I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.com

First line: Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed sat in the warmth of the small library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford.

Summary: Nora Seed commits suicide, but instead of entering the afterlife, she enters the Midnight Library where she is granted the ability to visit an infinite possible lives based on decisions she didn't, but could have made.

My Thoughts: This book was wild! The plot line was just genius and made for such an enjoyable read. Nora went through the gamut of emotions as she navigated through a series of alternate lives that force her to realize that she does want to live. Her struggle to find what truly makes herself happy resonated so loudly with me. I needed this book right now.

FYI: Big trigger warning. There is a suicide attempt made by the main character.

Somewhere out in the universe is a library where a person hovers between life and death. This library contains an infinite number of books where a person can choose between the life they are now living or a life with different choices. Nora Seed finds herself in this library and chooses to make different decisions that she has made in the past. She explores her life with a different husband, her dream to become an Olympic swimmer and to live and explore the Arctic circle. All of us would find this book interesting and maybe even want to visit this library and make different choices for ourselves. Great, unusual book!

This was one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I laughed, I cried, I learned.
The Midnight Library has something everyone can relate to. We all have regrets, images of what life could be. Nora Seed, is not by any means enjoying the life she is living. Everything that could go wrong... has.
While it seems any hint hope has disappeared, Nora opens her eyes in the Midnight Library. From there she embarks on the journey to see who she could've been and could be.
There are so many valuable lessons in this book for not only Nora, but the reader. I highly reccomend!

I really liked this book! More than I anticipated. The main character, disappointed with her life, chooses her exit. Only her exit leads to infinite possibilities with regard to choices and regrets. This story was mesmerizing in how it explored her possibilities and their possible outcomes, both positive and negative. It was a satisfying ending that did not leave you hanging. 5 Stars!

This book was received as an ARC from PENGUIN GROUP Viking in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Ever since I read How to Stop Time, I have become a fan of Matt Haig's work and I absolutely loved The Midnight Library. I fell in love with the concept of everyone has a different life story and how their lives would have turned out if a series of events were to change. I got too excited throughout the book and was so overjoyed with the plot. I could not stop reading the entire book and just loved every page and every chapter that existed. I can't wait to share this book with our library community.

We will consider adding this title to our Adult Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I chose this book to read based entirely on the title and cover, knowing nothing about it. About halfway through, I realized that I have been following the author on Twitter for the past year, and enjoying his candidness on discussing mental health.

Just to get this out of the way- I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. Anyways, this book surprised me- at certain points, the critic in me assumed that the author was going to have something contrived happen to Nora, the protagonist of the story. I was pleased to be wrong each time, and the ending was a proper ending that Nora deserved.

I won’t give any spoilers. I will say that the author’s knowledge of mental health and suicide helped to make this book more interesting and more sensitive. A quick read with a heavy storyline that you can devour.

This book has such a unique concept. I was happily surprised by the ending too! It may be that “human lives are no greater than those of oysters,” but each one is unique and beautiful.

I found this to be similar to the authors previous book but it was a very thought provoking read about examining ones life choices and finding meaning in the little things.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are well written, and the story is moving and touching -- without coming across as overly cheesy or sappy.

I loved this book from page one. Following Nora through a hard day and into the Midnight Library. The representation of different lives held in infinite books, on infinitely long shelves. The question being if you could take a past regret and erase it, where would you be now? I experienced the low feelings with Nora along with the shock of how some of her other journeys progressed. I am considered giving this book to my daughters. It's that good.

This is the 3rd book by Matt Hair and he is becoming a favorite author of mine. His novels are unique in their storyline and The Midnight Library didn't disappoint!
We follow along Nora Seed as she experience the what ifs gonna sense. The ending was well done, bringing More's journey full circle, but it almost ended too perfectly.

My first encounter with Matt Haig's work was his book The Humans (2013), which immediately captivated me with its unique and bluntly stated view of humanity. His newest book, The Midnight Library, is no different. I was immediately caught up in the story, which follows Nora Seed as she goes on an It's A Wonderful Life-esque journey to find an alternate life in which she will feel happy and fulfilled. If you've ever asked yourself, "I wonder how my life would be different if I'd chosen a instead of b," The Midnight Library is for you!

After the worst day of her life, Nora Seed feels like life isn't worth living. Her suicide attempt lands her in a strange place between life and death where she gets to try out other possible lives. The Midnight Library is a delightful and heart-wrenching cross between Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Life After Life.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a beautiful and magical read! Nora Seed, our main character, is caught somewhere in between life and death, and finds herself in a place called the Midnight Library. It’s a kind of limbo filled with an infinite number of books, full of possible lives for Nora to go on to live. She dips into each one and finds that maybe she’s not ready to leave her own life after all. This was just a comforting book that made me so happy! 4.5 stars.

Another in the spate of recent books about choices, pivotal moments in our lives, and the possibilities of do-overs. Nora succumbs to her sense of utter despair and commits suicide. But wait--she finds herself in the midnight library where there is an infinite number of books telling her life story as it turns out based on the infinite number of choices she has made in her life. Her childhood librarian guides her, telling her she may choose a book telling the story of any time in her life when she made a different decision, and she will find herself in the present that has happened as a result. Nora finds her way through many books, when her new decisions yielded unintended consequences and surprising versions of herself. This novel moves along quickly as the author and main character play with different life possibilities, and it conveys a thought-provoking and affirming message.

