“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig is a 2020 fantasy novel that will leave readers breathless and maybe with a whole new perspective on life. The novel took the book community by a storm when it was first published, and is still worth a read 3 years later for its unique concept and impactful message.
As the novel opens, readers find Nora Seed, alone, feeling darkened and defeated by regrets, she finds comfort in her prescribed pills. 11 o’clock in Bedford, comfort that leads her to kill herself or, well, almost. In a minute that could last a lifetime, Norah finds herself breathing in the air of dusted books, swarmed with regrets, and full of rage that she isn’t dead. Would you be if you woke up in the library? To no surprise, the clock stays still at midnight. In Norah’s eyes, she failed at everything; she lost her cat, her fiance, her career, and now she even failed at killing herself.
Taking in the ambiance of the silent library, she soon realizes that she is not alone. Mrs. Elm, a librarian who has helped her numerous times throughout her life, greets her as an old friend. As confusion boils in her head, the book of regrets lands into the story. This book is no ordinary book but a book of Nora Seed’s life and everything she regrets not doing or doing. Some of them start out simple, like not going to Australia with Izzy, pulling out of the wedding with Dan, to more deep, farther back regrets, like not telling her dad she loved him before he died.
Each book on the shelf is a different life that Nora has lived in a different universe, one where she married Dan, one where she did go to Australia, and one where her dad was alive and still part of her everyday life. Lives where she took up the coffee date offer or where she went back to school for her master’s.
Viewer warning – spoilers exist beyond this point
After trying on lives like pairs of shoes, she finally finds the one where her grin is permanent, and she is happily married to someone that isn’t Dan. She is a retired philosophy professor working on her book that waits to be published, and her daughter, that she loves very much. Guilt washes over her as it is not really her life, but a different Nora in a different universe. Sulking with selfishness as deep down she knows this life is not the one she built for herself but one she ultimately stole. Nora lives in this life as long as she can until the Midnight Library sucks her back in like a tornado.
After the Library, though, Nora understood that she did not want to die anymore but to chase what she wanted most in life. She understood that she had complete control of her life and the decisions she makes.
College might seem repetitive, but every day is a new beginning and a new chance to change your life. Finding out what you’re chasing and your whole purpose for existing. The Midnight Library changes your perspective on life and stops the mouse race. Every day of life is a new page or sometimes a whole new chapter. Make sure you are writing your own story and not a story of regrets, or else you might find yourself just like Nora Seed, wanting a different life that she did not live for. Would you rather read a life story or a book of regrets? Ask that girl or guy out, apply to that internship and say yes to things you want in your life and no to things you don’t.
I highly recommend reading this book. It changed my life, and it might change yours, too. It is 304 pages of pure perspective.
Leona Marquess can be reached at [email protected]