I was given early access to this title through NetGalley . First of all, I want to say that I loved this book! I was so drawn in by the story line that I finished it in a day. This book is the story of a British woman named Nora who is struggling with depression. Early on in life, Nora seemed to have so much potential. She was on track as a young teen to be an Olympic swimmer. When she decided to give that up due to the associated pressures, she took up piano. She and her brother started a band but just as the band was starting to experience success and was offered a recording contract, she quit. Two days before she was supposed to get married, she called off the wedding. In the few months previous to the start of this story, her mother passed away. When Nora's cat dies, her depression overcomes her, and she decides she does not want to live anymore. She takes an overdose of her anti-depressants and when she awakes, she finds herself in a seemingly endless library. The only other person in the library is her former school librarian, Mrs. Elm, who had always taken a special interest in Nora. She tells Nora that all of the books in the library are the infinite lives Nora could have lived based on different choices Nora could have made. This library is a place between life and death where Nora can choose to look back on her regrets and see how her life would have been if she had pursued other paths in life. If she decides she wants to live and finds a path that would ultimately make her happy she could choose to stay in that version of her life.

This book was very thought-provoking and relatable. How many of us have wondered how life would have been different if we had made different choices along the way or thought that we would surely be happier if only we had (fill in the blank)? Having the chance to erase regrets is certainly a tempting topic to explore. As I was reading and really enjoying the story, I knew that the ending of the story would be crucial to my ultimate rating of this book. I am happy to say that it did not disappoint!

The Midnight Library is an intriguing story about the choices we make, our perception of our lives and our choices, and regrets. It begins on a dark note, and we are told the character we are first introduced to, Nora, has decided to kill herself. What follows is a countdown of the events that lead her to this decision over the course of a week, but really her regrets and sadness go back much further. Then, Nora is given a chance to start over in the Midnight Library, and can see how her life would have turned out had she made different choices. The lives she can sample are infinite, as choices are also infinite. Nora goes on a remarkable journey of self discovery.

As always Matt Haig writes about depression with clarity and a way of breaking mental illness down in a way that is easy for anyone to understand, but this book does not focus all that much on depression despite the fact that Nora is initially depressed and suicidal. Rather, the book's focus is much more philosophical in nature, and allows the reader to consider his or her own life choices, and how these help define our lives as much as our personalities do.

This is an intriguing and lovely book.

I don't know what I was really expecting from this book, but it was not what this book is. There are definitely some sci-fi, fantasy, and magical realism notes in this book. I do like all those things but this one was just different for me. In some ways it reminded me of Erin Morgenstern's new book of this library where alternate things can take place.
It does get you thinking about life and all the alternate realities and what ifs. This book definitely left me thinking and being appreciative of the good things in life I have.

Absorbing and touching read by perennially popular Matt Haig. Recommended for all adult fiction collections.

This was an interesting book that I enjoyed reading. Nora's chances of re imagining her life are unexpected and the conclusion was excellent. I found her journey to be sad - as life can be - but beautiful as well.

Good little book about life and happiness. The concept is intriguing to a book person about it taking place in a midnight library. Entertaining and enjoyable.

The main Character, Nora Seeds has decided to take her life. She does not feel that she had accomplished anything for herself, and the goals she had all belonged to other people. Her attempt at death was not successful, but during this space between life and death she visits a place called the Midnight Library. Strangely the Librarian she sees appears to be the Librarian she had in high school who was very nice to her. The Midnight Library only had books of different lifestyles that Nora has lived or could have lived depending on the choices made. It is a stretch for the imagination if you prefer events that could actually happen, as opposed to this magical Library. After Nora experiences many different lives, she finally accepted her "root" life that she started out with and became content. The difference in her happiness was influenced by perspective. Perspective is the key to how one deals with life and the choices made can change the course of life.

I love time travel/alternate history type of stories, and this one did not disappoint. It almost felt like that tv show from the early 90s, Quantum Leap, only instead of inhabiting the lives of other people, the main character experiences alternate versions of her own life.

Nora Seed is unhappy in life. She is clinically depressed and taking medication for it. She has taken the path of least resistance in most aspects of life, and now she feels like she has nothing to live for. Not even her cat. She decides to take her own life, and ends up in the library. I would like to say that this is because Borges was right, and heaven is a kind of library, but that is not exactly the case here. Rather, this library is more of a do-over style purgatory where she gets the chance to revisit all of her regrets in life, and then try on one life at a time where she makes a different choice. The major caveat - if she begins to feel disappointed in a particular life, she returns to the library, where it is always midnight, the moment she committed suicide in her 'root' life.

Regrets cancelling her wedding? Suddenly she has the life she and her fiancé dreamed about. Regrets not moving abroad with her best friend? Suddenly she's living halfway across the world. Of course, these lives are not exactly as she had imagined they would be, and they inevitably end in disappointment and a reappearance in the library.

With each life, she eliminates a regret by experiencing what her life could have been, with all of the pros and cons related to the subsequent decisions made in that timeline. Important life lessons are learned, and she ultimately chooses to experience a life that is very close to her root life. Happy marriage, motherhood, a more successful career - all the elements that she believes will result in happiness and fulfillment.

I can see this book resonating with a lot of people, in particular women who feel like they should have it all and yet don't. Definitely recommended.

Imagine wanting to die and then you get another chance at a life you want or do you? That's the big question.... do you get what you want or you need? I think the author answer that question and it will certainly be on your mind even after the last page.

Sliding Doors meets It’s A Wonderful Life.

