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From the Bookshelf of SpecFic Buddy Reads…

The Midnight Library

Matt Haig

Start date: January 1, 2021

Finish date: January 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Reads

Discussion leader: Kathy

Why we're reading this: Group Read Fantasy - January 2021
[close] Group Read Fantasy - January 2021

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What Members Thought

Jan 04, 2021 Nataliya rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-reads

Edited 5/31/25:

Apparently someone complained to Goodreads that I used “excessive content quoted from the book” without copyright’s holder permission. So I counted — to show my dissatisfaction with the way this book was written I used 11 quotes of which the longest is just a few lines. Out of 300-plus pages.

What I think is a book’s fan took offense with me bashing it and hopes the review gets deleted.

Fine, I’ll remove the quotes. All but the link to one which is the silliest — which I’m pret ...more

8519 likes · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2021 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 2021-shelf

I read this knowing literally nothing about it other than I've read two other books by him and he recently won the 2020 GR Fiction award. Plus, the title. The title was nice and I trust the writer, so I was like, WHY NOT?

I kinda expected some fantasy treatment with a nice librarian. What I got was a fantasy treatment with a nice librarian.

The adventure?

It's all about regrets, baby. So strap yourself in, get your failed life perspective glasses on, and start feeling sorry for yourself, because i ...more

98 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2021 Di Maitland rated it it was ok

Shelves: damaged, audiobook, buddy-reads, fantasy, magical-realism, alternate-realities

2.5*s. I have seen a lot of people describe this book as sweet. This book is not sweet. The first half is depressing and the second half is so jam packed with trite advice that it should be filed in the self-help section.

“The thing is … what we consider to be the most successful route for us to take, actually isn’t. Because too often our view of success is about some external bullshit idea of achievement – an Olympic medal, the ideal husband, a good salary. And we have all these metrics that we

...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2021 Lata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-f-h, x2021-read

Author Matt Haig evoked some pretty strong emotions in me as I read about character Nora Seed, suffering from depression for years, cut off from her friend and her brother, recently unemployed and living alone in an apartment with a ton of regrets.
The descriptions of Nora’s despair and depression felt so real, and I could well understand her unwillingness to continue on with life, and her surprise and anger once she arrived at the Midnight Library.
Haig handled the mix of fiction, philosophy and ...more

18 likes · Like · see review

Aug 27, 2021 Alexis rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction

This was actually a bit of a let down for me.

That's not to say it's bad--there were points were it really got going--but I had huge expectations going into this, just based on everything I'd heard about Matt Haig.

The first part of the book seemed to live up to them, even if it was a bit grim. You follow Nora Seed, a woman who seemingly had every chance in the world to have an amazing life (smart, champion athlete, musical), only to be held back by anxiety or other circumstance, and instead she's This was actually a bit of a let down for me.

That's not to say it's bad--there were points were it really got going--but I had huge expectations going into this, just based on everything I'd heard about Matt Haig.

The first part of the book seemed to live up to them, even if it was a bit grim. You follow Nora Seed, a woman who seemingly had every chance in the world to have an amazing life (smart, champion athlete, musical), only to be held back by anxiety or other circumstance, and instead she's mid-thirties, single, broke and alone. And so, Nora Seed decides to commit suicide. She then finds herself in a library where every book allows her to jump into a life she could have lived, had she made a different choice, and she's left to find her "ideal" life.

To his credit, Haig does a really good job of connecting the reader to Nora emotionally during the first part.

Once she got into the library, though, there were parts that started to unravel for me.

And it was mostly to do with one author choice: When Nora jumps worlds, she has no memory or skills from that life.

If she's an academic, for example, she doesn't have any of the knowledge that she would have gotten from years of study in that field. She doesn't know people's names or relationships and she's just left to kind of fumble around.

That was a problem in a couple of ways. Firstly, I'm a reader that develops second-hand embarrassment from my protagonists, so I found myself cringing during parts where normal, everyday Nora was thrown into some life where she had no ability to back up her new day job and was essentially scrambling not to let anyone catch on.

Secondly, I though it put the whole premise on rocky footing, because how can you gauge any life if you haven't experienced the joys and sorrows that came during it? How can you really gauge accomplishment and satisfaction if you don't have the memory of everything you overcame to get there? It would, by its nature, feel fake. I think the story would have been stronger if Nora was able to get more than a surface level experience of her "lives." ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 30, 2021 Helen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Exploring choices in life; I do this a lot. What would’ve happened if.... I usually imagine it as a much better alternative too. Probably because it’s something one does when feeling dissatisfied with life in some way. What would my review be like if there wasn’t a high-pitched screaming child outside my house for instance?

If you had the chance to choose to live one of those other lives, would you? What lessons would you learn?

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 31, 2021 Juliana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: january-2021, august-2021, audiobook

4.5 stars
Reread 9/21: listened to the audiobook and loved it even more the second go round! 5 🌟

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Dec 06, 2021 Christopher rated it it was amazing

This reminded me a bit of the films "It's a Wonderful Life" & "Sliding Doors". The question of all the possible lives you could have led and what effect you've had on the world (and what your absence might mean). Haig's books that I'd read previously really resonated with me and this one continued that trend. I feel like at times they can be overwrought or almost corny, but I don't care -- they work for me. ...more

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