I am a big fan of author Matt Haig, and I was very excited for the chance to read 'Midnight Library'. Who hasn't wondered how their lives could be different if they had just made one different decision? The Midnight Library explores that question.

Nora Seed has made many mistakes in her life, and after a series of disastrous events, she finds herself unable to cope. She is filled with regret over wrong decisions, and feels that she has nothing to live for. She attempts to take her own life, and finds herself in the Midnight Library. She is surrounded by an infinite number of books, each representing a life that she could have had if she had done something differently in her life. All she has to do is think of a regret, and she will be transported into the life where she made a different choice.

Each time she finds herself in a new life, she has to try to work out what is happening in that life. Is she happy with the choices she made? Is it the "best" life? If she doesn't choose to stay there, she will go back to the Midnight Library to make a different choice.

The book really had me reflecting on my own life--what other paths might I have taken? Would those choices really have been better? What makes a life worth living?

I enjoyed the story immensely, and have already recommended it to a number of friends. I will definitely be purchasing this for our library when it becomes available.

The first 20 pages are a bit of a slog - but they give you a feel for someone suffering deep enough despair/depression that they might really want to end their life. Between moments, between life and death, Nora is given the choice to try to re-do her life, or simply let go and die. But choosing between 'best' lives can be difficult. Sometimes it's the smallest change that makes the biggest difference. And sometimes, just sometimes, what you really need - and want - is what you already had all along.

I am a big fan of Matt Haig's nonfiction works, "Reasons to Stay Alive" and "Notes on a Nervous Planet." These short, simple, impactful works resonated with me in a big way. The Midnight Library is the first of his fiction titles I have read, and I found it to be less of a "novel" in the strict sense, and more of a meditation on depression within a frame story. The message and tone is on par with his nonfiction titles: acknowledging without fear or judgement the hold that depression can have on a person; closely examining the moments in life when you want to give up, as well as the moments when you want to hang on, and presenting them as equally valid (there is no shame in despair, nor embarrassment in earnestly embracing life); and learning to value and desire the life that you have. Haig seems very interested in the idea of a person inhabiting a body, yet not *feeling* embodied, present, or "like themselves." This is certainly an excellent metaphor for depression. I have a feeling that Haig's other fiction titles function similarly, as stories built to deliver messages about mental illness. He continues to find ways to talk about depression and anxiety that are free of judgement and stigma, and he validates the feelings and mindsets that accompany these conditions without glorifying them, othering them, or making them gratuitously painful. Depression is a recognizable foe in his works, and while we may never defeat it, Haig believes that we can learn to live alongside it.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

With all that being said, I don't know that the direct messaging and the sentimentality of this story will appeal to everyone. It's not a book I would recommend indiscriminately. It is useful to view it as a fable wherein the "moral" message is more important than the storyline or characters. I think that I would have liked the book better had I known that going into it. When I started reading it, I expected there to be a more serious take on the mechanics of jumping into other lives. As it is, I questioned some of the ways that that worked, felt distracted by the way lives had supposedly unfolded, and quickly grew tired by the fact that she never knew anything when she woke up in a life. If there are infinite options, why do we get such rigid experiences of each version of her lives? (Without giving spoilers... why is she given a version of x life in which terrible thing y happened, when certainly there is a version where it didn't?) But I realized that the mechanics are not the point, and that Haig is presenting us with a lesson. Knowing what I now know about his fiction, I will certainly read another, but just approach it as a meditation on depression, within the frame of a story, rather than a book that I read for the story itself.

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Nora's life has been one long series of disappointments. Lacking the courage to take a chance and forge a new path, she ends up settling for a lonely existence with a dead end job and a bleak future. She commits suicide, but on her way to death she ends up in the Midnight Library, where all the books are stories of the life she could have lived if she'd made a different choice.

The biggest book in the library is the Book of Regrets, and looking through the book gives Nora the opportunity to follow her dreams and try on the libes she missed by not marrying or becoming a musician or becoming a scientist, etc. None of the lives turn out as she thought they would and dives in one area leads to tragedy a or disappointment in another.

