The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – Book Review

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Format: Hardcover Book

Book Type: Standalone

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Magical Realism

Review:

Wow. Oh wow.

This is one of those books that you could live in forever. And funnily enough, that sentiment aligns so perfectly with the story itself.

Matt Haig creates an imaginative, thought-provoking tale that follows Nora Seed as she finds herself in the Midnight Library – a liminal space between life and death where every book on the shelf holds a different version of her life. A life where she made different choices, took different risks, said yes instead of no (or vice versa). As she steps into each one, she experiences the infinite possibilities of who she could have been, and through that journey, she begins to understand who she is.

What struck me most was how deeply immersive this book is. I didn’t just read about Nora’s lives – I lived them right alongside her. The story is poignant but never heavy-handed, philosophical but never pretentious. It asks the big “what if?” questions that we all wrestle with but delivers them in a way that feels like a warm cup of tea rather than an existential crisis (which it is safe to say I am all too familiar with, lol).

And the writing? Gorgeous. Breath-taking. Fabulous. Haig has a way of dropping these deceptively simple lines that stop you in your tracks – little truths about life, regret, perception, and hope that sneak up on you and settle deep in your bones.

The Midnight Library is both heartbreaking and hopeful, a book that reminds you that while we can’t change the past, we can change the way we see it – and more importantly, the way we move forward. It’s a love letter to second chances, to perspective shifts, to the realization that sometimes, the life we’re searching for is the one we’re already living.

I’ll recommend this book in every single life. And to Matt Haig – endless thank yous, a million times over!

Favorite Quotes:

“’Between life and death, there is a library,’ she said. ‘And within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices … Would you have done anything different if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’” Pg 29

“Doing one thing differently is often the same as doing everything differently.” Pg 32

“Because, Nora, sometimes the only way to learn is to live.” Pg 67

“When you stay too long in a place, you forget just how big and expanse the world is. . . But once you sense that vastness, once something reveals it, hope emerges, whether you want it to or not, and it clings to you as stubbornly as lichen clings to rock.” Pg 134

“‘But you will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life,’ he said wisely. ‘You’re quoting Camus.’ ‘You got me.’” Pg 151

“We only know what we perceive. Everything we experience is ultimately just our perception of it. ‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.’” Pg 219

“-some truths were just impossible to see.” Pg 245

“It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from. That the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective.” Pg 284