might effect the rest of your life.

[Marleen]

I can see from all the reviews here and on the Goodreads page of the book that I’m in the minority but this was a very disappointing read for me. Maybe my expectations were too high but the premise seemed so great and I didn’t like the execution at all. I thought it was a depressing, moralizing and predictable read, and I didn’t like the writing style either. It was a very fast read and there were one or two side characters I liked (but didn’t get enough from because the story jumps around so much), but that’s pretty much it. Too bad.

[Neha]

"You dont have to understand life. You just have to live it."

This was my first book by the author and it definitely has set the bar high. I discovered it when it was announced winner of Goodreads Choice Awards and I am so glad that I did pick it up.

The story is well built up and engaging. With every new life Nora enters we see a new setting, new characters and new flavors.... just as Life offers us at every step.
It was a powerful thought to see bursting of 'what if' bubble. (view spoiler)[The most perfect life of Nora's imagination gave her the biggest lesson of how perfect the existing life is. (hide spoiler)]

Wonderful and thought provoking read.

[Megan]

I’m always a little on edge when a male author writes from a female main character’s perspective. It wasn’t wrong in this instance, but I also didn’t feel connected to the character. She did not always feel authentic. I appreciate what the author was trying to accomplish, and overall, I liked the message. “Why want another universe if this one has dogs?” Overall, worth reading. 4 stars

[Lori]

I didn't realize that this was the book group read. I read if for a book group on Facebook and also with one of my reading buddies I met on Goodreads. It was 5 stars for me and this is the review I posted.

Every now and then a book comes along that has mixed reviews. It either really appeals or doesn't. This book has impacted me in so many ways that it is almost difficult to put it into words. I have only just finished a self help book called The Four Agreements when I read this book. At some point in The Midnight Library, not too far in, as I was reading I was thinking of the Four Agreements. I was impacted greatly by the Four Agreements and together with my best friend, whose therapist had asked I read it with her, I saw how they would help the Nora. I could see myself and my friend in her, our low spots, very slow spots and how we had tried lifting ourselves and not until The Four Agreements did we learn how. Once Nora started to like and love herself, and like and love aspects of her life as it had been she could see a future for herself and could live the best life possible. We are not so lucky to have a Midnight Library to help us and we have to see these things for ourselves but to be able to see what was important, what mattered, who was important and who mattered was eye opening for Nora and she had the time to live into the best life possible without regrets of what might have. I found myself soul searching and reliving moments from my past and from my present and how I wanted to see the future to be. I was emotionally and mentally stimulated by this book and it is one that I will not part with and when I need reminding that things could be much worse, I shall pick it up and read parts again. I cannot say who I would recommend this book to because in my mind it is a book with nothing to dislike about it but, like I admitted we can't all like the same things. If you have questions about yourself and how your life could be better and have nothing but regrets maybe this book will give you a little of the insight that you need to reevaluate yourself and your life and hopefully see that things could be worse and that life is truly worth living. (less)

[Joy D]

Finished it several days ago and liked it a lot. I admire the author trying to help people dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts.

My Review:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - 4 stars - My Review

(copied below for those who prefer the reviews to be embedded in the thread)

In this book, protagonist Nora Seed is dissatisfied with life. She finds herself in the Midnight Library, staffed by a beloved librarian from Nora’s past. The librarian offers her the chance to select a book from the shelves, which, when opened, allows her to experience a different version of her life based on making different decisions in course of her life. If she finds an acceptable new path, she can remain. If not, she can return and select another book to sample another life based on different decisions. If she dies in her “root” life, the library will cease to exist.

This book portrays the various ideas of happiness – where Nora’s life is “successful” based on money, fame, accomplishments, and relationships. She chooses different partners, specialties, and locations. These vignettes introduce humor into the narrative, as Nora finds herself talking to people who know her, but she does not know them, nor does she know the context up to the point where she joined this particular version of her life.

For me, the only drawback is that it sometimes takes Nora almost no time to determine a particular version of her life is not to her liking (this happens, as you may expect, numerous times). I enjoy Matt Haig’s writing style and appreciate his desire to help those suffering from depression. It is a creative take on the concept of a multiverse.

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

This book was unusual for me, since I don't tend to read a lot of fantasy. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I appreciated the fact that Nora realized what was good in her life, and decided to take action to improve her outlook.