The Midnight Library

4.0/5

Nora Seed has not had a good experience with life. She is finally over it. At the 11th hour, she finds herself in The Midnight Library. The library is a magical place filled with infinite books, each containing an alternate life had she made different choices. Nora gets a second chance, and a third, and a fourth… to figure out what she truly wants out of life.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this book, but knew it was hyped up a lot in the book blog community. I can definitely see why. The Midnight Library was an original story that was much deeper than I anticipated. Immediately upon starting, I thought there should be trigger/content warnings since the material does revolve around death and suicide. 

I flew through the book, but I thought the pacing was a little off. There was a fair bit of the book devoted to Nora’s first travels to alternative lives, but then things began to pick up. Nora (and the reader) would find themselves back in The Midnight Library without much explanation other than, there was something in that life that made it unappealing to Nora. 

The sci-fi/magical realism was a nice change of pace for me. The book did offer some moments of reflection and made me contemplate my own life and what I value. I was expecting a life-changing book after seeing the hype, but that wasn’t the case for me. Overall, it was a pleasant and entertaining read, but perhaps a bit overhyped.