The Midnight Library

Genre: Fiction

This is the story of Nora Seed, a single woman living in Bedford, England. Nora is in her 30's and is deeply disappointed with the way her life has turned out. See, a while back she was an amazing swimmer, but she gave that up. She was also interested in being a glaciologist, but gave it up. She was a singer in a band and wrote music, but gave it up. She was in a serious relationship, but gave it up. If she continues on this path, she will surely become an old, lonely spinster with a cat, and well, she's decided she's just going to give up. On life. Nora wakes up from trying to end it all, and realizes that instead of her death, she is faced with a giant library, and at the helm of this library is her old elementary school librarian, Mrs. Elm. Mrs. Elm tells Nora that this library contains the lives that could have possibly been hers, had she made different choices. Nora can visit any of these lives by opening a book and deciding whether that's the life she would like to live, or return to the library and explore a new life. You will be pleasantly surprised to see which life she ultimately chooses, and all of the lessons she learns along the way. This is a story about learning that life is a series of choices and it doesn't matters what we choose, but the mere act of having a choice is the gift. Life is messy and chaotic and that's where beauty resides.

I'm surprised that I didn't love this book. It's the kind of story that would be right up my alley. Library, check. Books, check. Life changing events for the main character, check. School librarian who has made a big difference in the main character's life, double check. The writing is good, and conversations are mostly interesting. So why then didn't I love this story? The premise of the story is interesting. You write your own story and in each book, your life is completely different: the people in your life are different, your job is different, how you, yourself, look is different.

I think that authors, whether they purposefully intend to or not, tell us what they think of the world. The skilled ones do it through story telling and their characters. In this story, with every new interaction, every lesson learned, every observation, Nora has an inner monologue of what she's learned. While I loved most of it and thought it to be beautifully said and accurate, I felt that the author was preaching. Haig has a message, and in his writing it comes across as separate from the story. I want to learn about the world, but come to my own conclusions, not have someone tell me what they should be. That said, this story deals with suicide. Maybe, for Haig, writing the book is a way of trying to save his reader and give her hope that she can make her life better? I'm not sure, but if you are struggling, please ask for help. If you live in the United States, call Suicide Prevention Hotline 800-273-8255.