I wanted to get my thoughts about this book recorded before they left me and I begin on another book. I went into this book as a blind buy from Amazon. Recently I had read The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (which was great) and it made me yearn a bit more for some more popular contemporary reading. So this is a result of an impulse buy from the current bestseller list.
I’m not going to give away much of the book or any spoilers, but primarily how I felt after I finished reading it. For a brief synopsis, the story revolves around a character named Nora Seed who lives in the UK. Nora has a pretty shitty life. Because of that shitty life, she ends up in a place between life and death called “The Midnight Library.” The library contains and infinite number of books all of which contain the story of her own life if she would have made different decisions, from very small decisions to very large decisions.
I finished the book rather quickly since it was only around 270+ pages long. The prose itself is very readable, however nothing to write home about. You can easily finish it in one sitting if your a somewhat voracious reader. Character development was good, not excellent, but not terrible. There are aspects of Nora’s life that I think we can all relate too, and this is what made it appealing. There were instances of her life, or related characters in the book that I could identify with.
As you can imagine, the story takes us through multiple versions of what Nora’s life would be like if she made different decisions. After the third of fourth alternative version of her life I felt like I was getting a bit bored. Clearly the author, Matt Haig, also foresaw this because he did indeed throw a couple of wrenches into the story at that time to make it a bit less dry.
I came away from reading this book not necessarily moved in one direction or the other, but I wasn’t upset that I took the time to read it. Books, like movies and television shows, if I don’t like them after giving them a chance I’ll just shelve them, but I didn’t end up DNF’ing it. I found myself thinking about my own life and certain decisions I’ve made at multiple points throughout the book. However all of the decisions that I consider pivotal to where I am now I was happy I made. So the reflection that this book induced me into participating in was joyous rather than depressing.
Unfortunately I can’t recommend the book for buying. If you’re bored and the library has it available, then sure, check it out. Or if you have a free audiobook coupon code, no problem there, knock yourself out. In fact this last sentence really sums up my review.