Friday 28 May 2021

Book Review: THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig


 

Title: THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

Author:  Matt Haig

Read: May 2021

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

 

My musings:

 


I love the idea of a multiverse, of a “sliding doors” concept that lets us explore how different our lives would have been if we had made different choices. The thought of a library where you could read the book of an alternative life sounded intriguing and compelling. Wouldn’t that be fascinating? It’s a bit like googling and old boyfriend and feeling relieved (or not) that your 17-year-old self had the good sense to break up with him.

 

Nora is in her thirties and feels bogged down with regrets. Her life is stale, she has no partner or children, her cat has just died and her brother is not answering her calls. So she decides to take her life. But instead of dying, she is magically transported into a magic library where she can explore all her regrets and see how her life would have been if she had been more courageous and made “better” decisions. As soon as she opens a different book of her own life, she is magically transported into her alternative life as it would be right now had she made a different decision in her past – to stick with her band, to study glaciology, to continue with her swimming career. The strange thing, I thought, was that Nora was dumped into these other lives without context or knowledge of her past in that particular life, or the people surrounding her. I found this extremely anxiety provoking! But I won’t give anything away here, because I don’t want to spoil your fun exploring this premise for yourself.

 

I wanted to love this book as much as I liked its premise, but strangely didn’t find it as compelling as many other readers. Don’t get me wrong, it was an original and somewhat intriguing read, but didn’t grab me emotionally as much as I thought it would. I also found the ending predictable, though I hoped until the last page that the author would prove me wrong – he didn’t. Maybe my expectations were just too high. And because I can’t discuss the finer points without giving away spoilers I will just leave it at that. Thousands of readers have loved this thought-provoking and magical tale, so it’s best you go and judge for yourself. It certainly made me reflect on those crossroads in my life that may have led me into a totally different direction. An interesting read with some magical realism and food for thought that would make a great bookclub choice.



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