This librarian whipped through Matt Haig’s superb new novel in one sitting, it’s such an engrossing, compelling story; a delightful mash of sci-fi and literary fic with a smidgen of beach read. The Midnight Library is a swift read that dabbles with hefty topics. It weaves notions of existentialism into the tale of a deeply unhappy woman, and yet never feels full of despair. Far from it, in fact.

The Midnight Library is a unique place that exists outside of reality as we know it. A grand locale where every possible permutation of your very existence rests on its never-ending shelves in the form of books. Whereas that concept might frighten most, it has less of an alarming effect on protagonist Nora Seed who only arrives in this fantastical location on account of wanting to end her life. It’s here she meets a figure from her past who explains that the Library is, in fact, suspended between life and death, and offers her the chance to try on different lives.

Like many of Haig’s books to date, his story-telling is effortless alongside his simple writing style that doesn’t concern itself with flourish. The big giveaway of Nora’s journey - which I shan’t spoil here - boils down to how we make the world a better place by not solely extending our kindness outwards, towards others, but in how we reflect that back onto ourselves.

This riveting page-turner will leave a lump in your throat, a smile on your face, and - if you’re anything like me - a tear down your cheek, making you marvel at just how wonderful a life it really all is.

Everyone has regrets. We all wish we could do over some things in our past, take other paths, make different decisions. But for Nora Seed, the chance to change her life comes when she decides to end it. Caught between life and death after attempting suicide, Nora lands in a library that contains the books of all the lives she could've lived had she made other choices. This library, the Midnight Library, is staffed by Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian, who directs Nora to select a book and try out a life that she might find more fulfilling. As Nora samples these different existences, she marries the man she left two days before her wedding; travels to the Arctic to explore the polar region; performs internationally with a hit band; becomes an Olympic swimming champion, and much more but will she find the life that has true meaning for her or be whisked back to the Midnight Library for another "book?"

I couldn't put this novel down despite the fact that I had a feeling about the ending. What I liked most, besides the symbolism of the library and the books of lives, was the point the author made about how an action we take today, no matter how small or insignificant-seeming, may have a large effect on what happens to us and the people we love tomorrow.

Matt Haig tells the story of Nora, a woman who feels that she has nothing for which to live. She swallows pills in an attempt to end her life, to find herself in The Midnight Library, where each of the endless shelves of books holds an alternate life based on a different choice that she made. It is up to Nora to decide which she wants before it is too late.

Haig tells the story well, and the reader will feel invested in Nora's story and outcome. While it does tend to drag a little here and there, it is overall a good read. This is a common enough plot in books and movies, but Haig still manages to draw in the reader. Despite its somewhat heavy subject matter, this stills feels like a quick and easy read.

This is a potential purchase for most large library collections, and some smaller ones as well. This book is suggested for readers who are fond of the "What if?" scenarios in life.

Fantasy isn't always my genre, but I love Matt Haig so I couldn't wait to pick this up, especially since it revolves around a library. I'm SO happy I read this book. This book makes you THINK. I put myself in Nora's shoes and didn't want to leave them.

I absolutely LOVED the premise of this book. It was exactly what I needed right now - profound and hopeful. This book is a great reminder to live your life and stop worrying about what could have been. The book did seem a little slow for me at times, but after about the halfway mark, it really picks up!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this early!!

This book was fairly predictable, but it was a really great feel-good read in this time when the world is on fire. It makes a really nice fictional supplement to Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive.

Mash up "It's a Wonderful Life" with a shopping trip to a virtual library of lives, where you can try all versions of your existence on for size, and you have The Midnight Library, a story that still manages to be reasonably entertaining while generally predictable and occasionally banal.

Feel good quantum physics is hard to come by! A delightful take on parallel universes; very Wonderful Life.

Written like a blockbuster movie scenario. It was a slow start at first, but the pace picked up somewhere in the middle and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

What if you could change some of your life's regrets? Do you believe that every action has a consequence?

Nora believes that she's had it all with the struggles she's faced in her life and the lack of purpose to her every day routine. When she decides to end it all, a mysterious library appears: a catalog of millions of lives that could change just based on a single "wish" of a sentence. As she travels the pages through the stacks, there are lessons to be learned, consequences to face, and realizations to be made.

Will Nora find a book that she wants to rejoin as protagonist?

I found a lot of meaning behind this book, and will definitely recommend this book to my reader friends. Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley.

I was intrigued by the moment Matt Haig posted about his newest book on Instagram. I was not disappointed!

Nora, a woman for whom nothing seems to be going right, decides to die by suicide. Before she can fully accomplish this end, she is thrust into the Midnight Library where she has the chance to experience the endless permutations of what her life could have been like if different decisions were made. Think about any regret you have, from the smallest to the largest. Then imagine getting a chance to live your life over as if you'd chosen differently. That's the Midnight Library.

Haig has some beautiful writing in here. From observations about humanity ("Nora wanted to live in a world where no cruelty existed, but the only worlds she had available to her were worlds with humans in them.") to thoughts about disappointment, tragedy, betterment, and hope. While sometimes her monologues went on too long or were repetitive, the meaning was clear.

My review might be a bit biased because my brain is comparing it to Oona Out of Order since that was the last book I read and also had a version of time travel. Where I wish I could read another book full of Oona's years, I am content with how much of Nora's life I was allowed to see. I think I just connected with Oona more and that is in no way a fault of this book. It is very good and composed in its own right.

This book might help some people let go of their regrets; it certainly got those ideas rising in me. Sometimes, things are just the way they are and the best you can do is control your next choice. Recommended read for anyone familiar with Haig's work, contemporary fiction, or depression and mental illness with a dash of whimsy. Also, another A+ cover!

Thank you to Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Review posted on Goodreads on May 16, 2020 via the link below.