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A review by rubeusbeaky
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
3.0
A quotable book, with an interesting setup... which never quite rises above the "grandeur" of a motivational, checkout-line, add-on book. It's thoughtful: What makes a "successful", fulfilled life? But it was ultimately kind of fluffy, the protagonist learning a morality lesson too quickly each time she takes a walk in some other Nora's shoes. I also found the book gimmicky, its one trick of life-hopping getting tedious over time without /some/ conflict going on alongside. I feel like the book could have been elevated from Gimmicky to something Really Extraordinary if it had taken the time to put Nora in greater conflict/danger. Examples:
1) If, as Nora goes on her journey of self-rediscovery, what she learns is painful, and she sometimes wants to reject reality. And the library were to reflect her mental and emotional distress, taking on a bit of a Gothic horror feel. The book /occasionally/ did this, but without very many consequences for Nora, she was always able to talk through the library's minor power glitches with The Librarian, and hop safely into another book. What if she had staggered through a broken, shifting, Wonderlandscape of a library and fallen into another life. So many times that she could no longer tell her root from her slides. What if growth were scary, and labyrinthine, but necessary for survival.
2) What if this book had leaned into the fantasy more, when she starts to meet other Sliders. What if someone were trying to game the system, and eliminate threats to their greatest potential. What if Nora tried to sculpt her best self by tearing pages from different books, and trying to tape them together. And what if, in the end, she learned that way having all the "stuff" isn't what makes for a good life? What if, in choosing to live life, to invest in every minute, she resurfaces in her root life to try and find the other Slider who is scared to live without first achieving the perfect recipe for life. What if she saves someone else who is struggling as much as she was?
3) The gimmick that she slides into a life but hasn't earned the memories and feelings of Other Nora (even though she attains the appearance and accumulated experience of Nora) was frustrating for me. Why not?! Why did she get SOME of her Other Self, and not all? She wastes so much time in each slide just Googling herself, or trying to not say something embarrassing to people who know her Other Self. Instead, I wish those feelings hadn't been kept a mystery from her. Life is more than the stuff and what you think about it, it's also how you /feel/ about it. And one of the things depression robs you of is your ability to feel anything but overwhelmed/tired. Nora's growth and epiphany that she wants to live would have been better-earned if she had /felt/ it, rather than thought about it as the conclusion to a logic puzzle. She would have been awakened to the multifaceted nature of life if she'd gone on a taste-test of emotions.
4) What if she found a life she wanted to live for, but accidentally slid away from it; because her growth wasn't complete all at once, and she was still her, still afraid of commitment and disappointment. What if she left, and wanted desperately to get it back, but the law of The Library is that you can't sample a parallel life twice. So, she returns to her root life, determined to find the thing which brought her joy, that she is now brave enough to chase.
5) What if she experienced some absolutely terrifying, perspective-shifting lives: Poverty, civil war, street riots, a plague... Her choices are so basic. Privileged. "Should I be a rockstar or a professor?" I don't know, how about, "Show me a life where I'm a hero, someone worthy of love," and then KABLAM she's in a war-torn country. Actually put her outside her small routine, outside her comfort zone, and see how big and strange and terrifying but also mesmerizing the world is. Make her appreciate the struggles of OTHER people, so that when she choose to live and invest in relationships, it makes sense, it's earned that she cares about people.
Ironically, the final moral of the story, is that it's good to have potential. I think this book had a lot of potential... I think having potential and not choosing to use it is a waste :/.
1) If, as Nora goes on her journey of self-rediscovery, what she learns is painful, and she sometimes wants to reject reality. And the library were to reflect her mental and emotional distress, taking on a bit of a Gothic horror feel. The book /occasionally/ did this, but without very many consequences for Nora, she was always able to talk through the library's minor power glitches with The Librarian, and hop safely into another book. What if she had staggered through a broken, shifting, Wonderlandscape of a library and fallen into another life. So many times that she could no longer tell her root from her slides. What if growth were scary, and labyrinthine, but necessary for survival.
2) What if this book had leaned into the fantasy more, when she starts to meet other Sliders. What if someone were trying to game the system, and eliminate threats to their greatest potential. What if Nora tried to sculpt her best self by tearing pages from different books, and trying to tape them together. And what if, in the end, she learned that way having all the "stuff" isn't what makes for a good life? What if, in choosing to live life, to invest in every minute, she resurfaces in her root life to try and find the other Slider who is scared to live without first achieving the perfect recipe for life. What if she saves someone else who is struggling as much as she was?
3) The gimmick that she slides into a life but hasn't earned the memories and feelings of Other Nora (even though she attains the appearance and accumulated experience of Nora) was frustrating for me. Why not?! Why did she get SOME of her Other Self, and not all? She wastes so much time in each slide just Googling herself, or trying to not say something embarrassing to people who know her Other Self. Instead, I wish those feelings hadn't been kept a mystery from her. Life is more than the stuff and what you think about it, it's also how you /feel/ about it. And one of the things depression robs you of is your ability to feel anything but overwhelmed/tired. Nora's growth and epiphany that she wants to live would have been better-earned if she had /felt/ it, rather than thought about it as the conclusion to a logic puzzle. She would have been awakened to the multifaceted nature of life if she'd gone on a taste-test of emotions.
4) What if she found a life she wanted to live for, but accidentally slid away from it; because her growth wasn't complete all at once, and she was still her, still afraid of commitment and disappointment. What if she left, and wanted desperately to get it back, but the law of The Library is that you can't sample a parallel life twice. So, she returns to her root life, determined to find the thing which brought her joy, that she is now brave enough to chase.
5) What if she experienced some absolutely terrifying, perspective-shifting lives: Poverty, civil war, street riots, a plague... Her choices are so basic. Privileged. "Should I be a rockstar or a professor?" I don't know, how about, "Show me a life where I'm a hero, someone worthy of love," and then KABLAM she's in a war-torn country. Actually put her outside her small routine, outside her comfort zone, and see how big and strange and terrifying but also mesmerizing the world is. Make her appreciate the struggles of OTHER people, so that when she choose to live and invest in relationships, it makes sense, it's earned that she cares about people.
Ironically, the final moral of the story, is that it's good to have potential. I think this book had a lot of potential... I think having potential and not choosing to use it is a waste :/.