Nora Seed has lost almost everything, and she has no one (or so she thinks). After overdosing on pills she finds herself in the midnight library. A library full of books about how her life could be different if she would have done even the smallest thing differently. Will she choose life or death, and if she chooses life, which life will she choose. A book that I felt started slowly but was worth sticking with.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Rating 5 / 5 Stars
Publication Date - 9/29/2020

** Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin, and of course, Matt Haig, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is by far one of the best books I have read. I cannot keep recommending it to others and have been circulating my printed copy (I bought it because it was that good!) with my friends. If you are going to read one book in early 2021 - make it The Midnight Library.

“It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living. Easy to wish we'd developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we'd worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee, or done more bloody yoga....But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It's the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people's worst enemy.”

This quote hit me particularly hard. Often, the concept of what if and regret plague my brain - I have many instances in life where I find myself spiraling down this path. What is important to remember is accepting where life has placed us and the decisions and events which have lead to that place. Midnight Library is thought-provoking, enticing, and truly a beautiful piece of work that I did not want to put down. I loved watching everything come together like a puzzle through magnificent penmanship.

This book does include sensitive topics, so please do take care and only read if you are in the correct mind space.

I loved so much about this book. The story is fresh and unique, and it really is a great way to look into mental health, regret, and more. I felt that Nora's suicide wasn't quite taken seriously - and maybe this is because she is in England and I am in America, but I don't see her being let out of the hospital immediately after a suicide attempt - it doesn't work that way. While the writing is at times subpar and stiff, and the characters seem like characters not regular people, I feel that the inventiveness of the story makes up for it. I'd love to read more by Haig, this was a great way to get into him.

This was a great book that really made you think. Nora, the main character, lives all her possible lives to see what could have been. It was a very different concept, and it make me feel better about the choices I’ve made. No matter what things never end up the way you think. I did skim through some of the middle parts, I would say the first 25% and last 25% were great.

Wow, what a book this is. It starts off in an incredibly dark place, and grows to explore the meaning of life. Such a cool concept and I loved the library setting. This is a solid story, but at time the writing felt too straightforward and a bit preachy, and I would have appreciated the incorporation of more magical and fantastical elements. However, I appreciate what this story accomplished and would recommend it.

This book was phenomenal read. It looks into the what-ifs and second chances for all the decisions made in a lifetime. This follows a woman who attempts suicide and ends up at a library, where each book is a different life she could've led.

Matt Haig always does a good job tackling introspective issues and leaves the reader contemplating about their own life choices. Highly recommend this book, along with his others.

What a unique read! I am kicking myself for waiting so long to read this book. It was a wonderful escape into a world where anything is possible and you can learn "what if". I think it was brilliantly written and so much fun to explore all these different worlds. Definitely worth a read!

I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would and I think it would make a really good book club pick. To me, this book is sort of the ultimate escapist fantasy...to be able to be yourself in an infinite number of different lives? Especially during a pandemic when you are so solidly stuck in your 'root' life? Sign me up!

Also the cover is beautiful. This is the kind of book I would probably gift to someone.

A very nice, modern take on It's A Wonderful Life. What would you do if you could go back and live the life you think you should have? The choices you make lead you to become who you are regrets and all. A warm, hearted novel with a distinct premise.

What a unique premise! Nora, depressed and seemingly alone in life, decides to commit suicide only to find herself in a sort of limbo - The Midnight Library where the books on the shelves contain the infinite possible lives she would lead if she had just made a different decision somewhere along the way. The idea of parallel universes has always fascinated me, so to read a book where the protagonist gets to skip around and visit her own parallel universes was a lot of fun! But beyond that, the book had a lot to say about life in general. (I wrote and rewrote the line to follow that statement, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave it at that. Read the book and come to your own philosophical conclusions!)

