The Midnight Library

Not good, although I got through it quickly, and I've read worse; I'm vacillating on one star versus two. I'm pretty disappointed in it on basically all levels. It feels like the author wanted to convey a very specific destination and gracelessly composed a simplistic path to get there. The basic premise — the main character exploring alternate versions of her life — is okay, but the specifics are uninspired and poorly thought out.

Nora, the main character, is good at everything. Not always in the same life, but in whatever life she's in, whatever she decided to do, she's world-class. It's not enough for her to be a good swimmer, she has to medal at the Olympics. It's not enough that she has a career in academic philosophy, she has to be a lecturer at Cambridge. It's not enough for her to be in a band, she has to be selling out arenas.

The central conceit doesn't really work as executed. The author makes an attempt at explaining why it's the way it is, but it's very flimsy and doesn't stand up.

All this is rendered in mediocre prose, and I guess the author wants to show off his bona fides; there's a Sylvia Plath quote before it gets started, because of course there is, and philosophers are not just named, but quoted directly.

The editor was asleep at the wheel, too. I'm pretty sure I found a place where the dialogue, in a back-and-forth where speakers aren't explicitly identified, doesn't actually make sense and the speaking order can't be right.

It has a nice moment here and there, but this ain't it, chief. I'm donating this one to the library.

EDIT: Screw it, I'm downgrading to one star. I just made myself mad remembering how the author made a whole big deal in Nora's penultimate life about how the really important thing is love, and then never revisited that concept in the wrapping-up whirlwind tour of Nora finally making good in her root life. This thing is a mess.