(The Midnight World #1)
By: Matt Haig
“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.”
The Midnight Library
*This post contains spoilers for The Midnight Library
Overview:
Between life and death there is a library.
The Midnight Library
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
This book was a nice break from all the mystery and horror books that I have been consuming lately.
Nora is our main character. After one particularly bad day (her cat dies, she looses her job and is just feeling overall isolated), she believes that she would be better off dead.
Nora finds herself transported to a library where each book represents and alternative version of her life. With the help of her personal librarian she is able to jump into these alternate worlds to live out different paths she may have taken. These worlds are mostly based off of the regrets that Nora has.
Quickly, Nora realizes that she is better for not choosing other paths in her life. Her regrets turn into close calls that she avoided because she wouldn’t have been happy in those other realities.
We all have things we wish we could change in our lives. That we could go back and choose a different road. The reality is we have one life to live and we can always move forward. We can always reach out to that person we haven’t kept touch with and mend fences.
I did half expect for Nora to stay in the reality where she was married with a child. This did seem like the most full filled life that she had experienced. However, it still wasn’t everything that she wanted. It also wouldn’t have surprised me if she lived that life completely and at the end of that life ended up back in the library. That was she could go back to her regular life knowing that she could have more.
Overall,
It is easy to think that you don’t have the time to make changes. I came to the realization very recently that I still have at least 30 years to work before I retire. Coming to this realization was really eye opening that it is never too late to change your life.
Nora got to live as many lives as she could possibly imagine. In every possible combination of decisions. An overall appealing concept that feels whimsical and nostalgic.
However, there was nothing overly grand about the story. I never had my heart sink or feel great joy. It was just an even ride from start to finish.
Finally, I liked that the library appears different to everyone who visits. Mine would also be a library but others can see it as anything that connects with them.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
