book review: the midnight library by matt haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

(no star system)

STORY ✔️

CHARACTERS  ✔️

PROSE ✔️

Goodreads rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: in an attempted suicide, Nora is transported to a dream space where she gets to experience all the different routes her life could have taken with different decisions made.

One-sentence review: Sometimes your “perfect life” isn’t so far removed from your present. 

Overall storytelling/structure: we follow Nora as she jumps from life scenario to life scenario searching for perfect. We are in it with her, realizing the dreams and thoughts she had may not have translated to true happiness.

Writing style/prose: Smooth, quick read.

Characters: Likable and genuine. Easy to empathize with their faults.

Mood: while difficult at first if you are depressed or have been suicidal, worth going on the journey to help with your own. Matt Haig writes frequently about mental health struggles so this is certainly written to help find some hope and perspective.

Books Similar/Read if you like: I might come back to this with other suggestions in the future, but nothing has made me reflect so much on myself and my own struggles with depression like this book. 

*this book hit me in the midst of my post-partum, quarantine fatigue fog and completely changed my outlook on my life, both present and future planning like no other book, therapist, or medication could have ever done.

**this is easily my most consumable read this year that I have recommended to most women who have a similar life—white, economically privileged, mother/wife (ie. this book is not life changing for all, but has really helped people like me)