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    The Midnight Library: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
    The Midnight Library: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
    The Midnight Library: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Midnight Library: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)

    Written by Matt Haig

    Narrated by Carey Mulligan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon

    Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year

    "A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."—The Washington Post

    The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

    Don’t miss Matt Haig’s latest instant New York Times besteller, The Life Impossible, available now

    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 blockbuster 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Audio
    Release dateSep 29, 2020
    ISBN9780593340233
    Author

    Matt Haig

    MATT HAIG is the bestselling author of The Midnight Library. His most recent work is the non-fiction title The Comfort Book. He has written two other books of non-fiction and six highly acclaimed novels for adults, as well as many books for children. Matt Haig has sold more than a million books worldwide. His work has been translated into more than forty languages.

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    Reviews for The Midnight Library

    4/5

    3,108 ratings194 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Interesting premise, and overall well-written. The characters were quite nuanced, and the story was gripping enough to keep me reading to the end. I had no problem for the first part of the novel suspending my disbelief enough to accept the concept, but it got so bogged down in the middle by trying to sell the "science" behind that it really just succeeded in making the premise seem kind of ridiculous. This might have been a nice parable or fantasy story, but by over-explaining and by taking itself way too seriously, it just made it harder for me to accept the story on its own terms. I started getting bothered by how little regard Nora has been showing the other Noras, swooping into their lives, pushing them into limbo (or something?), screwing things up for them, and then ducking out when things get bad, leaving them to live with the mess she made. The theory of the multiverse is—to my understanding—debated in scientific circles; it is not a universally (ha ha) accepted fact the way this book seems to imply. The more seriously the book would take itself and its premise, the harder it would be to gloss over stuff like this. I also didn't enjoy the last part of the story very much; it leans pretty hard into an atheistic worldview and then gets preachy. This doesn't mean it's objectively bad writing, but it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. Certainly not mine.
    • 5/5
      This was a very interesting and enjoyable read. It was such a different storyline. The main character, Nora, decides life isn’t worth living so she tries to commit suicide. She suddenly finds herself in a library with an old lady, Mrs. Elm, who was her librarian during high school. Nora is then sent to many different lives that she could have had and looks over all of her regrets through her life. The story takes you to all the different lives Nora and who she may have been.
    • 3/5
      It might have been the audio-narrator in part, but this book felt really monotonous and expected until the last couple chapters. That said the ending was absolutely beautiful!
    • 2/5
      Given all the hype around this book I was a little underwhelmed. As someone who shares the diagnosis with Nora, the ending was honestly even more depressing.

      I feel like it’s also a bit of oversight that in all the chatter about this book, no one has given a trigger warning for the constant talk of suicide and suicidal ideation throughout this book.

      It’s not that she’s between life and death from an accident, she’s deciding whether she wants to live at all. For me this takes away from the magic of exploring a library of possibilities and puts ideas and words into the mouths of those already lost to suicide or are still struggling with ideation.

      It’s not just a way to facilitate the start of the plot, it’s a constant recurrence throughout the book and is the core of the story.

      All of that said, I didn’t dislike the book and despite the cringey lives Nora steps into (or rather, how she tries to save face), it was an interesting adventure.
    • 4/5
      Trigger Warning: Suicide & Depression

      Life is hard. Life is messy. That is at the heart of the narrative in The Midnight Library. Nora is a woman in her thirties feeling intensely dissatisfied with her life. She not only feels that she has failed to achieve her own goals and potential but worries that she has ruined the lives of others. After the events of one particularly awful day, she decides to kill herself.

      The afterlife she finds herself in isn't anything she would have expected. Rather, she enters a library with what appears to be endless rows of books. She quickly meets Mrs. Elm who acts as a sort of spirit guide and caretaker of the library. Mrs. Elm is in the form of Nora's childhood librarian who was a kind of solace during hard times in her youth.

      Mrs. Elm explains that each one of the books represents an alternate version of Nora's life. It is a life in which different decisions were made that created different outcomes. Nora now has the unique opportunity to select a book and take her place in that life to see if it is the life she would like to return to. If the book/life she selects doesn't meet Nora's desires she will return to the library and select another book again and again until she finds her perfect life.

      We follow Nora closely as she selects a couple of different books. She lives a life in which she kept up her swimming and became a professional swimmer, a life where she stayed close to her brother and the band they were in together and a life where she explored a science career studying glaciers. In addition to in-depth explorations we get quick blurbs about other options she tried and ultimately gave up on. Through these varied experiences the story delves deeper into exploring fundamental questions about fulfillment and the human condition.