I've just finished this book and I'm struggling to figure out how to begin this review. It was a heavy book, and I would put a MASSIVE trigger warning in the first several chapters of the book as it counts down to Nora's decision to kill herself. But once you've slipped beyond that section, things get very interesting. We are taken into a "between" realm of always midnight (the time Nora has entered) where lights float on an absent ceiling, shelves of alternate possible lives in books stretch towards infinity, and a keeper of this library and kind of guide presents as Nora's elementary school librarian who was kind to her. There is a "Book of Regrets" that anyone who has every been depressed or anxious will understand - imagining every branch of possible other choices we could have made and didn't, but maybe that would have been better? That's that book. Then the librarian tells Nora she can choose to pick the *other* option for any of her regrets, so long as they are still possible at the moment she's chosen to die. This begins Nora's entry (and exit) from so many different possible lives, and we are told that Nora only has to feel that life as "the one" inside of herself to fully merge with it and leave the Library behind.

Things get a little interesting/strange when Nora meets another "life traverser" but he's there for different reasons, and I was a little confused about what the book meant if his version of things was true ... but I choose to glaze over that and focus on her instead.

Ultimately, this book is about what it means to live a life and how one cannot be entirely within their own life if they decide to be too afraid to live. It's also about how the depression-lens decision to commit suicide is often through a hazy, fuzzy lens of untrue memories/feelings/reasons, but that that is the depression monster making that decision. It's interesting, too, knowing Matt Haig's experiences with depression - he's spoke about how his depression was never medical (i.e. Nora's situational depression) and that his addiction to social media has affected him adversely (i.e. Nora talks about checking Facebook and having no new friend requests, likes, comments, etc.). So in a sense, this book might be the fictional letter to himself (and others) about why choosing death is not the right decision. This is admirable, for sure, and adds another layer of appreciation for the book.

I loved Audrey Niffeneggar's book, "The Night Bookmobile," and this book definitely felt atmospherically and topically similar.

Who didn't struggle in their life at least once with the question - what if I have chosen differently, done something differently? Who didn't struggle at least once with a regret, that the path of their life is not the one they dreamed of. The a life-affirming novel by Matt Haig is for those who imagine a life of a second, sometimes a third chance, for those who seek peace with their life.
It's a heart- warming, a life-affirming novel.
Thank you NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for a honest review.

I am a big fan of author Matt Haig, and I was very excited for the chance to read 'Midnight Library'. Who hasn't wondered how their lives could be different if they had just made one different decision? The Midnight Library explores that question.

Nora Seed has made many mistakes in her life, and after a series of disastrous events, she finds herself unable to cope. She is filled with regret over wrong decisions, and feels that she has nothing to live for. She attempts to take her own life, and finds herself in the Midnight Library. She is surrounded by an infinite number of books, each representing a life that she could have had if she had done something differently in her life. All she has to do is think of a regret, and she will be transported into the life where she made a different choice.

Each time she finds herself in a new life, she has to try to work out what is happening in that life. Is she happy with the choices she made? Is it the "best" life? If she doesn't choose to stay there, she will go back to the Midnight Library to make a different choice.

The book really had me reflecting on my own life--what other paths might I have taken? Would those choices really have been better? What makes a life worth living?

I enjoyed the story immensely, and have already recommended it to a number of friends. I will definitely be purchasing this for our library when it becomes available.

The first 20 pages are a bit of a slog - but they give you a feel for someone suffering deep enough despair/depression that they might really want to end their life. Between moments, between life and death, Nora is given the choice to try to re-do her life, or simply let go and die. But choosing between 'best' lives can be difficult. Sometimes it's the smallest change that makes the biggest difference. And sometimes, just sometimes, what you really need - and want - is what you already had all along.

I am a big fan of Matt Haig's nonfiction works, "Reasons to Stay Alive" and "Notes on a Nervous Planet." These short, simple, impactful works resonated with me in a big way. The Midnight Library is the first of his fiction titles I have read, and I found it to be less of a "novel" in the strict sense, and more of a meditation on depression within a frame story. The message and tone is on par with his nonfiction titles: acknowledging without fear or judgement the hold that depression can have on a person; closely examining the moments in life when you want to give up, as well as the moments when you want to hang on, and presenting them as equally valid (there is no shame in despair, nor embarrassment in earnestly embracing life); and learning to value and desire the life that you have. Haig seems very interested in the idea of a person inhabiting a body, yet not *feeling* embodied, present, or "like themselves." This is certainly an excellent metaphor for depression. I have a feeling that Haig's other fiction titles function similarly, as stories built to deliver messages about mental illness. He continues to find ways to talk about depression and anxiety that are free of judgement and stigma, and he validates the feelings and mindsets that accompany these conditions without glorifying them, othering them, or making them gratuitously painful. Depression is a recognizable foe in his works, and while we may never defeat it, Haig believes that we can learn to live alongside it.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

With all that being said, I don't know that the direct messaging and the sentimentality of this story will appeal to everyone. It's not a book I would recommend indiscriminately. It is useful to view it as a fable wherein the "moral" message is more important than the storyline or characters. I think that I would have liked the book better had I known that going into it. When I started reading it, I expected there to be a more serious take on the mechanics of jumping into other lives. As it is, I questioned some of the ways that that worked, felt distracted by the way lives had supposedly unfolded, and quickly grew tired by the fact that she never knew anything when she woke up in a life. If there are infinite options, why do we get such rigid experiences of each version of her lives? (Without giving spoilers... why is she given a version of x life in which terrible thing y happened, when certainly there is a version where it didn't?) But I realized that the mechanics are not the point, and that Haig is presenting us with a lesson. Knowing what I now know about his fiction, I will certainly read another, but just approach it as a meditation on depression, within the frame of a story, rather than a book that I read for the story itself.