The Midnight Library
Nov. 19th, 2020 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearJust finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and I'm a bit conflicted about it. It's about Nora, who decides to kill herself and ends up in a library between life and death, where she can experience different possible versions of her life, in the search for one she wants to live. The book eventually gets where it needs to go, and has an important message about not giving up and about finding joy and purpose within yourself, rather than looking to outside circumstances to make you happy (and also accepting that sadness and hardship are inevitable aspects of life).
But the first half is very depressing, with the message seeming to be that, no matter what you manage to achieve in life, you'll still be miserable if that's the kind of attitude you have. And the eventual message itself was so clearly spelled out as to jar me out of the story a bit.
It's a powerful and important message, though, which perhaps has to be hammered home if it's going to reach the people that need it. And I hope it does help people. It's a message I've needed at times in my life and I can imagine this book being useful at those times. And I liked Nora a lot - plus, some of the details of her lives were both interesting and entertaining. It certainly rolls along at quite a clip and is well written in terms of characterisation and setting.
So, overall, recommended if you need some life-affirming - though you have to be prepared for what seems like quite a nihilist approach to begin with.
But the first half is very depressing, with the message seeming to be that, no matter what you manage to achieve in life, you'll still be miserable if that's the kind of attitude you have. And the eventual message itself was so clearly spelled out as to jar me out of the story a bit.
It's a powerful and important message, though, which perhaps has to be hammered home if it's going to reach the people that need it. And I hope it does help people. It's a message I've needed at times in my life and I can imagine this book being useful at those times. And I liked Nora a lot - plus, some of the details of her lives were both interesting and entertaining. It certainly rolls along at quite a clip and is well written in terms of characterisation and setting.
So, overall, recommended if you need some life-affirming - though you have to be prepared for what seems like quite a nihilist approach to begin with.
