Book Review: The Midnight Library – Matt Haig

This is an interesting book. It’s on a lot of best seller lists, and should be. To me, it’s a look at life, or what life could have been had you made different choices along the way. How many times have we pondered, “What would my life be like it I chose this job instead of that one?” This book explores that question on a lot of different levels.

I think the beauty of this is how the author, Matt Haig, gets you to ask those questions. Our heroine, Nora, is in a bad state, and considering ending her life, while in a limbo like dream, she is transported to “The Midnight Library.” The librarian is cryptic in her explanations to Nora, but, Nora in intrigued by her because she is a character from Nora’s past. Anyway, the library volumes and books spin and speed past Nora after a short visit with the librarian and Nora is transported to an alternate life she might have lived had she made a different choice.

Some of the lives are good, and some not so much…but, Nora gets more than one chance to see, “what might have been.”

Lots of self examination, and introspection on Nora’s part kind of takes the reader on the same journey. It’s kind of fun following Nora on this adventure, and I think that’s what Haig had in mind.

In the end, while there are a lot of directions you can take this, I kind of got the sense that the life we chose all along, is the best we’ve got. Try it for yourself, and see what you think.