For our January book club, we had the absolute honour of reading and savouring every last word of Matt Haig’s glorious and beguiling bestseller, The Midnight Library. With lockdown 3.0 proving the hardest of all the restrictions yet, this poignant and perspective-shaking triumph of a novel couldn’t have landed in our laps at a better time.
Never have we read a novel that amalgamates the rock bottoms of reality with the soaring and infectious highs of the imaginary so effortlessly.
Here, the team share their glowing reviews of what has been one of our top book club reads so far – I think we are all in unanimous agreement that this book has the power to heal hearts & save lives.
Purchase The Midnight Library through Bookshop here.
Lareese
I’m of the view that Matt Haig’s writing should be prescribed. The way he verbalises every shade of human emotion is revolutionary and what he’s done with The Midnight Library is no exception. He’s crafted a story that strikes a tender balance between the real and the imaginary, resulting in a genre-busting novel that manages to oscillate between reality and escapism, much like its protagonist. The central themes of regret, second-chances and ‘what ifs’ are beautifully materialised in Nora Seed and her catalogue of other lives. The Midnight Library’s message is a poignant and essential one; the willingness to live is always a story worth telling and where there is life, there is infinite possibility. Matt Haig is a storytelling wizard and for as long as we have books, he must continue to write them.
Would you recommend? I’m a Matt Haig evangelist, so it’s a resounding yes from me
Rating: 5/5
Holly
This is probably the most stressed I’ve been writing a book review because I feel like I won’t be able to do it justice. Midnight Library is one of my favourite books I’ve ever read. At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, the first few chapters were quite triggering and after having a bad start to January I very nearly didn’t prevail. But as soon as the Midnight Library took over, I was hooked. I read the whole thing in about 3 days.
I’m not really one to have regrets, I believe everything happens for a reason and the midnight library instilled that in me even more. That being said, it’s inevitable to have some regrets and this actually prompted me to reach out to someone and resolve an issue from a few years ago.
The whole thing is based around the character Nora and how she’s unhappy in life, and what she would change if she could. She has the option to see what her life would be like if she made different decisions, and how every decision has a knock-on effect on your life.
If I had to say one thing I wasn’t a fan of was the bit with Hugo and the science behind the midnight library. I understand why it was necessary but the whole book is so personal to Nora, I feel like it wasn’t as peaceful when it brought other characters into her story.
I would say the Midnight Library was genuinely life-changing, and I kind of hope this is really what happens when you die. I feel like this weird weight I didn’t even realise I was carrying has been lifted. Big praise for Matt Haig!
Would you recommend? Definitely
Rating: 5/5
Charlotte
I love Matt Haig on social media and find he’s genuinely one of the few people who discuss mental health that really resonates with me and feels to make sense, possibly because we’ve shared a lot of the same experiences. I was so excited to give The Midnight Library a read because of this and it did not disappoint! I loved Nora from the off and really saw parts of myself in her as I definitely struggle with regrets and ‘what ifs’ on the daily. Her character felt entirely real to me from the start and the intricacies of her life were portrayed with such depth and detail that I was invested in her story and felt genuine empathy for her.
I normally go for quite ‘realistic’ books that I can picture myself in so I was a little apprehensive that The Midnight Library would feel far fetched and lose some of its poignance for me, but I was so wrong! The Midnight Library is everything I think the world needs and it gave me a lot of hope, even though it is a work of fiction. I think the messages between this book’s pages would offer comfort and love to anyone that reads it, and I’m so glad to have learnt so much from this story so early in 2021- it’s had a huge impact on my mindset!
Would you recommend? 1000000%
Rating: 5/5
Danielle
The Midnight Library has been on my TBR pile for a while so I was extremely pleased to finally tuck into it this month. Boy did this one did not disappoint, it’s quite frankly everything people say it is and more. A beautiful story told so well it’ll have you contemplating every aspect of your own life and how you live it. I haven’t read something with any fantasy/sci-fi elements in for ages and it was such a delight to escape somewhere so magical every night of my dreary January. I don’t tend to hand on to regrets but I’m a bit of a daydreamer so this book really spoke to me (as I’m sure it does everyone) but it’s just so brilliantly relatable. I can see myself picking this up every few years to remember the lessons I learnt, please read it!
Would you recommend? To everyone!
Rating: 5/5
Darcey
I absolutely love Matt Haig and have been a massive fan of his work and as him in general ever since reading ‘Notes On a Nervous Plant’ a few years ago. After seeing so many great reviews for ‘The Midnight Library’ I was worried that my expectations were so high that it wouldn’t quite reach them, well, it exceeded my expectations. I don’t think anything I write will be enough to explain just how great of a read it is, basically everyone should read this!
As someone who can spend to much time worrying if I’ve made the right decisions in life, analysing mistakes I’ve made in the past filled with regret (over the smallest things, as usual!), this book really spoke to me! It made me really reflect on my own life, while simultaneously being super invested in Nora’s other lives and the journey she was going on!
I recommend everyone to read this book, it has honestly changed my mindset and especially in these hard times, I think it will help a lot of people.
Would you recommend – Absolutely!
rating out of 5: 5/5
Here’s a reminder of the blurb.
Between life and death, there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well-lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.
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 new 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.
