The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Viking Books
Publication Date: September 2020
“At the beginning of a game, there are no variations. There is only one way to set up a board. There are nine million variations after the first six moves. And after eight moves there are two hundred and eighty-eight billion different positions. And those possibilities keep growing.” The game is chess, but this is said to Nora Seed as a metaphor for life. The problem is that at thirty-five years old, she already feels defeated and doesn’t see the possibilities. That’s why Nora decides to take her own life. But instead of dying, she becomes suspended between life and death in the Midnight Library, where each book offers Nora a different version of herself. Among that infinite supply of lives, Nora must choose the one that she will keep.
For a book that starts with the main character’s suicide, The Midnight Library is a surprisingly thoughtful and witty search for balance. When Nora begins her journey through the Midnight Library, she offers readers an opportunity to step back and compare her lives and choices to theirs. The regrets that she chooses to redress offer the question of what regrets we, the reader, might fix in another life, or whether we might choose another life at all. The Midnight Library is certainly intriguing. The humor and everyday dialogue entertain, but the story also prods the reader on a psychological and philosophical level. When Nora enters the Library, she is given fresh starts. Kind of. Entering each new life at thirty-five gives her both the tools and experience of an adult and the necessity of growing into her world as a child would. That allows the story to grow with her, moving both slowly as she explores one version of herself and quickly as she jumps from life to life. This book could be read for simple pleasure and excitement, but also as a way to consider and vicariously consider how choices affect the arc of a life. I would recommend The Midnight Library to YA fans who enjoy Earth-based fiction, developing characters, engaging writing, and considering how the choices we make shape and define us.
- D. K. Nuray
