layawaydragon
Written on Jan 16, 2023
The #1 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 Comfort Book.
Don’t miss Matt Haig’s latest instant New York Times besteller, The Life Impossible, available now
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.
- ISBN10 0525559493
- ISBN13 9780525559498
- Publish Date 9 May 2023 (first published 13 August 2020)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc
- Imprint Penguin USA
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 304
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525559498
Reviews
maggiefan
Written on Jul 13, 2022
Berls
Written on Jun 25, 2022
I really enjoyed going with Nora on her journey of self-discovery. She starts off in a truly dark place where she feels that her life is at an absolute dead end and thanks to the journey she finds life's potential. Along the way Nora learns so many valuable lessons, such as that we have to really live for ourselves not others, that sometimes that decision you regret wouldn't have been everything you dreamed it to be, that sometimes you just need to give it some time and things will look entirely different.
All these lessons are wrapped up in a really neat world of the Midnight Library - a library full of all the infinite different paths Nora's life could have taken with every single decision she could have made differently. Such a neat concept and really well executed.
I listened to The Midnight Library, narrated by Carey Mulligan. I'm pretty sure this is the first book I've read a book Carey has narrated but I would happily listen again. It was a solid performance and the characters were delivered really well. I listened comfortably at my normal 2x speed.
Quirky Cat
Written on Feb 22, 2022
If I had to choose just one book that I read in 2022 that utterly wrecked me, it would be The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I almost regret that it took me nearly two years to get around to reading it. I may have waited even longer if not for a friend's recommendation.
How would you react if you learned that there is an entire library of potential lives for you to live? Each book contains a different path, created through a different series of choices you could have made. Which life would you choose?
Nora Seed has been presented with this challenging question. After finding herself wanting to die, she woke up in the Midnight Library. Now she must choose which life she would like to live, out of an infinite number of choices.
“Never underestimate the big importance of small things”
Words cannot fully describe what this book did to me. The Midnight Library ripped me open, gleefully showed me my own beating heart, and then put me back together again. In other words, it utterly wrecked me.
The Midnight Library covers many heavy subjects, and it is admittedly not suited for everyone. Nora Seed is suicidal at several points in this book, including the beginning. She loses loved ones, and not all of those losses are kind. Likewise, she does experience the death of a pet. Additionally, some of the deaths that occur involve cancer or overdoses. So please consider yourself warned of these subjects before diving in.
All of that being said, this is a powerful read. If you think you can handle all of my warnings above, then please make an attempt to read it. It is so worth it. It is worth every minute of pain and every tear shed. I promise you this.
“A person was like a city. You couldn't let a few less desirable parts put you off the whole. There may be bits you don't like, a few dodgy side streets and suburbs, but the good stuff makes it worthwhile.”
The Midnight Library takes a look at what it takes to be a person – to live. It's introspective and causes the reader to look at all the choices they've made in life. But it also teaches us to appreciate those choices, for they made us who we are. There is something so simple and so beautiful in that fact.
I opted to listen to the audiobook of The Midnight Library, which was narrated by Carey Mulligan. She did a wonderful job here, and so I am very grateful that she was able to lend her voice to this story.
Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
Joséphine
Written on Sep 28, 2021
Towards the end though, I felt that The Midnight Library took on the form of Mitch Albom's brand of story telling. It's not a bad thing, really, but not entirely my cup of tea anymore either. I was hoping for a fair bit more complexity in Nora's development and was a little disappointed at how linear the overarching narrative was. It almost felt like the focus was much more on the moral of the story more than the plot. Then again, perhaps that was the entire point and I just missed it.
jen20
Written on May 25, 2021
brdsk
Written on May 12, 2021
The story starts with a seriously depressed character committing suicide. Which is detailed and written well, but reads incredibly triggering. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE THINKING OF COMMITTING SUICIDE. In fact, I had to lay the book down and contact support lines as the graphic description and deep despair of the character made me feel equally awful and hopeless, and made want to do the same as the character did.
That could be considered good writing, by some. But I was shocked and disappointed there was no warning for the suicide in the book.
From there the book becomes incredibly condescending and boring in a manner or self help books written by people that think medical depression can be treated with going for walks.
As a book that is obviously trying to say that there are many ways to live our lives and that while we are alive we can change, it does a remarkably bad job actually understanding what real depression is. This book keeps telling you "stop feeling this way, feel better". Which can be a very harmful message to hear as it completely invalidates how multidimensional depression and its sources can be.
If you are as depressed as the main character is, please reach out to others and get help. You are not alone.
The main character is pretty one dimentional beyond her depression. Most of the plot simply goes over different lives she could have lived. Those experiences are what helps the character get better. These read as well-meaning but ultimately fall flat. They feel repetitive in a way that inspires boredom. It took me weeks to get thorough this book, when usually I read even long fiction books in just a few sittings.
In between those lives, there are pages and pages of "stop regretting things", & "your perspective is wrong" conversations. Which again feel like a lecture from a nice mentally healthy person who does not understand depression.
Overall, for a book with so much praise this is a serious disappointment. I think the same concept could have been a genuinely great book, but it simply fails and is mostly boring to read. I do not recommend this book.
Martha G
Written on Mar 14, 2021
mrs_mander_reads
Written on Oct 30, 2020
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Oct 3, 2020
The library books contain all of Nora’s alternate lives. Every decision made is a new version of a life Nora would have lived. With Mrs. Elm’s guidance, Nora opens books and dives into these alternate life. Sort of trying them on for size. This isn’t always easy particularly because Nora remembers her “root life” but knows nothing of these new lives.
Do you remember wanting to grow up to be a doctor, the first woman on the moon, an explorer who travels Antarctica? Well, Nora get’s to explore all of hers. She owns a pub, becomes a gold medalist, a rock star, a philosopher, a traveler, a glaciologist, wife and mother. Each has its pros and cons. For example, in some timelines her best friend has died or her brother is ill.
Through the books, Nora gains knowledge and appreciation for the seemly pointless life she had. I loved Haig’s writing. His writing is poignant, empathetic and inspiring. It is as if he’s walked in these character’s footsteps.
Carey Mulligan narrates and was the perfect pick for Nora’s perspective. The story flowed wonderfully and she enhanced an already brilliant story through inflection, pacing and tone. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer