The Midnight Library

This was.. fine? Cute, I guess? I have a lot of complicated thoughts about this book, but it all evens out to a solid "It was fine."

From a technical standpoint, the writing was solid. The prose was appropriate and I found the setting to be incredibly charming. I loved how the author wove in callbacks to setting and people that made me smile when we got to see people and places across lives. The pacing felt a bit rushed, and character dialogue never felt natural (Nora lived untold lives, but she still stumbled through conversations? She's constantly dropping '...well I did that in another life...' as if that's a normal thing to say?) I think some of the characters were supposed to be written in a way that made them loveable but flawed, but often I just didn't like them. Mrs Elm in The Library felt condescending and unhelpful. Dan didn't seem to have any redeeming qualities. Ash was the only character that I found to be likable, but that's because he wasn't written with any flaws. Even Nora's characterization was irritatingly dense and felt completely flat for 90% of the book with no real development happening until literally her last life (you can't just say her regrets are disappearing and count that as character development. That needs to be reflected in her actions as well).

Thematically, I get the message. And it think it's a well told story that explores Sylvia Plath's symbolism of the fig tree. I don't think it's a particularly unique idea, but I digress. However, (maybe not the author's intention) this book is often talked about almost as a companion to The Bell Jar. I just don't see it. I don't think the themes of The Bell Jar needed to be explained or drawn out any further. In short, I think The Bell Jar did what The Midnight Library wanted to do, but better. In a vacuum, this was a strong story. But I don't think there's any meaningful comparison to the Bell Jar to be had.

But with all of that being said, the story was predictably sweet. Found purpose stories are hard to be very critical of. But I do wish this lived up to the hype I've seen around it.

I love the underlying message of this book and am very glad I now have a book I can point to as an illustration of that idea, but ultimately I feel the book is a little shallow, so I just can't quite justify a 5 star rating. I still highly recommend it, and hope someday I can debate with someone about what I see as it's weaknesses.

The first chapter of this book was really quite depressing. The following chapters livened it up a bit, but the book in general was a little bit upsetting. Right before the end, my opinion almost completely changed. It's actually quite uplifting, and I would imagine that it might make someone think twice about suicide, assuming they didn't get too depressed at the start.

Hmm, this book is a bit Tuesdays-With-Morrie-ish. As in, well meaning but ultimately rather filled with platitudes about Living One's Best Life and Appreciating Things While We Have Them and Telling People You Love Them While You Can, etc etc. If you're a fan of that kind of rather simplistic and rather forced feel-good positivity message then you'll probably like this too. Lots of handy little quotes from various writers and philosophers to remind you to Appreciate Life.

Now, I'm not saying the messages in this book aren't good ones - we SHOULD appreciate life and tell people we love them while we can and learn to look at what we have rather than what we might have missed. But, I found the writing a bit too pat, and a bit patronizing. Also, for a book with such a cool title (The Midnight Library!) I was expecting rather more library in the story; instead the library is just a metaphor for a sort of limbo that a person goes to when they're in between living and dying, and where they get to try out alternate lives where they made different choices and explore paths-not-taken that they regret. It happens to be a library for Nora, our heroine, but it's other things for other people and could just as well have been named The Midnight Blockbuster Video Store.

Anyway, Nora is sad and depressed and clearly not living a happy life and she ends up in the library and spends the rest of the book exploring what her life would have been like in a variety of if-onlys ... if she'd married her ex-fiance Dan, if she'd kept playing in that band, if she'd tried for the Olympic swimming team, if she'd studied science, etc. The result is one big It's A Wonderful Life type view as she realizes that no life is perfect, and even when one thing is better, other bad things have happened, and will happen, and really we should just appreciate and make the best of what we have, etc etc. Cute little story but felt a bit trite and condescending tbh. Your mileage may value. It might, I suppose, potentially be helpful to someone in the same negative headspace as Nora. Can't really evaluate that.

Well, the bar has been set high, 2021. This book will be recommended to everyone I encounter.

3.5/5
Love the premise, the writing wasn't as enticing though

I tend to enjoy books that explore the concept of a multiverse and this one is no exception. It's less sci-fi and more existential crisis, so it reads a bit easier than many books on this topic. That said, it was definitely a bit allegorical (a la The Alchemist) for my taste – which is also totally fair given the author's own experience with severe depression.