AD/PR → This is a brand collaboration. While I have been compensated my opinions are mine and always true to my experience. ♥ Bee
A Simple Read That Leaves You Thinking
I was in a little bit of a reading slump before I read this book. I was having a bit of a stressful time and needed a bit of an escape, so I picked up The Midnight Library after it had been recommended to me a number of times, and it did not disappoint!
This is one of those books that is such a simple read but will really make you rethink everything you knew about life.
The story is that Nora is very unhappy with her life so decides to kill herself, but she instead finds herself in The Midnight Library, and place that is sort of in-between life and death that allows you to live out different versions of your life.
Nora has been a wife who owns a pub, an Olympic athlete, a scientist in the arctic, a music star, a woman who works at a pet rescue center… and many more!
I really related to Nora in the sense that I always wonder about the “what ifs?” Like Nora, I used to swim competitively in my early teens. I don’t have many regrets in my life but quitting is the thing I regret the most.
You go on this journey with Nora and realise that living out the things you regret does not make you any happier, and there are always going to be things that you don’t like in your life or things that you are disappointed in no matter what life you lead. Because life isn’t perfect. It’s a series of choices that we make.
The Midnight Library takes a very complicated topic and makes it simple. I’d go as far as to say as it’s one of the easiest books I’ve ever read. If you’re expecting something super different, unpredictable, and something with a plot twist, then this isn’t the book for you.
The story follows a beat and in my opinion, was told in exactly the way that it should be. I’ve seen criticisms online saying that the book is ‘predictable’, and whilst I don’t necessarily disagree with them, I disagree that they say that predictability is a bad thing. This is a book that needed to be predictable, and that doesn’t make it a bad read at all.
I finished this and thought “awww, that was nice.” It was a very uplifting ending and I’m glad it was because it would have been really depressing and unsatisfying if it wasn’t.
I could really imagine that book as a great movie. Nora is such a likable character because she is everyone. People can relate to her in one way or another. There’s nothing necessarily special or unique about her and this is the beauty of the character; she is just an everyday person who struggles with things that many people struggle with. Nora is one of us.
I really enjoyed reading this book and reading the most important lives that Nora has lived. My favourite ones were the first and last lives that she had. I won’t spoil them, but I found them very interesting as in a lot of ways they were very similar, but it shows how important love is in your life.
This is a great book for someone who is looking for an easy read and something they can dive into. This got me out of my reading slump and had me hooked from beginning to end. I just read online that The Midnight library has been optioned for a film and I can’t wait to see what becomes of it!
I’d give it a 5/5
