The Midnight Library

Vaguely a self-help book that focuses on the impact of decision making and regrets on mental health woven around a story that goes into the realms of fantasy every now and then.

I shelved one Matt Haig book i.e. Reasons to stay alive in hope of reading it someday but before that could happen I found this book on GR recommendations and thought of giving it a shot as the idea of undoing the bad decisions of our life sounded kinda interesting to me.

The book was slow and boring in the first half with too many unnecessary details and events that killed my interest to know the story furthermore, but in the second half I found it a little interesting. The story has a happy ending where everything falls in place for Nora Reed. But who is Nora Reed?

Nora Reed is a woman in her 30's who is suffering from depression, panic attacks and has a miserable life after losing family and friends as a result of her bad decisions which she regrets later. She was a bright girl since her childhood from being good at academics to acing in water sports but later gave up on everything because of her bad decisions fueled by the pain of losing her father to a heart attack. Things were getting worse until she finally decides to end her life one day.

Soon after attempting suicide, she thought she'd died but she opened her eyes to a mysterious place called the Midnight Library which later she found out to be a simplified form of a complex state in-between life and death created in her mind due to a neurochemical event, where she found hope of changing her life for good by undoing her mistakes in the past.

For each book she picked from the library, it opened up a portal to a different version of her life resulting in different outcomes from what she expected, some of which she liked and some she didn't.

Floating through lives, she found a version which she actually wanted her root life to be, and then for one last time, she is transferred to the Midnight Library where she was told by her guiding spirit(a mental metaphor) Mrs. Elm, to take back the control of her root life once and for all and that's when she wakes up choking the pills she consumed when attempting suicide.

Things get clear and hopeful for Nora as she ponders upon the experience she had in The Midnight Library as she begins to understand the dynamics of life and deducing that she now wants to LIVE.

ABOUT THE CHARACTER?

Nora Reed was a dull character that is somewhat okay for the whole mental health thing the book is all about but I felt the need to know more about the character's past and especially her childhood which shaped her into a person making such crazy-bad decisions one on top of the other. Except for the blurred-out memories of her past, there was nothing solid to learn about her life as a child or a teenager or why her relationship with her dad, mom, and brother was the way it was, which left me asking for more. Book has unnecessary dull parts where she lands in different lives and does irrelevant stuffs, that bored me a little.

People who have known what depression is like especially due to their bad decisions (which is again most of us) will find it relatable.

It's a good story to know what it's like to live with regrets and the consequences of our bad decisions but more importantly to learn to live embracing the happy parts of our life. If you could relate to this then you should probably give this book a try.