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A review by solaceinprose
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
3.0
This book had me for the first half, but somewhere in the second, I felt like Matt Haig got very much into his feelings. I loved the idea of being able to jump into all of these different lives we could have lived, but then it became this semi-preachy novel about what essentially boils down to "the grass isn't always greener on the other side". It didn't help that Nora was a rather irritating protagonist. I never really connected with her as a character.
As someone who was on SSRIs, the anti-medication message in this novel really just did not sit right with me. I can't speak for Haig's views on mental health or his own struggle with mental health, but when this book is, at it's core, about mental health, and every life that Nora slides into where she's on anti-depressants was looked down on, it set a very biased and judgmental tone. As if people can't be happy while being on SSRIs. As if happiness is out of our grasp because we take medication. I can't speak for the therapy aspect as that was never touched in this book, and honestly, it probably could have helped Nora out a lot.
This wasn't what I expected it to be, and although I'm disappointed it what it turned out to be, I'm not mad at the novel. I can see, however, why other people would dislike it a lot.
As someone who was on SSRIs, the anti-medication message in this novel really just did not sit right with me. I can't speak for Haig's views on mental health or his own struggle with mental health, but when this book is, at it's core, about mental health, and every life that Nora slides into where she's on anti-depressants was looked down on, it set a very biased and judgmental tone. As if people can't be happy while being on SSRIs. As if happiness is out of our grasp because we take medication. I can't speak for the therapy aspect as that was never touched in this book, and honestly, it probably could have helped Nora out a lot.
This wasn't what I expected it to be, and although I'm disappointed it what it turned out to be, I'm not mad at the novel. I can see, however, why other people would dislike it a lot.