Book Review: ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig

WARNING: This story deals with issues of suicide and drug overdose.

Nora has had enough of life and is ready to die. Believing the world would be better off without her, and indeed that no one would care if she were no longer in it, she takes an overdose. Instead of dying her soul is transported to the Midnight Library. Here Nora is offered a choice. She can browse the other directions her life could have taken if she had made different choices and, if Nora finds a new life she is content with, she can stay in it. But which is the right life for her?

Every now and then I come across a book, read the blurb, and know I will regret not finding out what happens on those pages. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is one of those books.

The Midnight Library is a fascinating concept. The core idea of the novel is one that I think the majority of us have wondered about at some point in our lives – what would our life be like if we had chosen different paths? What if we had chosen a different career? What if we had moved to a different city or country when we were younger? What if we had been brave enough to say ‘I love you’?

The novel combines the classic idea of a person being stood at a crossroads (where turning left or right will create completely different outcomes) with the concept of parallel universes (where a version of every possible outcome for every decision we ever made exists).

The books in the library are used as a visual metaphor for Nora’s alternative lives. Each book contains one new version of her life just as storybooks contain a new world between their covers; waiting for the reader to find them. In The Midnight Library all Nora has to do is start reading a book and she will fall into that life. How many times have we, as readers, felt like we’ve been transported to a new world when we read a good book?

Whilst trying to find the perfect life for herself, Nora works through her list of regrets – with each mistake she tries to undo representing a new alternate life to explore. As real life is filled with ups and downs I was pleased that Haig chose to show a range of lives for Nora – some good, some bad, some average. In an important inclusion Haig shows that not all outcomes have the desires we want or expect. For example Nora regrets not marrying Dan however, whilst experiencing a version of their life together, she finds they were not as compatible a couple as she thought. In other lives Nora strives for fame and glory only to find this version of her has alienated her family as a result.

A key theme of the novel is self-reflection. When Nora is searching through the library she learns the importance of living your life and asking for help when you need it. Haig uses these different versions of Nora’s life to show that we shouldn’t be afraid to make changes if something isn’t working out the way we had hoped. Things can always improve and not all steps have to be big and dramatic in order to achieve a positive outcome.

While the premise of The Midnight Library is what intrigued me enough to read the book, I wasn’t expecting to encounter such as thought provoking novel.

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