The Midnight Library

There are always those books out there that get praise up the wazoo. Everyone and their dog have read it, loved it and now they want everyone else to read it.

The Midnight Library is that kind of book and it deserves all the accolades heaped upon it. 

I went into this book without knowing anything about it, never having read anything by Matt Haig before. I'm going to leave my review a bit vague because I think going into this book without preconceived ideas is the way to go. With its unique premise, Haig has written a beautiful story about regrets, mistakes, 'what ifs' and roads not taken. He also tackles bigger issues of loss, self-doubt, mental illness, friendship, family and how to stand up for what you want and appreciate what you have.  

“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices… Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

This book hit me hard in the feels and gave me a lot to think about. I actually finished this book a few days ago but gave myself time to digest what I had read. There is a lot packed into this smallish book, including many amazing quotes (I've included just a few here).

This book is contemporary fiction with a Sci-Fi twist. It's a story with a bit of magic and a lot of emotion and gives readers much to mull over as they relate it to their own lives, decisions, success and regrets. Life is hard, satisfying, emotional, painful, beautiful and complex and our perception plays such a big role in how we live our lives. This is a story about endless possibilities. 

“As Thoreau wrote, ‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

This is my first five star read of 2021. It is a stunning, inspiring and thought-provoking read that will make you look at your own life, your own choices and the roads not taken differently. 

Get yourself (and your dog) a copy of this book. You will not regret it.

Other Favourite Quotes

“The only way to learn is to live”

“And that sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness. You can’t have one without the other. Of course, they come in different degrees and quantities. But there is no life where you can be in a state of sheer happiness for ever. And imagining there is just breeds more unhappiness in the life you’re in.”

“We only need to be one person.
We only need to feel one existence.
We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.”

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Matt Haig

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Sci-Fi

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Pages: 288

Publisher: Harper Avenue

First Published: August 13, 2020

Opening Lines: Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed 

sat in the warmth of the small library at Hazeldene 

School in the town of Bedford. 

Book Description from GoodReads: 'Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?'

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

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 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.