The New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year “A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits.”—The Washington Post The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The … into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort 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 blockbuster 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.
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We’ve all wondered where we might be if only we’d made a different decision. Married someone else. Taken the crazy job. Had children. Didn’t have children. Nora gets to find out what we all wonder . . . This is SUCH a fantastic concept for a book and Matt Haig followed through on it. When Mrs. Elm said, “I am who I am,” I was completely SOLD. And the ending is exactly what I hoped it would be.
Great premise that looks at the alternative lives a person might have led. Good moral to the story that the life we are leading may just be the best one for us.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The concept of trying out different lives had you made different decisions was fascinating and I really grew to live the main character, Nora. We all think about what would have our lives been like if…but read this book and your perspective may change. This was well done and did a great job of mixing fantasy with science and it grabs at your emotions. I would definitely recommend this book.
Just wonderful. It was impossible to put down and I had work to do! I love Nora.
I almost put down The Midnight Library after the first two chapters because it felt so sad and hopeless. Then a friend told me to keep at it, and I am SO VERY glad I did. I absolutely love this book. Without giving away anything, this story and it’s so-appropriate ending will stay with me for a long time. Uplifting (despite the first 2 chapters), unpredictable, and absolutely beautiful!! Now go read it!
What can I say that hasn’t been said about this book. It’s well-written, it’s touching, it makes you think, and it’s cleverly done.
In the book, Nora attempts suicide. As she hovers between life and death, she’s transported to a library where every book is a different life she might have lived. It has a bit of an It’s a Wonderful Life feel to it and the ending isn’t any big surprise, but it’s a nice read and a lovely journey.
The Midnight Library is one of those transformative reads that you just know you’ll be a changed person by the time you turn the last page. It’s full of hope and love and I recommend it to anyone who needs to feel good about this journey of a root life. Required reading for the purpose-driven soul.
One of the most profound, sad and yet joyful books I’ve ever read.
Just didn’t engage me. I found it all pretty preposterous.
This book’s premise and storyline were fascinating. What I enjoyed even more than the main character and her unique adventure was the question presented to the reader; Would you visit all your what-ifs or roads not taken?
This book will make a person look at regret and their life from a different angle. I see why it won GoodReads Choice Awards in 2020.
This is a story I’d recommend to just about any adult or teenager.
I don’t read many books that include a fantasy theme, but when I read the blurb for The Midnight Library, I knew I had to read it. I mean, a story about a library at the edge of the universe with an infinite number of books…..sign me up!!!
I highly recommend this book to anybody that has ever wondered how their life would have been different if they had taken a different path/or made a different decision.
Matt Haig is a superb storyteller and will have you hooked from beginning to end. The story reminds us to appreciate the little things in life, live without regrets and know that even the little things we do, can make a difference.
I really couldn’t care about Nora is any of her incarnations. Olympian, musician, philosopher, scientist — is any one person that multi-talented? This just droned on and on and on. And when the author introduced quantum physics / mechanisms, my brain fogged over.
In did have some good philosophical points, though.
Usually I put trigger warnings at the end of reviews, but I want to start this one out with a blatant one. This book is about Suicide. It starts, discusses, and ends with talks of Suicide. There are more than one Suicides happening in this book. If you are at all sensitive to this topic, please read through reviews before starting this book because it’s an intensely emotional read.
That being said. If you are deep into suicidal thoughts, depression and such I truly think that you will appreciate this read. You’re going to need tissues, but it’s worth it. By the time we meet Nora, her regrets and depressive thoughts have eaten away at her. She is leading a very dull life, that she doesn’t want to be apart of anymore. The first chapters made me so sad for her, and where she was at in life.
She walks us through her deepest regrets, and her reasons for choosing the path she does so elegantly, it’s hard not to put myself in her shoes. She knows depression like an old friend, and battles it to keep her head above water. But even with all that despair this book takes you through a journey of self actualization that ends with a beautiful message. Which I don’t think is ‘just change your attitude, and your depression will be gone’ but more along the lines of ‘self acceptance, and letting go of regrets’. There is no instant cure for depression, but life is about choices, and we make them with every breath we take.
“The paradox of volcanoes was that they were symbols of destruction but also life. Once the lava slows and cools, it solidifies and then breaks down over time to become soil – rich, fertile soil.
She wasn’t a black hole, she decided. She was a volcano. And like a volcano she couldn’t run away from herself. She’d have to stay there and tend to that wasteland.
She could plant a forest inside herself.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
TL;DR – I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK. In all my years of struggling with depression and feeling like the worst possible person, never have I come across a more beautifully written walk through of why to not choose suicide. Normally I am not one of parallel universe theories, but this makes so much sense to me.
I love the use of the ‘library’ and ‘librarian’, the fact that she meets others struggling as she is, and how works through all her regrets. Ugh. It is so beautifully done.
The side characters as all well crafted, well meaning friends and family. They are relatable, and I feel like I’ve met them all in my own life. This book is a must read.
Nora doesn’t want to live any more and ends up in the midnight library, a place you get to live all the other lives you could have lived, think of sliding doors.
I found it entertaining seeing her test drive lives, and how there was something wrong with every life she tried, even the most perfect seeming ones.
I would describe this as a self-help book hidden in a fictional story. It really made me think about what else I can do without changing what I have.
Enjoyable, entertaining, and thought-provoking.
Thought-provoking, though the main character was a bit whinny.
I was waitlisted for this book for four months at my library! Then, when I finally got my hands on it, I devoured it in less than 24 hours. I just couldn’t stop. Even as I ached to slow down snd truly let myself revel in the lyrical genius of Haig’s story, I couldn’t stop turning pages. He truly writes magic. There’s no other word for it. It’s a beautiful, tragic, emotional journey and I loved every single second of it. Forget returning it to the library, I’ll be buying this one for my shelf.
I have never met such a wet blanket character in my life. I understand what the premise of the book is about, but honestly, all her whining and incessant misery put me off the book.
While this is not normally the type of book I would read, and it took me some time to get into the story, once I was sucked into Nora’s problems, this book was good on so many levels. It teaches us not to take life too seriously and to just live it, instead of worrying about every little thing. It also teaches us about the potential of our lives and to focus on that potential, instead of all the things that are going wrong. Highly recommend this book.
Despair . . . Regrets…regrets . . . So many regrets and so many possibilities . . . And lots of potentials . . . Hope! There are many messages in this wonderful book. Loved it!
While I did find it a little schmaltzy at times, I do recognize the fact that in the time surrounding the pandemic and political/social discord (May 2021 as I write this), it is the balm needed for many. I enjoyed the message of hope. Finding the value in one’s life and in oneself is a necessary part of being a happy human. The literal and figurative dying to make that breakthrough is poetically perfect, because such a feat is Herculean, and coming out the other side like being reborn.
Enjoyable book. It will make for great book club discussion.