THE MIDNIGHT LiBRARY (Matt Haig)

It's been over a year since my last review and a lot of things have changed, yet so much is still the same. I'm still just an average Joe. I have a good job, great friends and an even better family. I also now own a dog which is a lifelong dream and I am still an appropriate age where stumbling out of my local spoons is acceptable. I am a very lucky young man. All that being said, is my life where I thought it would be at aged 25? Absolutely not. Where I am or rather where I am not can all be put down to decisions, whether they are good or bad. I think it's only natural to dwell on decisions and what could have been, especially in a lifestyle where we all know someone from school living their best life traveling Thailand or making lots of money with their cliche small business. The midnight Library looks into these feelings in a way I found truly grasping. 

 

Without giving too much away the main character Nora Seed is depressed and feels like the life she is living is one which does not need to be continued. In a turn of events, she ends up in an endless library where all the books represent a life, she could have lived had she made different decisions, no matter how small. Whilst experiencing these different lives she soon realises that every life has days where you wish you were somewhere else. For me this is a very thought-provoking concept. Where would I be had I gone to Cardiff instead of Bangor for university? Or if I had swiped right on a certain girl on tinder instead of left. What number of decisions and outcomes would need to change for me to be starting right back for Liverpool this weekend? I know the last one is quite the stretch but I did once score a hattrick at soccer sixes.  

 

After reading the blurb for this book I already knew that the main character would realise that the life she is currently living isn’t that bad at all and if she learnt to appreciate what she did have she could be happy. It doesn’t take a genius to predict that outcome, even an Average Joe can work that one out. That being said, it’s a nice concept, isn't it? Especially with the number of people who are struggling with their mental health in today's current climate. Maybe a predictable cliché is exactly what people want to read? 

 

Despite its predictable outcome Nora’s journey was one I genuinely enjoyed following and was a book I didn’t want to finish. We all make mistakes and poor decisions and the ability not to dwell on these seems like a super power to me. An Average Joe but an above average over thinker. Reading this book won’t make all your regrets disappear but maybe it will make you look at them in a different light.  

 

8.5/10