The Midnight Library | Book Review
Book: The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Rating: 5/5
Age Rating: 16+
Description:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a young adult fiction novel following the lives (yes, lives) of a young woman named Nora Seed who, after realizing that her entire life has been a compilation of missed opportunities and mediocrity, makes the decision to take her own life. However, after she does so, she finds herself waking up in an enormous library with never-ending bookshelves filled with an infinite number of books. She soon learns that this place is The Midnight Library – a mystical place between life and death, with each book holding a possible life Nora could have lived. This library allows Nora to see what her life might have been had she done things differently, and she finally gets the chance to find a life that she’s always dreamed of. But Nora soon realizes that things aren’t always what they seem, and her choices won’t always unfold in the way she has imagined. Soon, her decisions put herself and the library in danger, forcing her to look within and ask herself the all-important question: “What makes life worth living?”
The Review:
Let me just start off by saying that this is one of the most profound, thought-provoking, and comprehensively human books that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I was gifted this book for Christmas, and I knew nothing about it other than its status as a popular BookTok read before reading it. So, I was very surprised by how much I loved this book. And I mean, like, I LOVED loved it.
I finished the book over the span of two days, and it would have been one if sleep wasn’t a so-called “biological necessity”... ugh. Regardless, this book was an extremely captivating and effortless read that makes it super easy to fly through. And if you’re not a fan of binge reading, the novel has an episodic format that’s also perfect if you want to read it in increments! Every type of reader can 100% enjoy this book. Not to mention the fact that it effortlessly incorporates distinctly fantastical elements while never failing to be poignantly relatable in multiple ways. Nora is a protagonist that’s so easy to root for because we’ve all been her before. Everyone’s had a moment in their life where they’ve been full of regret and feel as though they’ve hit rock bottom. There are millions of things that we wish we could have done differently, and we’ve all been curious of what our lives would look like had we changed one small thing. The Midnight Library gives us a fascinating look into what we might find had we been given the opportunity to do exactly that, and the sheer relatability of the novel and Nora as a character are what make it so compelling to read.
At its heart, the Midnight Library is a love letter to life itself, while also being completely unafraid to shy away from the unsightly aspects that come with it. Nora has been diagnosed with depression, both of her parents are dead, and she feels as though her life has amounted to nothing. At the beginning of the novel, she genuinely believes that no one would care if she died, and her life is so meaningless that she longs for the sweet release of death. We learn all of this by page 22. Not only does Haig highlight these heavy topics, but he does it at the very beginning of the novel to relay to readers that this isn’t your typical YA novel; it’s a deep introspective on what it truly means to be alive. And his message, that life is always worth living no matter how mediocre it may seem, is one that will stay with you for weeks, months, or even years after you finish this novel.
Final Statements:
I believe that the mark of an exceptional book isn’t how many awards it receives or how much attention it receives on social media (though believe me, The Midnight Library is not short on either of those fronts); instead, I think it’s when a book is able to leave you a different person than who you were before you started reading it. The change doesn’t have to be anything drastic by any means, but just a slight shift in how you view the world, the people around you, or yourself. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds was one of those books for me because it changed my perspective on my own life and the lives of people in different communities, and I would love to one day compile all of my thoughts in a full review.
The Midnight Library is another one of these truly exceptional books because it changed the way I looked at my own life. Never before has a novel spoken to me in such a profound, emotional, and relatable way, and I genuinely believe my life, and my perspective on living, is much healthier after I read this book. Being a high schooler isn’t easy, and it’s especially difficult in an age of omicron variants, virtual school, and the constant fear that any day now the world will go through yet another life-altering change. Sometimes it’s hard to remember just how much of a blessing it is to be alive when it feels like we’re surrounded by so much destruction and uncertainty. But in the end, getting the chance to live a life and build meaningful relationships with others is something so valuable and so important that losing sight of it is a real tragedy.
I was reminded of all of this in the 288 pages that comprise The Midnight Library, and I’m so happy that this book fell into my lap. This novel is definitely a 5/5 read on all fronts, and I genuinely hope that everyone gets the chance to give it a read. And who knows? Maybe you or someone in your life will find the same type of clarity in this read that so many others (like myself!) did as well :)