      After a time, the book begins to feel like a philosophy or psychology book as it outlines a variety of mantras and realizations about what is important in life and how comparison and striving for perfection will lead to more dissatisfaction. Nora begins to explore choices with more discernment and a more thoughtful mindset, acknowledging that there may not be a perfect life but there are certainly options that are good enough. This exploration of imperfection and acceptance resonates throughout the book, ultimately underscoring a profound message about life's inherent messiness and the importance of personal agency. Just when Nora feels like she may have found THE life she wants to settle down in, she finds herself unsettled again.

      Something is missing. Something isn't quite right. Within that life, she goes searching for what is missing and makes additional realizations that I won't spoil for you here (though you can likely guess what they may be). As her sense of unease grows, she faces a new set of trials that dramatically run to the conclusion of the book. The story ties things up with a bow, acknowledging again that life is messy and imperfect but that we can make the most of life if we decide what to make of it.

      I really liked the concept of the book. The different vignettes were fun as we got to explore different mini-stories with the same general cast of characters. In some ways this felt like a 21st-century multiverse take on It's a Wonderful Life and, similar to that movie, a lot of the platitudes and story arcs felt predictable and familiar. Even with that familiarity this is a good, heartfelt novel that's unique enough to warrant reading. It's well crafted and enjoyable and has good messages that we should remind ourselves of more often.

      ****
      4 out of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      Nora has decided she wants to die, but before this end comes, she goes on a visit to the Midnight Library. Actually, she goes there many, many times. She meets her old school librarian, Mrs. Elm, who tells her that she can choose a different life, make a different choice, over and over and over again, just by selecting a different book with Mrs. Elm’s help. If she finds the right life, the one that really makes her happy, she just might get to keep it. But there are no guarantees. This book is quite entertaining and intriguing—who wouldn’t like a “do-over”?—but it gets a bit tedious towards the end. The ending is ambiguous, but then, life is uncertain. Many nice things occur in Nora’s many possible lives; others are not so nice. It’s a creative premise, the writing is good, and the characters are well developed.
    • 4/5
      "In the Midnight Library you can't take the same book out twice."
      Feeling useless and unloved, Nora Seed attempts to end her life through an overdose. Instead she finds herself in a library managed by Mrs. Elm, a school librarian who was kind to Nora in her youth. Mrs. Elm explains that all the books are stories of Nora's life that diverge from different decisions she made during her life.  Nora is allowed to experience her life in different universes until she finds one where she is content.

      Nora enters a life where she actually married her ex-fiance Dan and they run a country pub, a life where she joined her friend Izzy in Australia, a life in which she remained committed to competitive swimming and became an Olympic medalist, and a life where she followed her dream of becoming a glaciologist, among several others.  The rules of the library are a bit unfair as Nora is plopped into situations with no memory of the life that got her to this point or even the people she's supposed to know.  Even in the most satisfying life, Nora notices negative changes in the lives of people she knows (shades of It's a Wonderful Life) and feels like an imposter.

      The ending of this novel is quite predictable, but nevertheless it is an inspiring story of embracing the life one has, and a great take on the multiverse theory.
    • 3/5
      Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Interesting concept but find it dubious that she would be wildly successful in all the other lives she sampled.
    • 5/5
      The Midnight Library is written by Matt Haig.
      I couldn’t possibly explain this book and how wonderful it is to read it. So I included a synopsis.
      “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 blockbuster 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.”

      I found this book to be brilliantly written, interesting, provocative and introspective.
      *****
    • 3/5
      You can think of this as a 2020s remix of "It's a Wonderful Life," except that instead of getting to see what her life would be like if she had never been born, our protagonist Nora Seed gets to experience an endless number of lives that she might have lived if she'd made different choices along the way.

      The moral of the tale has likewise been updated to reflect today's FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) obsession - instead of "no man is poor who has friends," the lesson here is "don't spend so much time regretting all the opportunities you may have missed out on that you forget to recognize the opportunities you've been given." Because (Haig wants us to understand) happiness, friendship, love, laughter, fear, and joy aren't trim packages that you have to special order - they come included as part of life's base model.

      In fact, this whole thing reads more like something from the "This Book Will Save Your Life" genre rather than a novel, even accounting for the magical realism (the alternate lives take the form of books in a metaphysical library) - which isn't necessarily a knock, just an observation. Nora's a bit of sad sack, but not unrelatable, and it's fun to watch how each of her alternative lives plays out. And if these alternative lives come off as a little improbably glamorous, that's just Haig keeping things interesting.

