The Midnight Library ~ Matt Haig

Hi! I am literally making this blog post at ten at night, but it's a Friday, and I can't sleep. Anyways, given the hour, I have selected an appropriate book to discuss: The Midnight Library. This book was excellent. I have really hit a reading gold mine recently, and while most of the other books have been very romantic and grief-focused, this book created a space to reflect. More than one time, at night, I would put down my book and just think. That's it. I would just think about what I had read. Not because I couldn't comprehend it, but because the book is written in a philosophical and reflective manner. Let's dive deeper!

I kind of just jumped right into the book, but I did want to do a little discussion about blog updates and posting. I'm sorry that I haven't posted in two or three weeks. I was on Spring Break (it was super fun), and I had a crazy Wednesday this week. Also, happy late Saint Patrick's Day! Unfortunately, nobody participated in last week's reading competition. That's not a big deal, and I wasn't expecting a huge outcome. Next time around, it will be better organized and more publicized. I understand that the competition was very disorganized on my part! Sorry! Additionally, I am currently reading The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Mara gave this book to me, and I'm trying really hard to read it. It is definitely not my usual style, so I am going through it slower, but hopefully it will pick up soon. For that reason, I'm just posting on older books that I have never posted about in the meantime. Anyways, that's it for the site, let's return to The Midnight Library.

Matt Haig's novel plays with the idea of parallel universes and what happens after death. In the story the main character named Nora, commits suicide after getting fired, struggling with depression, and finding her cat dead all in one day. After she attempts to end her life, she is brought to an enormous library that doesn't appear to end in any particular spot. All the books are a bunch of different shades of green, and in reality they are all different shades of her life. Each book is a single different decision she could have made. The thing is, the more lives she explores, the more decisions she realizes she can make. She may go through infinite amounts of books and needs to find "the right life for her". The librarian of this location is Mrs. Elm, her middle school librarian. Mrs. Elm helped her through a lot of tough times as a teenager and now is resurfacing in her subconsciousness as a... well... dead person.

The library is truly just a mental construct that Nora's subconscious creates in order to explain the situation that she is in. There would be no way for a human brain to process the universe as a whole, so simplification is key. This creates a dynamic throughout the entire novel that nothing she is doing is truly real. What if none of this really matters? Isn't she dead anyway? This book is so fascinating. There are so many other weird, reflective bits such as this throughout the entire storyline. In some cases, she realizes that no matter what she would've done, things wouldn't have changed; in others, she realizes that she could've made a different decision, when she didn't even realize she made a decision in the first place.

This book was incredible, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a thoughtful read. I will warn you in advance that the ultimate plot of the book is not revealed until past 40-50% of the book. That first section is majorly character development and other possible lives she could have lived. It is almost like a collection of short stories, at first. Later, it pulls together, though, and develops a strong central conflict within the library (which is really just her mind). Truly, this is the kind of book that I would easily read again just to try and catch things I didn't notice at first. I love the philosophical part of this and the ideas that Haig decides to include. If I were to rate this book, this was an easy nine out of ten. One point taken off just because I didn't feel like I was aware of what I was walking into when I started reading, and it took me a few days to really feel the impact of the book. I wasn't as involved at first, I suppose. To use the motto that I "invented" in 2nd grade, I believe that you should READ THE BOOK! Thank you for reading! I will post again soon!

***Not my artwork above! I found this photo on Amazon.com. The artist is @randomwhys. Thank you!***