Edith Piaf regretted nothing. Matt Haig's protagonist regrets everything. All her missed opportunities, all the decisions not made and the paths not taken.</p>

Nora Seed's life once held so much promise. She could have been an Olympic swimmer or toured the world with a rock band. She might have been a glaciologist. She could have gone to live in Australia with her best friend or gone to run a cosy English village pub with her husband. </p>

Instead she is at rock bottom. She’s lost her job at a music shop, her only client for piano lessons has decided he's more interested in football, she's estranged from her brother and her cat has died. She has nothing – and no-one – to live for.

Suicide, she decides, is the only way to escape the misery of a life full of regrets. But on the brink of death she is transported to The Midnight Library, where every book acts as a gateway to the past. They give her the chance to try out all those alternative lives; to see how things would be different now if she had made other choices then.

As Mrs Elms, librarian at this mysterious place tells Nora:
"Doing one thing differently is often the same as doing <em>everything differently. This is your opportunity to see how things could be."

And so new versions of Nora are created. The one where she does win an Olympic medal, another where she does get to Australia and a third in which she is conducting scientific experiments in the Arctic ice fields. In one incarnation she marries the fiancé she had, in her real life, ditched two weeks before her wedding; in another she is a Cambridge don married to a surgeon.

Are any of these other lives better than her current existence? To answer the question, Nora has to consider what truly matters and what would make her life worth living. Is it fame? Or friendship or perhaps love?

The Midnight Library has a lot going for it.

It features a library and a helpful librarian for one thing (always a plus for us bibliophiles). The contents of the Midnight Library are not however your usual material:

"The books were all green. Greens of multifarious shades. Some of these volumes were a murky swamp-green, some a bright and light chartreuse, some a bold emerald and others the verdant shade of summer lawns … There were no titles of author names adoring the spines. Aside from the difference of shade the only other variation was size; the books were of similar height but varied in width."

And it articulates well the desperation of someone in the throes of a breakdown. Matt Haig has faced depression in his own life so is more than qualified to show what Nora Seed experiences as she sits alone in her flat, scrolling through other people’s happy lives and comparing them with her own empty existence. She has, she says in her farewell note, only herself to blame. She had chances but blew everyone of them.

What Nora discovers is that no life is perfect however much it might look that way from afar; each life brings with it a degree of disillusionment and pain. Yet the over-arching message of the book is positive, that there is a way to climb out of the black hole and embrace the joy of life.

I also enjoyed some of the philosophical digressions, the explanations of quantum physics and string theory. I even grasped the concept of Schrödinger’s cat (Haig’s explanation is much clearer than that given in Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale For The Time Being).

And yet I didn’t fully engage with this book. I felt sympathetic towards Nora initially. Haven’t we all had times when we’ve regretted a decision or thought “what if…” . But as the novel progresses, the enlightenment she gains from each incarnation began to feel repetitive.

I can see how this book would appeal to many readers who wouldn’t see it as whimsical as I did. I can also see how reading The Midnight Library could be helpful to people experiencing the same feelings of futility as Nora does.

Maybe they would also relate better than I could to the life-affirming statements in the final chapter. They’re the kind of statements with which it’s hard to disagree and if they were words of advice being given to me in a face-to-face counselling session I could probably buy into them. But when they’re in black and white, such statements always feel trite to me. That’s not Matt Haig’s fault, its mine.

The Midnight Library is bestselling author Matt Haig’s latest novel and is an enchanting, beguiling and delightful story from the first page through to the last; there is an effortlessness about his prose that almost immediately sweeps you up and immerses you in the story. Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe, there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, thirty-four-year-old Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

This is a captivating, charming and moving read with the perfect combination of aspects to make this novel as special as it is: a taut and absorbing plot, a rollercoaster ride of emotional peaks and troughs, a superbly developed cast of characters, a relatable and very likeable protagonist in Nora, and beautiful writing. As with most Haig novels, it is thought-provoking, imaginative and has you ruminating about love and life, trials and tribulations, fear and hope. For a huge bookworm such as myself, books about books are an extra special treat when they are well written and I knew I could place my faith in Haig to pen another brilliantly absorbing tale. There are twists, turns and surprises aplenty as it progresses and not only is it humorous in places but it manages to be raw and empathetic towards the human condition too. The old adage ”the grass is always greener on the other side” fits this story perfectly where others' circumstances seem more desirable than one's own but in reality are often not. A perceptive, life-affirming and ultimately hopeful book I know I will remember for a long time to come. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC.

