‘The Midnight Library’ – An Unexpected DNF Review

I very rarely put DNF reviews and negative reviews on the blog here, because I always want my website to remain a positive space. But The Midnight Library has left me no choice.

Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate Program member, so any Amazon links you visit, I get a small commission. More info on my Affiliate Programs page.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Published by Penguin on September 29, 2020
Genres: Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Science Fiction / Time Travel, Fiction / Women
Pages: 304

The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year

"A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."—The Washington Post

The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Full Review – The Midnight Library

I did not finish (DNF-ed) this even when I had an hour and a half left to read.

I initially listened to this audiobook for a book club, but I was so bored that I couldn’t finish it anymore. English actress Carey Mulligan (who I know from her movies The Great Gatsby, An Education, and Far From the Madding Crowd) made me try out the audiobook, in hopes that I would be able to stick around just to see how this bore of a book was going to end. But not even Carey’s enchanting narration could save me from finishing it.

Characters

The main character, Nora Seed, clearly needs help, and this book is nothing more than a trigger of sadness, depression, loss, lost loves, forgotten friends, losing friends, family strains, suicidal attempts, and the weird in between of life and death. The Midnight Library is a place between life and death, where you can have the chance to start over in different lives. It’s different for everyone. Nora’s Midnight Library is a world of books, of what it could have been like had she taken a different turn in her life.

At first, it was cool to see Nora’s different worlds and how she stumbled to adapt to them, only to jump back into the library when she felt unsatisfied with that life. But after a while, the disappointment just kept on coming, and it made me frustrated to keep listening. This woman is never happy! I understand that people with depression and suicidal ideation aren’t completely satisfied with their lives, but man, this woman went on and on about losing her parents, giving up competitive swimming as a teenager, settling for a horrible ex-fiance Dan, and figuring out herself. But she never did. I felt like each story she would re-enter was going around in circles.

Mrs. Elm gives librarians a bad name.

Luckily, Nora’s spirit guide takes the shape of Mrs. Elm, old school librarian. I liked their connection, and it showed that they were friendly back in the day. However, Mrs. Elm was not very helpful in guiding Nora’s confusing decisions on whether or not she should live or die. I used to be a library assistant with plenty of librarians who would love to do anything they could to help out their patrons. Mrs. Elm was pretty terrible at her job. She kept giving Nora riddles and Hallmarky quotes for her to figure out. It felt very “Live. Laugh. Love”.

I feel like if this book was executed differently, then it could have taken a better turn. Which is probably the whole point of it, right? Still, a dream without a plan is a wish. And I wish this book was still a dream.

This post is sponsored by Audible.

I use Audible all the time; it’s one of my stops for the best, most popular audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals. Whenever I want to get a deeper understanding of an author’s writing voice, I turn to Audible. I get a better feel for what I’m reading, and it makes me want to hear more.

Sign up for a 30 day free trial, and receive a free audiobook! Use my link: https://www.audibletrial.com/poetrybooksya

If you liked this post, consider joining my Patreon!

Thanks for the support on Patreon: John Reid

Visit https://www.patreon.com/poetrybooksya for more exclusive, creative writing and poetry content! Also visit my introductory post on Patreon here.

Some posts include:

• Updates on my debut poetry book, Reality Check
• Blog posts that don’t make the main website
• I’ll write a poem about you!
• Choose topics for me to write about on the blog

Don’t want to support monthly? Check out my Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/poetrybooksya

Pre-Order my debut poetry book, Reality Check. Coming April 14, 2022!

Check out my announcement post on my book in the link here. I’m very excited to be sharing something that I’ve been working on for the past 2 years.

Thanks for reading,