Estimated Reading Time 2 Minutes
Publisher: Viking (September 29, 2020)
Paperback : 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0525559474
** This book contains adult themes like suicide, drug abuse, and there are several uses of the F Word.**
Thoughts: There is a lot I really liked about this story. The writing is eloquent and the modern take of an “It’s A Wonderful Life” type situation was very interesting. I like the journey we take into different possible lives and how it provokes questions about how the reader is living their life.
I did find the story dragging on a bit in the middle and felt that while I was very interested in what would eventually happen, the story loses a lot of tension as we wander through the different possibilities.
First sentence: Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed sat in the warmth of the small library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford.
Favorite Quote From the Book: And even if you were a pawn – maybe we all are – then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all. It might look small and ordinary but it isn’t. because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power.
Summary from Amazon.com:
“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.
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.
