Book review of "Midnight Library" by Matt Haig
Welcome to the Midnight Library. This library offers you a chance to read about your regrets and the option to live alternate lives that might have happened if you had made different choices. It is a very personal library, complete with your own librarian who will help you through and guide your journey into parallel realities.
Nora Seed enters the library after a particularly bad day of being mugged, losing her job, finding her cat at the side of the road, and generally feeling like she’s at the end of the road. All of these things compound her feelings of worthlessness and she, therefore, decides to end her life.
Waking up in the Midnight Library, Nora is greeted by her former school librarian, Mrs. Elm, who explains that the library’s existence and collection are tied to Nora, containing infinite stories of her lives. Reluctant to believe it at first, Nora begins to read the Book of Regrets. It is a big book because Nora has a lot of regrets. There’s the band she was in with her brother, the dream of swimming at the Olympics, the career as a glaciologist, the fiancé and the pub, and the friends’ trip to Australia – all opportunities that Nora did not pursue, leading her to the library and a chance to revisit them.
When Nora pops into each of these lives, she has the chance to see her impact in that life, but none of them feel quite right. In each life, Nora is herself, the same present-day person and each experience helps her to untangle what really matters, what she really needs, and what is really missing. Would she have been happier if she had married Dan, stayed in the band, or swum to a gold medal? Finding the answers to these questions helps Nora on the road to recognizing her value, her impact on others and her choice to live or to die.
As Nora’s time in the library comes to an end, the walls begin to crumble and Nora must choose the story she wishes to continue. Will she choose something different, carry on as she was or write a new story all her own? A great read to lift your spirits!
Helen Varga is a library technician at the Steveston Branch of the Richmond Public Library.
