Fantasy is not a genre I read, but the premise of this book appealed to me enough to try it; I often wonder what my life would be like if I'd chosen to do this for a living instead of that, moved there instead of here, managed to find someone who loved me. i was wrapped up in this story from the beginning, and, for me, it became more intriguing and surprising and thought-provoking as it went along. I liked that Nora's selections for possible lives went from the obvious to the sort-of farfetched. I started to get disappointed as the "It's a Wonderful Life" conclusion began, but then I figured, what's wrong with reviewing the effect your core life has on other people, especially if you're not a mean person. I also started thinking about reversing the perspective - what would my life have been like if it hadn't been affected by that person, or that person, or that person.
Maybe this story struck a chord with me just because I think my life could have been better if I'd only been more brave, or more certain of what I wanted, or less paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong choice, or ....
But if you're not that kind of person, if you enjoy a confident life, maybe this story won't resonate with you.
A couple of favorite passages:
- 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? (You can hear the people who made it out of the maze, and they) seem so 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.
- You can choose choices but not outcomes. ... It was a good choice. It just wasn't a desired outcome.
- Caught in the middle. Struggling, flailing, just trying to survive while not knowing which way to go. Which path to commit to without regret. ( )

"In the Midnight Library you can't take the same book out twice."

Feeling useless and unloved, Nora Seed attempts to end her life through an overdose. Instead she finds herself in a library managed by Mrs. Elm, a school librarian who was kind to Nora in her youth. Mrs. Elm explains that all the books are stories of Nora's life that diverge from different decisions she made during her life. Nora is allowed to experience her life in different universes until she finds one where she is content.

Nora enters a life where she actually married her ex-fiance Dan and they run a country pub, a life where she joined her friend Izzy in Australia, a life in which she remained committed to competitive swimming and became an Olympic medalist, and a life where she followed her dream of becoming a glaciologist, among several others. The rules of the library are a bit unfair as Nora is plopped into situations with no memory of the life that got her to this point or even the people she's supposed to know. Even in the most satisfying life, Nora notices negative changes in the lives of people she knows (shades of It's a Wonderful Life) and feels like an imposter.

The ending of this novel is quite predictable, but nevertheless it is an inspiring story of embracing the life one has, and a great take on the multiverse theory. ( )

Carey Mulligan was a great choice for the narrator of this book. For me, she will always be Sally Sparrow, the young woman at the centre of Blink, that most brilliant of Doctor Who episodes, which introduced us to the terrifying Weeping Angels. However, I digress.

It took me a little while to get through The Midnight Library. Part of that was life, and part of it was identifying rather strongly with Nora Seed's existential despair at the beginning of the narrative. The way Matt Haig so clearly articulated what it feels like when you examine your own life and can't see anything but an endless litany of failure with no possible hope of redemption, let alone happiness... well. Like countless others, I've been there. So, clearly, has Haig. Happily, I'm in a much better place now, and based on his social media posts, so is Haig. Go Matt! Go me! And Go! all the other survivors. And for those who are mourning the ones who didn't make it, go you good things. Surviving is hard work.

So, the start of the book packed a wallop for me. The middle and the end, a bit less so. There were some internal contradictions that really annoyed me. And here I'm going to add a SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER
The conceit of the ability to step into other possible lives relies on Nora retaining a memory of her root life and the midnight library, but having no memory of her alternative pasts. Some memory of the alternative past might come to her, after being in the life for some time, if she's really chosen to stay, is what Mrs Elm tells her. Much of the dramatic tension and not a few critical points in the narrative hinge on this. However, after going through detailed descriptions of several trips into other possible lives, there's a sort of montage moment. It goes a little like this: "Nora continued to try other possible lives. In one she was a concert pianist, in another a rocket scientist, in another she was homeless. In some she was a this, or a that, or a something-or-other. She lived here, and there, and this other place. In some lives she was a really happy person, in others she was miserable. In some lives she had huge emotions and in others they were small" etc etc. So in these other possible lives we're being told that Nora is experiencing wildly different internal emotional landscapes, as well as a number of highly technical professions. How can that happen if she's carrying her memories, her self, from her root life into all the others?For me, it just doesn't work, unless she's staying in those lives long enough for alternative-past memories to start appearing. Anyway, it's possibly pedantry, but it prevented the full suspension of my disbelief would have made the book really sing.

Also, you just know, from the outset, that this is a feel-good sort of book. So there's no dramatic tension around wondering whether Nora will survive her suicide attempt. There's also not much doubt about which particular possible life Nora will end up in. Because Haig is being a bit of an Aesop. This is, partly, a morality tale. Of course Nora chooses her root life. I pretty much knew this would be the outcome once the workings of the midnight library were explained.

I, personally, reject the notion that we all have a moral imperative to stay alive for as long as we can, no matter how difficult, or indeed intolerable, our circumstances. I acknowledge that people left behind after someone chooses to end their life are forced to navigate incredibly challenging circumstances of their own as a result. But I would never say to someone, you have a moral obligation to stay for the sake of someone else. Because I'm not the one who has to live their life. They are. Telling someone they're somehow bad, or wrong, because they cannot navigate out of despair, is cruel. I'm not saying The Midnight Library does this overtly. I'm saying that, in the slightly blithe tone of the narrative, is an echo that sits on the same spectrum as judgement and lecturing. Which is why I can only give 3/5.

( )

This is a fantastically engaging book, and thought provoking to boot. What would happen if you changed one choice in your life? Nora feels her life is not worth living and decides to die. But she ends up in the Midnight Library at midnight and the point between life and death. She gets to try out all her alternate lives and find the one that fits her best. ( )

Concept was excellent but execution was lacking depth. ( )