      If you're the type that enjoys books that come with a side of affirmation, this is made for you; if you're looking for a pleasant read, you could do worse. Not my particular cup of tea, but I can see why others might perceive this as a whole meal.
    • 4/5
      Ultimately a good, if a bit cliche, book. Definitely needs a warning for suicide and a lot of depression talk, and if you have anxiety, some of the other lives definitely will be hard to read (or you could be like me and do some skimming instead). Overall, I found this an enjoyable read. Some people compare it to other media, and I'm sure there are parallels and similarities- Haig is hardly the first to have the idea of seeing what would happen in other lives or if something was different- but I don't think it's a negative thing on its own. It does what it sets out to do, and is well written enough to be an easy read for the most part.
    • 4/5
      Please don't let the tags of suicide or depression deter you from reading this book. It is ultimately a book with a positive message, reminding us all of the fact that in this great and infinite universe, we matter.
    • 3/5
      I might have enjoyed this story more had I read Reasons to Stay Alive. As it was, the sequential exploration of different lives that Nora Seed (the main character) sampled while existing in a liminal space was clunky and unsatisfying.

      For my enjoyment, I disliked that Haig dropped his suicidal, unhappy character, smack dab as she was when she tried to commit suicide, into these alternate realities. She was able to choose different choice of 'what ifs' from her past life events. Of course she'd flounder around and not fit in or have a clue how that life had developed.

      The book's narrative journey went from life to life until the not-so-surprising ending. The dénouement was sparse on details and would have been a more positive story about Nora's life had the story shown promise that she was going to meet the person she was so happy about in one of her last journeys.
    • 4/5
      A reason to live might not always present itself in the way you expect. Only in the midnight library can you defeat your regrets and live life.
    • 4/5
      I actually loved this book until I got to the end. I listened to the audiobook and I thought the narrator did a great job of making Nora come to life. I guessed the ending right away, all the while hoping that it wouldn't actually turn out to be the ending. There was so much potential for a more poignant completion to the novel; instead we were hit with self-help phrases and everything tied up in a neat bow. For me, the ending felt completely different than the rest of the book, almost as if the author was lecturing the reader. It completely took me out of the story and was a disatisfying way to end an otherwise engaging read.
    • 5/5
      This book is spectacular! Fantasy, romance, life and death stakes, fabulous characters, and a knock-out ending. Don’t let the beginning fool you into believing the story of a depressed suicidal young woman will be totally dark.
    • 3/5
      The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY offers a great and promising premise, yet moves incredibly too slow.
    • 1/5
      Wasn't sure what I was expecting when I began reading this book. But it certainly wasn't what I got. I had recently received a lung cancer diagnosis with just 12-18 months to live. Libraries have always been my go-to place for comfort and revitalization. This book was not it. And I am sorry I wasted my time on reading this.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to like this book - I had high hopes based on his 'Reasons to Stay Alive.'

      It started out very intense and relatable, I almost thought a trigger warning would have been a good idea. Then it became awkward, painfully awkward, and it ended rather heavy handed sappy self-helpy.

      It definitely wasn't for me.
    • 4/5
      What if you had the ability to go back through your past life, change certain decisions, and then live that new life? Nora's life is falling apart and as she contemplates suicide, she visits the Midnight Library and Mrs. Elm, the school librarian who was kind to her years ago. She has a chance to revisit her old regrets and plop into the life that would have resulted. Predictably, she discovers that her old life was not so bad and that with a few tweaks she can live happily as she was.
    • 4/5
      Intriguing premise. Sticks with me even a week later- what might any of it lives Been- she would we be any different in a different life
    • 4/5
      Let me start off by saying I loved the premise of this book. It was a simple, fun, and "life-affirming" (as everyone seems to call it) storyline that made it easy to fall into. That said, I had some issues.

      First, I'm undecided on the protagonist's character, Nora Seed. She seemed a little on the selfish side, at times (but then aren't we all?). I do appreciate the *potential for* complexity of her character, but I don't think it was fully achieved in this story.

      Second, while the story started off strong, it felt lacking in something when all was said and done. I think more could have been done with the characters, and the clichés could have been a little less heavy-handed. It needed a little more polishing before going out the door.

      3.5 stars is a solid rating, for me, I think.
    • 3/5
      Nora Seed is depressed. She is fired from her dead-end job, her best friend and brother are both ignoring her, and her cat dies. So she swallows a bottle of anti-depressants seeking oblivion. Instead she ends up in a library with infinite shelves of books, overseen by her school librarian, Mrs. Elm. Mrs. Elm tells her that she is not quite dead yet and has the opportunity to experience other possible lives to try and find one that she would prefer to her "root" life. Each book is a different life, each the result of a different choice she could have made, big or small. So Nora begins trying out different lives: what if she had married Dan after all, what if she had continued swimming and went to the Olympics, what if she had stayed in her brother's band and they made it big, what if she had become a glaciologist, etc. After each life, she returns to the Midnight Library and reports to Mrs. Elm what she has learned.

