I've read that...The Midnight Library

               Have you ever heard a song that seemed to be playing just for you in that very minute? Or watched a movie that almost felt like it was speaking directly to you? Maybe you sometimes get the feeling that you are in your own version of the Truman Show and someone unseen is directing your life and pulling you where you didn’t even realize you needed to go. That is exactly how I felt reading Matt Haig’s most recent best seller, The Midnight Library.

              Like many people often do, but in this past year especially, I have found myself questioning everything. I have questioned every detail and decision I have made trying to find where I made the wrong choice and ended up where I am today – feeling lost. I have thought of my many mistakes, regrets, and miscalculations, continuously searching for something new to “fix” everything that had gone and continued to go wrong in my life. Then, I checked out The Midnight Library. Just reading the summary on the jacket sleeve had intrigued me and began a train of thought to what the Midnight Library could be. Little did I know that, by the time I finished reading this book, my life would be changed by the ideas expressed within the hard covers.

              The Midnight Library, as with many of Matt Haig’s books, contains so many thought-provoking ideas and quotes that you will want to tattoo them on your arms so you never forget them. This novel provides an inspiring view of what might happen between life and death, or as some call it Limbo. It is both the same and completely different for everyone and plays with the idea of quantum physics, parallel universes, and philosophy in a way that just makes sense; so much so you start to imagine what your Midnight Library might look like and what you will find there.

            The idea is both complex and entirely simple at the same time. Between life and death you enter a place, such as a library, where you can experience every possible life you have ever imagined and an infinite number of lives you couldn’t have imagined in your wildest day dreams. Each life starts at the exact moment you fell between life and death and is impacted by a decision you made, or didn’t make, sometime prior to that moment. For example, that person you had a crush on in high school but never did anything about it – you can experience a life where you did do something about it. Or maybe your decision to become a nurse, when you were also contemplating being a vet; you can experience that life too. 

            As you read, you learn the lessons with the main character, Nora Seed, as the librarian, Mrs. Elm, guides her to check out each book, or life. Each life you experience with Nora makes you think and question your own life, decisions, regrets, and feelings, or at least that is what happened with me. I am a person who likes to try to figure out the ending of books and movies right from the beginning, but, with this book, I couldn’t. I kept thinking that I had figured out what Nora needed and the life she needed to find, but then she would “check out” that book and find it lacking in a way she, nor I, expected. The Midnight Library is full of despair, excitement, pain, happiness, grief, and possibility all at the same time, just as in real life. And, in the end, Nora finds exactly the life she needs and you are hopeful she can keep it.

This book is a must read for anyone who has spent even a small portion of time feeling regretful or disillusioned about their situation and place in life. It will make you deeply consider your own decisions and ideals and, it is my firm belief, that you will finish this book with a new outlook on your life. When you finish this book, it’ll be one minute past midnight in your own life and you will have a new sense of where to begin.

Check it out from the library today! You won’t regret it.