Meredith (Trying to catch up!)'s Reviews > The Midnight Library

Magical

“Let’s be kind to the people in our own existence.”

The Midnight Library is a book about choices, regrets, and embracing life.

Nora Seed is having a really bad day. She is mugged, loses her job, blamed for other’s people’s failures, and her cat is run over by a car. She is also seriously depressed. This day is one of many bad days that Nora has experienced over the last decade of her life. She can’t take life anymore and attempts suicide.

Nora wakes up to discover that she is in the space between life and death known as The Midnight Library. Here, Nora is given the opportunity to take the paths she didn’t choose and undo her regrets. She travels into the multiverse, getting to experience her other lives. What she finds is that the grass isn’t always greener, and in order to live, one must push aside their regrets and embrace their potential.

“She just needed potential. And she was nothing if not potential.

There are many versions of Nora, but she finds she is the same person in every life she chooses. She might be happier, but she doesn’t have what she needs, which is love. She cannot heal until she can open up and accept the love of others, but also love herself and recognize her value.

I love Nora’s character. I felt all of her emotions, the dark, and the light. She is fragile, desperate, adventurous, a rockstar, a loving sister, a good friend, a kind neighbor, a good teacher, and, most importantly, a survivor.

This is my first book by Matt Haig and I love how he weaves in bits of magic, fantasy, and whimsy alongside Quantum physics, literature, and philosophy.

This is an emotional read. Reading about a character who is in such a desperate state of mind that they attempt to take their life wasn’t easy, but the other side of this book offers a lot of love, warmth, compassion, and healing. It was surprisingly heartwarming and uplifting. Nora’s story inspired me to turn off the channel of regrets that often fill my head and embrace the here and now.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review.