For someone like me who reads for character, Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library is not an easy book. Nora Seed, the main character, is hard to like, in whatever version of life she’s living. And, of course, we all bring our own view of life to a book, so I was never satisfied with Nora’s choices. I liked the idea of the library itself more than I liked Nora.
At thirty-five, Nora Seed is leading a sad life in Bedford, England, and she’s depressed. She teaches piano, works at a music store part-time, and has a cat where she lives in a shabby little apartment. In one day, though, she loses a piano student, is fired, learns her cat died, and her neighbor tells her he doesn’t need her to pick up her prescriptions anymore. Nora doesn’t think she has anything to live for, so she takes too many pills to try to kill herself. She ends up in an in-between place. The Midnight Library is in between life and death. Mrs. Elm, the librarian who runs the library, was Nora’s school librarian when she was in seventh grade. Nora remembers lunch hours in the library fondly. Now, every book in the library offers a chance for Nora to try another life she could have lived.
When Nora first begins to try out other lives, she looks at her Book of Regrets, and tries to correct those with her choices. However, time after time, she’s not satisfied with her life in those choices, and ends up back at the Midnight Library. Eventually, she tries multiple lives, looking for one that will satisfy her. She even meets another traveler, a man who says they’re sliders who slide from one life to another. He’s content with that. Nora is not.
And, that’s my problem with Nora. As I said, I brought my own expectations and feelings to the book. There were a couple times I thought Nora should have been happy, and she wasn’t. One life bothered me because of her reaction. In a life when her father was alive and her brother was working with her, she was upset that her father had lived with a life she didn’t expect. I thought Nora made one major mistake in her choices, but that’s my view. However, it didn’t make it any easier to like her.
I read The Midnight Library for a library discussion. I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise, and I’m not sure I would have finished it. I was curious as to what Nora’s final decision would be. I have to admit, though, that it’s possible, I wouldn’t have been happy with any of Nora’s choices. I just didn’t like her. We’ll see what others think when I go to the book chat.
Matt Haig’s website is https://www.matthaig.com/
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Penguin Books, 2020. 288p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
Sad to say, you’re right. Nora is NOT a sympathetic character in any way. She’s a whiner, for one, which didn’t make her sympathetic to me. We all have problems, some of us worse than others, and most of us just get on with it the best way we can.
That said, I clearly liked the book more than you did, and I wanted to continue to the end to see what she finally chose, and to make sure it wasn’t going to be an “it was all a dream” ending.
I still don’t like Noea, though.
Close enough, Jeff. I did read the entire book because I was really hoping for more than Haig gave us.
Hmmm, I’ve had this on my TBR list for quite awhile, and it did circulate quite a bit at our library. I think that I will read other books first, based on your review. Thanks for the background info, Lesa!
Oh, it’s very popular at our library as well, Mary. Just not the right book for me. That’s okay. At least I finally read it.
I’ve never been able to finish a Matt Haig book, I just can’t get on with his style Lesa.
I thought I’d enjoy his work because I’ve heard him interviewed and liked him a lot. But I’ve given up on his books now. I know many people enjoy them so I don’t think he’ll mind!
Rosemary, I love your attitude, that you don’t think he’ll mind if you don’t read his books. You made me laugh.
I’ve only read one Matt Haig book, The Life Impossible, which I rather enjoyed. I like the occasional magical realism story, but not something I read often.
This is definitely not my favorite Matt Haig book. For me, How to Stop Time and Humans are spectacular, but not this one, which I read in 2020.
That is a downer, now I am glad I didn’t win the book!
I didn’t like to say before you’d read it Lesa, but I read The Midnight Library a few years ago. It was so popular with rave reviews everywhere and it had an interesting premise but it was one of the few books I’ve actively disliked. Don’t know if it was because of Nora herself or her choices or the writing but it was the first and last Matt Haig book for me.
Exactly. and exactly why I did not finish it. I did try. But . . .
Well, I was in the minority, everyone! Most of the book group who had read it really liked it. A couple agreed with us about Nora, but they still liked the book. And, a man in the group who said he had a near death experience a couple months ago, really liked it.
However, I think we’re the rational ones. (smile)
Thank you everyone for chiming in after I read it! I enjoyed seeing all your opinions of The Midnight Library. One Matt Haig is enough for me, too.
It has been a huge pleasure for me to read all these negative comments, because I, too, didn’t enjoy this book at all and wondered what all the fuss was about. I have no plans to read anything else by Matt Haig!
That’s funny, Kim, that you said it was a pleasure. And, people waited until I had read it to express their opinion so they didn’t influence me.
Next up for book tasting – The Book Thief, another one I never read, although kids read it in school now.
Yes Seed is hard to like – we only see episodic events that she has real regrets about – she gets to relive these rather than understand them. So Seed seems fixed in place – or aspic – time after time; without any growth. It was hard to imagine her actually moving forward – learning from experience. Can anyone ever decide what is or was the best way to live our lives or what comes next – certainly regretting regret doesn’t seem consructive.
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No side-plots or interesting characters. In many ways it reminded me of the ending of It’s a Wonderful Life
Perfect summary, Susan.
The life that bothered me the most was the one in which she became a motivational speaker after a successful Olympic career. She seemed so selfish! Her father was alive, and, instead of being happy that he was in that life, she was angry that he left her mother. Get over herself! Her father was alive, not dead!
I also didn’t like that she left her life with Ash, but that was my own expectations, not hers. I could accept that one, although I wasn’t happy with her decision.
I guess I just didn’t like Nora.