Matt Haig is a brilliant author and The Midnight Library is another amazing book.
It is quite common to look back to a particular time in the past and wonder ‘if I had done X instead of Y what would have happened?’. But would you actually want to live a parallel life if you had the opportunity to do so? The Midnight Library is a place that can make that happen.
When Nora life is as bad as she thinks it can possibly be and she cannot see a way out, she finds herself in the Midnight Library; a place between life and death. It is a place which can deal with regrets, and Nora has many regrets, dreams which she never fulfilled, her own and other people’s. Nora has to decide if she wants to live another life or go back to her old life, if that remains an option as time in the Midnight Library is limited.
Matt Haig writes so very well and Nora is a lovely character, the book really takes one on a rollercoaster of emotions. Ultimately, it is another brilliant must read book.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Canongate for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig.

“Between life and death there is a library.“

This is the latest novel by Matt Haig. I have read a number of his works and enjoyed all of them. His writings are a touch fantastical and very relevant to the human condition. Here he deals with the subject of suicidal thoughts.

Nora Seed feels as though she has let everyone down and her life is full of regrets. At the end of a terrible day where everything goes from bad to worse she decides to take her life.

Yet she finds herself in the Midnight Library, where in the company of its librarian she has the opportunity to examine her regrets and to explore various alternative lives that she might have had. So Nora begins to experience a Schrödinger's life both dead and alive at the same time while the clock remains at 00:00.

This was a fascinating premise blending the mystical concept of an intermediate place between life and death with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics.

I found this an intelligent, imaginative novel full of hope and compassion. Nora’s journey made me ask ‘what if’ in terms of my own life’s journey.

Matt Haig has written extensively on depression and mental health issues and has become a vocal advocate for the subject. ‘The Midnight Library’ is clearly informed by his background and is both sensitive and inspiring.

I love Matt Haig, this is another hope filled and inspirational book from the man I go to for my mindfulness, my reminder there is always hope and to persevere. It was beautiful and as ever I think Matt could write anything and I would want to read it. Devoured in an evening, I instantly regretted it as it’s now over ! I loved the concept of the midnight library , obviously as book obsessed I was going to, but it’s so clever and original . I loved the It’s a wonderful life approach, it’s one of my favourite concepts and obviously even that Franz Kafka wasn’t the first to use the idea of parallel lives to show what might have been, but I love the fact it shows Nora what could be , rather than the world without her. Beautiful, inspiring and full of love and hope.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I loved this story. It is beautifully written and thought provoking. The idea of parallel lives is intriguing. I thought that the ending was really good and that Nora learnt many things through her journey. This is a gem of a story that I would definitely recommend reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Wasn’t sure where this was going but started to really get into it as Nora’s story progresses. I’ve heard this categorised as a fiction self help book - and it really is. It’s no secret that Haig has struggled with his own mental health, going down far as almost taking his own life. And Nora Seed is struggling too, feeling that her life is falling away from her as she experiences loss after loss after loss. And she can see no way out. But after a drastic act, she finds herself in The Midnight Library (run by her high school librarian) and her adventure begins. She visits countless other lives to find the perfect life. She experiences so many different lives, loves, losses, dreams, and heartache. And it’s a voyage of discovery into the power and impact of small things and how the perception of success is flawed because it’s usually by an external measure. It’s also choc full of good philosophy references that are really deep. I could see where Nora’s story was going to end up, and I wasn’t disappointed after making her revelations. And her realisation that ending her life wasn’t because she was miserable, but because she convinced herself there was no way out. Always look for hope. Look for the small things. I think this will also warrant a second read. A great book.

If you were given the chance to try another life, which regrets would you choose to undo? This is the decision Nora Seed has to make multiple times in the Midnight Library, a place between life and death. There are several reasons why I loved this book. In previous reviews of Matt Haig books I have mentioned that I don't usually like his books, but I think this mostly Reasons to Stay Alive that I wasn't keen on. How to Stop Time, The Humans and The Radleys are all books I've thoroughly enjoyed so requesting The Midnight Library on NetGalley was a bit of a no brainer for me.Nora Seed is a philosopher at heart, having studied the subject at university. Throughout the book Nora considers beliefs different philosophers held and honestly reading it felt like being in my own brain at times. At this point my boyfriend asked if he needed to check that reading this book would be okay for me - Nora is also on antidepressants and feels like she's just going through the motions of life. (I was fine).