As Nora tries out different lives she slowly realizes that maybe the life she had was the best life after all and the road not taken doesn't always lead to a better place.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Imagine a library of infinite books. But not just any books, books that provide you with another chance in life. Another chance to make different choices. The premise of changing one's life is not new, but Haig's version of a re-do via which particular book you choose is new. Haig's writing style is beautiful and flowing as always. I truly loved this book and the journey the reader is taken on via protagonist Nora Seed. Readers will be transformed by the possibility of a "library of possibilities." This novel will resonate with both readers of Haig and dreamers of a different reality.

I have never read anything by this author before and wasn't sure what to expect. He came highly rated and as a librarian, the title caught my attention. However, I had trouble really getting into this book. I understood what it was supposed to be about and because I also enjoy memoirs that usually struggle with similar concepts, I thought I would be hooked right away. That wasn't the case for me. I didn't really connect with the material and like other readers have said, found it to be a little too predictable. Not the ah ha type moments I was looking and hoping for.

Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library actually makes me want to gush—what a beautiful book! The Midnight Library tells the story of Nora Seed, a British 30- something plagued by loneliness, feelings of inadequacy, and ever-expanding list of regrets. Having acted on a decision to die, Nora finds herself in the Midnight Library, a repository of possibility, featuring all the lives she could have lived if she had made different choices. While she hovers between life and death, Nora gets to live her possibilities as she searches for the perfect life and discovers (with apologies to Thoreau for the paraphrase) that it isn’t what you look at, it’s what you see.. Even reading the description I just wrote, it’s clear how easily this novel could have descended into cliché or treacly sweetness. I’ll even admit my fear while reading that the book would end with a romance-style ending and effectively negate the depth and complexity of Haig’s story. I should have just trusted him, though. I loved this book.

This book has an interesting premise. In the moment before you pass into death you visit a “library of regrets” and life lives (books) not chosen. Nora who is guide u happy in the life she is leaving try’s out several different ones and we get to go along. Obviously this choices are enlightening for Nora. What will she choose in the end?

"Between life and death there is a library. And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices."

Set in England, Nora is unhappy, living in her slough of despond. The one bright spot is her cat, Voltaire. She has fallen out with her brother Joe, she loses her job, and she decides she is done. She decides her life is no longer worth living. She finds herself in a very strange library, known as The Midnight Library, with her old school librarian, Mrs. Elm, in charge. She is given the chance to "try on" several other lives, returning each time to the library. Does she really have a chance to find a life that suits her better, or is she truly done?

I believe everyone has had a moment like Nora, when you feel ready to stop this world and try another. Skip over to another life, another you, and see how things might have been. After Nora Seed tries to die, she gets the chance at the Midnight Library to make a new choice, take back a regret, and try on some other life of hers. As Nora tries and discards life after life, making more choices and finding herself better or worse at each turn, she finally understands that life can only be lived - it can't happen any other way. I applaud Nora for her sense of adventure, for her continual trials to make a better person of herself, and in the end to choose the life she truly wants. This was a great book, and I especially connected with it since I am a librarian, and always interested in the "what if?" of life.

Matt Haig's newest release explores the line between the living and the dead and the choices we make every day that can have huge implications for the trajectory of our lives. Nora Seed has always been a people pleaser, paying careful attention to her actions and how they could negatively impact others. She finds herself at an all time low after a series of upsetting events occur in rapid succession including the loss of her cat and her boyfriend. Left with an overwhelming sense of loss, betrayal, and most of all regret, Nora contemplates and moves dangerously close to suicide, a choice that lands her in the mysterious midnight library. The midnight library straddles the line between life and death and contains an unlimited volume of books. However these books are not just for reading, they serve as a vehicle of sorts to transport Nora into parallel universes where her life is vastly different than the one she currently leads. Nora is faced with a difficult decision, the most important decision of her life thus far. Should she continue with her life as it is or follow a different path with different but equal measures of joy and sorrow.

