Book review: The Midnight Library

This book starts with the line “Nineteen years before she decided to die….”. This line got me interested into reading this book.

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?

– Matt Haig (The Midnight Library)

The theme of this book revolves around suicide and hope of living life. It is a story about a girl named Nora Seed and it’s about her journey from when she decides to commit suicide to how she realises that there is more to life than she had known.

That was how she had felt most of her life.
Caught in the middle. Struggling, flailing, just trying to survive while not knowing which way to go. Which path to commit to without regret.

– Matt Haig (The Midnight Library)

The author Matt Haig, accurately describes the conditions of feeling isolated and lonely before the protagonist, Nora Seed commits suicide. It is evident in the early phase that she has lost her will to live because she has cut ties from most of the people around her. Towards the end, the author explains how her seemingly small acts of kindness made a difference in people’s lives.

Want,’ she told her, in a measured tone, ‘is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely.

– Matt Haig (The Midnight Library)

Its the journey of protagonist Nora Seed, as she gets moves from hating her life and thinking that she does not deserve to live to how she lives different lives through “the midnight library” and she realises the perfect life for her is not the one she is in a glamours profession but one where is can be herself and enjoy the little things in life.

What is the Midnight Library?

The midnight library is a library (that she discovers at midnight) where there are books about different lives that she is living in a parallel universe. She gets to live those lives and experience the kind of life she would have had, had she made different choices.

What I liked the most about this novel is how the author has covered various different aspects of suicide – feeling lonely and isolated, lack of hope, feeling disappointed with yourself, experiencing regret about various decisions made in life, etc. I like how he navigates through all these problems and talks about healing and cultivating hope. The writing style is engaging. It is written in a beautiful manner.

Do you ever think “how did I end up here?” Like you are in a maze and totally lost and it’s all your fault because you were the one who made every turn? And you know that there are many routes that could have helped you out, because you hear all the people on the outside of the maze who made it through, and they are laughing and smiling. And sometimes you get a glimpse of them through the hedge. A fleeting shape through the leaves. And they seem so damn happy to have made it and you don’t resent them, but you do resent yourself for not having their ability to work it all out. Do you? Or is this maze just for me?

– Matt Haig ( The Midnight Library)

I personally LOVED the book. Its a good read. I’d definitely recommend it as a weekend read.