‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig [Book Review]

Where do I even start? This book was brilliant, inspiring, heart-warming, emotional, interesting and, most of all, important. It had a lot to say and it said it beautifully.

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Summary

“Sometimes just to say your own truth out loud is enough to find others like you.”

The Midnight Library is a place between life and death. When Nora decides to end her life, she finds herself in this library, full of books of lives she could have had if only she’d made a different decision. One by one, she enters these lives, in an attempt to find her ‘perfect life’, in an attempt to really live.

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I absolutely loved this book – from the beautiful cover, to the world created, to the final moments of the story. I felt completely entranced by the world Haig had created and I honestly couldn’t put it down.

There were so many directions this novel could have taken. Like the amount of potential lives available to Nora, the book had infinite possibilities in terms of what lives could be chosen and described, how Nora entered and lived lives that weren’t technically hers, and how this would change her as a character.

But I needn’t worry how Haig would make this happen because he found a way (like always), and I absolutely loved journeying with Nora as she figured out what she wanted from life and what she needed to be happy. Although she was switching between physical lives, I’m sure this is something relatable for a lot of people who switch between careers, hobbies, trying to find who they are and what makes their life meaningful. We all have regrets, things we wished we would have done differently. This book is all about how we deal with them.

The ending particularly resonated with me, not because I had necessarily been through the exact same experiences as Nora, but because I’ve experienced that same metaphorical clicking of a “switch” where suddenly everything that once felt exhausting now feels full of acceptance and gratitude and love. It’s a transformation where your life is the same, but you feel like you’re a different person and you’re seeing it in a different way. And seeing Nora have this same realisation really meant something to me. The solutions we think we need aren’t in our exterior surroundings, but within ourselves.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I am a huge Matt Haig fan and he inspires me hugely in my own writing. This book honestly blew me away, to the extent that it may even replace my current favourite book The Humans.

Overall, I would describe The Midnight Library as a philosophical dystopian reflection on what it means to truly live. And I think it is full of deeper quotes that would help anyone reflect on their own lives and find their inner meaning.

Check out my other Matt Haig book reviews here:

The Humans / Reasons to Stay Alive / Notes on a Nervous Planet / The Possession of Mr Cave / How to Stop Time / Echo Boy

Have you read The Midnight Library?

Let me know below – I’d love to discuss it!

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