Haig introduces a a fascinating premise of the midnight library that exists in the spaces between life and death.
The Midnight Library is a quick, absorbing read that raises some excellent questions for deep contemplation centered around regret, sacrifices, and the delicate balance between our own happiness and the happiness of others. Nora's existence as a people pleaser and the constant pressure she feels to put other's happiness above her own is immensely relatable and will resonate on a deep level with many readers. Haig successfully weaves together science fiction, magic, and self help into a profoundly thought provoking read that is sure to delight fans new and old.

What if your life is in shreds and you just want to die? What if you had the chance to try again, correcting your "mistakes" or fixing those moments you regret? That's the premise of Haig's new novel. Nora's life is not going the way she planned - her parents are dead, she's estranged from her brother, she broke up with her fiancee, lost her job, and her cat just died. Her last happy memories are of high school and the school librarian. After a suicide attempt, she "wakes up" in the Midnight Library with multiple chances to relive her life and get it right.

I loved this book. It actually reminded me a bit of some of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas in that each new "life" has overlapping elements from the others (but that may have been because I had just read his new book). There's enough science about parallel lives/dimensions to make it believable and enough emotion and heart that it is reminiscent of "It's a Wonderful Life". Nora is struggling to find out what will make her happy. Her stories are filled with literary and philosophical references (now I want to re-read Thoreau!) and, what could have devolved into a sappy Hallmark Channel romance becomes a sweet, touching commentary on life, regrets, relationships, and what it means to be "happy". This would be a great book club book. Definitely recommended.

The Midnight Library was a thoughtful exploration of the impact of our life decisions. It was heart warming and life affirming.

I loved The Radley's and Being Human. Unfortunately, the last few books I've read by this author haven't been as enjoyable. I understand that he suffers from depression, but he doesn't have to have his books wallow in it. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced reader copy! I have head of a Matt Haig but never read anything by him. Anytime you put Library, Librarians, books, bookshop, or anything literary in the title, you are going to have interested readers...especially librarians. This book reminds me of the movie “it’s a wonderful life”. Nora has depression and is suicidal, until she stumbles into the Midnight Library, her high school librarian is her guide as she selects books which show her how her life would be different if she had chosen different paths. This book should have thrilled me from the start! I was ready to gobble it whole. Unfortunately I found the plot line to be rather predictable. The lives she thought she was missing out on turn out to be less than desirable. As with it’s a wonderful life, no worries! There is a ‘no place like home’ conclusion and everything turns out well. I know Matt Haig writes children’s books too, but I found the writing simplistic and rather predictable. I didn’t find much below the surface.
I do have to say I liked it more toward the end, so it got an extra star from me for that. I just felt like I knew from the first page where this one was going and I didn’t like that feeling throughout the book.

Beautiful and emotionally charged. The Midnight Library presents a heartfelt exploration of regret that is good for the soul.

I love the premise of this book: when the protagonist decides she has nothing but regrets about her life and wonders where other decisions would've lead her, she finds herself in the Midnight Library, where she can "try on" other paths. At major forks in the road of her life, Nora gets to see, if she'd chosen another option or pursued an interest or talent, where she would've landed.
Nora has quite an interesting assortment of options, and the people in her life also fall into different stories as she explores.
Haig shares some good truths about choices, regrets, and how even little decisions can change your life completely, but gets a bit heavy-handed with pounding in the basics.

Nora Seed wants out of her life, but it is not so simple as taking an overdose. The Midnight Library lies between life and death and it is where you control how you want to deal with all the regrets in your life before making the final decision to try life again or not. An intriguing concept, who wouldn't want to "try out" alternative lives to find the one that finally "fits"? Chapters allow us to follow Nora as she tries again and again to find happiness. Doses of philosophy, modern TED talks and interesting life choices make Nora a sympathetic character; we want her to get this right. However, the ending is predictable and can be found in the "self-help" aisle of any bookstore, which was a real disappointment given the interesting premise.

What's in a life? For Nora Seed, life is full of missed opportunities and poor choices. Overwhelmed by depression, Nora decides that ending her life is the best option; however, instead of dying she finds herself in the Midnight Library. Given a chance to live the lives she could have had, Nora begins to understand "regrets and mistakes they're just memories made."