The writing itself was really well done, and I frequently had a hard time putting it down! It’s also worth noting the attention to detail - Haig truly committed to his premise and made sure that even the smallest details (like using thumbprint and facial recognition to unlock phones) were in line. I also loved how he was able to show how each different Nora in each different timeline was a completely different person all around, while keeping the original Nora true to herself.

This is the first book I've read in 2021, and I'm so glad for that. This book was just what I needed on this time to feel better about the world at large and my life "at small." Inspirational, great plot/premise, and beautiful writing. I will recommend highly to basically all adult and teen readers.

At first, I could not get into this book. A couple weeks went by and I picked it up again and it was so hard to put it down! Trying to visualize the librarian and how she was explaining how the midnight library works was a bit of a challenge at times but I loved the time-traveling aspect of it. I mean, who doesn't wonder where our lives would be had we made different choices in life.

This was the perfect New Year's read! Nora has a sort of "It's a Wonderful Life" experience after she decides that life is not worth living. Full of life regrets, she takes an overdose of antidepressants and ends up in the Midnight Library. This is a place between life and death where she is given the opportunity to review her regrets and live those lives. Would she have been happier? Would all of her problems have been solved? Nora's journey and the answers she finds are very revealing. What she discovers is that life is complicated and that we definitely do not exist in a vacuum. It's not all about us :-)

It's a Wonderful Life meets the parallel worlds theory in The Midnight Library, and I am so here for it!

Believing that there is nothing and no one left who would miss her, Nora Seed has decided to die. But between life and death, she finds herself in a library - a library containing books of all the lives she could have lived. As she explores these lives, chasing her regrets, Nora discovers that perhaps the decisions she thought were mistakes were not mistakes after all and perhaps there is no such thing as a perfect life, just a life where you are true to yourself and your potential. Narrated to perfection by the lovely Carey Mulligan.

I loved this book so much. After thinking about it, I've called this a cross between Addie LaRue and A Man Called Ove. It combines the best parts of both.

From the beginning of this book, I was sucked in to Nora's story. I loved her character. I loved how she grew throughout the book, while having a little fun along the way. I loved the messages that this book had about life, love, success and happiness. I loved that it dealt with mental illness and how so often, the smallest actions can affect so much.

I think what was most interesting was how, as I was reading this, I kept thinking about my own life. If I could pick a book from my own library and change my path (or follow a different life in the multi-verse), what would it be? How would everything else change? Would things change that I didn't know? There was just so much that you could think about within Nora's story. I loved how this ended and wrapped everything up in a way that just worked. Definitely a great five-star read.

I loved this book. It was a quick read, and bit predictable but thoroughly enjoyable. Well written with fully developed characters and a fast pace kept me reading late into the night. I finished this book in a couple of days. Strongly recommended

This book was such a wonderful surprise. Somehow I didn't know what this book was going to be about despite the fact that it was chosen as a bookclub pick for one of the major networks.

This was a wonderfully thought-provoking title to read at this time. To contemplate life and death in this way was a wonderful way to spend time over a long holiday weekend. This was the first book I could not put down in a long time.

Such a fun read! It really made you think about weather redoing or changing your life would really be the answers to all your current problems. Good read for 2020!

The Midnight Library was something special. I haven't read a story like this before and I was very intrigued. The writing and the story kept me interested the entire time.

The Midnight Library revolves around a women named Nora and the different lives she could have led if she made different decisions. In this story we got to see what those different lives could have been. It got me thinking about my life and pivotal decisions that I made in my life.

I really enjoyed this story. I can't wait to read more from Matt Haig.

Although the story was very original and engaging, the writing style felt flat to me. The main character explores so many different versions of herself, but each setting feels exactly the same, as do all the characters. This kept me from feeling as emotionally invested as I think the plot called for. I did read it quickly, but the main thing pulling me through was the thought that the ending was going to be a sort of moral about what makes life worth living, and wanting to know what that moral would be - I do like stories with morals but that shouldn't be the only reason to want to keep reading a book.