      This book didn't work for me. I found it lightweight, internally inconsistent, and smarmy. It was like reading a self-help book disguised as a novel. For me, the idea that all Nora needed to do to treat her depression was a few quick self-realizations—I can be anything I want to be! I have the capacity for any number of careers, relationships, and lifestyles! I am not the cause of other's failures!—demeaned the seriousness of the mental illness. Others find the book inspiring, so your mileage may vary.
    • 5/5
      This was really very special to me. I loved this book and I feel it will become my main, 'Have you read The Midnight Library? No?!?! Oh, you just have to. Here, I happen to have a copy in my bag...go ahead, start reading it now. I'll wait' book.
    • 5/5
      I kept seeing this book as a favorite on reviews so I picked it up at the library. I read it and had to order a copy as I liked it so much.

      It's a page turner which reminded me of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," where the main character, Nora is ready to give up with regrets and then meets a librarian - more like an Angel - that shows her the various lives that were possible. The pages are mixed in with words of wisdom including a quote from Socrates that made me pause: "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." As Nora is given a glimpse of each life, she learns more about herself. It's easy to guess the end but the worthy part is reading the words of inspiration which is needed right now. Life can be like a game of chess. The author notes, after eight moves on the board, there can be 280 billion positions.

      There is so much we don't understand. While this book doesn't have the answers, it makes you think about what's outside the box. This is one of the few books I will reread.





    • 4/5
      This book could be summed up by the line... "It was interesting, she mused to herself, how life sometimes simply gave you a whole new perspective by waiting around long enough for you to see it."

      The premise of the Midnight Library is fascinating. Who wouldn't want to explore all the possible variation of their life [or lives]. The sliding door effect of our regrets of unlived potential laid out for us like an interactive movie.

      In way the book is quite simplistic ... life if what you put into it ... but ultimately it is about what we take away from the story that matters. It is about hope and potential and the fact that regrets can only hold us back. We must remember that we always have the chance to turn our lives around.


    • 4/5
      Nora feels like a failure in all senses of the word and finally she has had enough. No one will miss her and she doesn't want to go on. But on the other side of her suicide attempt isn't the oblivion that she hoped for but rather a library full of possible lives she could lead. It was interesting to see Nora's attitude change as she begins to get a glimpse of all the possibilities that are contained in her. I loved the ending the most and found the over all storyline very hopeful. I loved Nora.
    • 3/5
      Wonder what your life would be like if you had done one thing differently? Unfortunately that currently isn't possible, but through this book you can through Nora, her life, and her different lives.

      "Now, you have to decide how you want to live."

      "Because, Nora, sometimes the only way to learn is to live"

      The book starts off with a number of quotes, then I found it went weird. It's hard to explain, and early on I wondered why the author chose to go this way.

      Since there are multiple characters at many points in the book, it can be difficult to know who is saying what.

      There are some chapters or parts that I felt could have been removed all together, and the book overall would be the same. Sometimes the book felt wordy, or felt like I was reading a page filler.

      "The quiet made her realise how much noise there was elsewhere in the world."

      At multiple points while reading, I wondered, how is the book going to continue with x number of pages left?

      At the beginning of many lives, there are tons of talking to figure out what's going on in that life, and as the book progresses you are just told about certain things happen. I'm not sure if the author did this to shorten the number of pages, or because they knew you would only need to know about certain things.

      "This was a new feeling – as if she was taking someone’s place"

      The book does have a couple of frightening moments, which do help to ensure the book doesn't get too boring, however some may find it stops them from continuing to read.

      "that you can choose choices but not outcomes"
    • 4/5
      This book definitely lived up to the hype and I can see why. This spoke to my soul - this is one of those stories that resonates with me a lot - the only thing I didn't like was that it had a little bit of profanity in it, but despite that, this is one of my favorite books this year.
    • 3/5
      This novel offers us a somewhat fresh take on that turn of the century favorite obsession, contingency theory. I've never had much buyin to the idea that whether I turn right or left leaving the dairy case will start World War III, but it can produce some interesting literature. The premise here is that a suicide arrives in a library of infinite size wherein she can select something from her Book of Regrets, change it, and then select a new life from the library. For most of the book's length, this leads to some entertaining and amusing scenarios where she tries to bluff her way into being able to fit in with her surroundings. Since she is returned to the library for another choice at the point where she's disappointed in her new life--which rarely takes very long--the new lives come pretty thick and fast. I felt my own disappointments at two points. The first was when a new character emerged at the book's midpoint to explain how all of these phenomena were perfectly understandable once you grasped the essence of theology and/or quantum physics, made much worse by his explanation being couched in a strangled Franglais which sounded like Inspector Clouseau after having a few too many. The other was the book's longish, Hallmarkish denouement. This book was entertaining and certainly memorable, but I could have done without the pretentious mock profundity which frequently intruded.