Plot summary: The Midnight Library

Nora is surrounded by regrets. Weighed down by mistakes she’s made, roads she hasn’t taken and people she’s let down, she finds herself in the Midnight Library. Here, she can pick up any book and fall into a life she would be leading if she’d made a different decision somewhere along the way. With the freedom to undo her regrets and find a new life for herself, Nora has to work out the answer to the most difficult question of all. What is the best way to live?

Content warnings:

• Suicide
• Cancer
• Death
• Substance abuse
• Depression

My thoughts on The Midnight Library

Nora, the protagonist of The Midnight Library, is deeply unhappy. After a day that seems to validate her feeling that she contributes nothing, and would be missed by nobody, she decides to commit suicide. Only to find herself in a library that holds the key to infinite alternative lives. She can, she’s informed, step into any one of these lives. There, she can see whether she likes it better than her original one. If she does, she’s welcome to stay there. If she finds herself disappointed though, she’ll return to the library for another choice.

The questions posed by the book reminded me a little of The Book of Two Ways. (I talked about that one in a podcast episode!) Although what made this particularly interesting was that it wasn’t just the story posing the question of what Nora’s ‘best’ life looked like. Nora herself had to confront this question with every new version of herself she became.

The book deals with the challenge of mental illness head-on

There are many moments while reading the book where it’s clear it was written by somebody who understands depression. Haig has been open about his own struggles with mental illness, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who felt deeply understood while reading The Midnight Library. Nora feels, more than anything else, unnecessary. Like she’s a drain on the people she knows, with nothing to offer. At one point, while checking her social media (and finding no solace there) she notes, “She was antimatter, with added self-pity.”

The opening chapters are, in a way, very dark. Each one begins with a countdown – Twenty-seven hours before she decided to die… Nine and a half hours… Nine hours, etcetera. But at the same time, there are moments of real humour in the book’s details. An observation Nora has about the way her boss sighs made me laugh out loud, even as I braced myself for what was obviously coming. The book doesn’t describe the actual moment of her suicide, although you do see the heart-breaking moments leading up to it. And then Nora’s in the library.

Nora’s many lives make for a fun read

Getting to explore the many and varied lives that Nora could have lived was fascinating. Haig deftly delivered enough key information that the true point of the story could come to the fore, and we were free to enjoy Nora’s experimentation. Which isn’t to say it all went smoothly, of course.

One thing that I found particularly compelling was Nora’s search, in each new life, for clues that it’s a happy one. She doesn’t necessarily want to be rich, or famous, or incredibly successful – although those are often her first thoughts when she’s trying to come up with a new life to try. What she wants is what most of us want, really. She wants to feel okay. Throughout the book, Nora explores her various regrets, and tries to discover the prerequisites for a happy life.

There’s also humour in the inherent awkwardness of trying to fit into a life you’ve walked into without context. While Nora picks each life based on a key decision she wants to know the outcome of, such as ‘what if I hadn’t quit swimming’, she doesn’t get any prior warning about what the rest of it looks like. Improvising conversations with people she’s never met, who think they’ve known her for years, makes for some entertaining situations.

I love a book that keeps you guessing, and The Midnight Library definitely did that

Towards the end I started to wonder how Haig was going to wrap things up for Nora. It felt like we were running short on time to address some pretty big questions. The plot itself contributes to that worry! Nora’s informed quite early that if she doesn’t find a life to commit to, the whole library might be in jeopardy. Before too long I felt completely invested in Nora’s story, and wanted a happy ending for her. With both the book’s pages and Nora’s chances running out, I had no idea whether or not we’d get one!

I won’t give away any specifics about the ending, because I think everybody should read this book. All I will say is that it was as beautifully written as everything that led up to it. Thoughtful, sweet and thoroughly human, The Midnight Library is a book about finding your way in life, and understanding your place in the world.