Through the Midnight Library Nora gets to relive several versions of her life and manages to lose some of the regrets she had as a result. Should she have married Dan? Should she have become an Olympic swimmer? Should she have continued with music? As I read I found myself considering what choices I would make if I found myself in the Midnight Library (as I'm pretty sure it would be a library for me too).

Matt Haig has written a beautiful story that I know I will come back to again and again over time.

The Midnight Library is a novel about Nora Seed, struggling with depression, she decides to end her life. After overdosing on antidepressants she wakes up in a library, a place between life and death where all of the books in the library are the infinite lives Nora could have lived if she made different choices. What would have happened differently if Nora had perused swimming to Olympic level? What if she had signed that record contract with her teenage band? What if she had married her boyfriend from university? What if she had moved to Australia with her best friend?

Haig’s melancholic writing style is something I’ve always enjoyed because despite everything he always manages to convey hope. It’s human, fragile, beautiful, relatable. Even at the darkest moments, when confronted with all of life’s regrets there’s hope and potential.

“Success isn’t something you measure and life isn’t a race you can win.”

I am so honoured to be afforded the opportunity to read Matt Haig’s newest adult fiction novel by Canongate and Netgalley.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest reviewl.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime books and psychological ones too however I wanted to take the opportunity to read something from outside my norm. And I am glad I did!! Thank you for  opening up my mind to something totally different.

A wonderful, feel good adventure through the lives that could have been. I'm a huge fan of books that use string theory and allow the reader to experience the different ways in which a life can be lived.
Nora is a kind person, almost unbelievably so at times, at yet she is seldom kind to herself. Looking at her regrets, she is given the opportunity to see how life would be if she had made different choices.

I had only read a couple of pages of this book and I was instantly drawn in, and I just knew that I was going to love this book.
I've read a few of Matt Haig's books, and Mental Health is often a subject that he writes about. He writes very well and in a way that is easy to understand. His characters are often quirky. His books are refreshing different.
The protagonist Nora Seed is a person who doesn't feel that she fits into a societal norm. She doesn't know how to be happy and live her life.
I love the idea of a library where you can reassess your life. It was interesting to see how the slightest change can have a big effect on your life and on other people. This book is reminiscent of It's a Wonderful Life, but much more gritty.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It's the type of book that makes you think and question if and how you could/would make changes to your life. I found myself thinking about Nora inbetween reading it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC

I loved this book ! I love the idea that between life and death there is a library where you can reflect on all of your life decisions and explore what would have happened if you chose a different direction in your real life. I often think if I hadn't made certain decisions where would I have ended up?? This is an easy read and deals with mental health issues , family and friends and lots of what if's... This is one of my favourite books of the year so far and makes you reflect on your own life. Fantastic book !

Nora Seed has hit rock bottom. In the course of a day, her cat is found dead, she loses her job in a music shop, the private piano lessons she teaches are cancelled and her next door neighbour no longer needs her help. Her best friend doesn't reply to her messages, she's still getting over cancelling her wedding (not helped by her ex still trying to contact her) and her brother no longer talks to her or sees her. She has nothing left to live for, no one who will miss her when she's gone and feels like she'd be better off dead. She decides to take her life and wakes up in this mysterious library, between life and death and is faced with the regrets she has about all the different decisions she had in life. She gets a chance to explore these decisions and live the life had she taken a different decision. Will she find a life she prefers or will she decide that she still wants to die?

The premise of this book is very interesting to me, I love the idea of how the slightest decision in life can drastically alter your life. Exploring all the different Noras and their lives was cool and it was fun to see the different versions Haig came up with. This element of the book kinda reminds me of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson but instead of the character reliving life from the beginning over and over, Nora gets to chose the different decisions at key parts of her life which is cool.

I do think the addition of Hugo as a character and his story line wasn't needed, I felt it made the story drag a bit and considering this is a short book that's a bit of a feat. There was also a mention of a mugging towards the end of the book, specifically saying that Nora remembers the day she lost her job, the day of the mugging, and there is no other mention of this in the book. So I was a bit lost about that, it's possible it was edited out but that mention was forgotten. This is also an ARC so there is a chance the final version has everything smoothed out properly.

Haig's own experiences with mental health really do help the story line and how Nora is feeling, it felt authentic and believable. It's not super heavy though, there are some serious topics but under Haig's guidance the overall tone is positive and hopeful. It's a fun, thought provoking if slightly predictable read. And I really got a kick out of the music shop Nora worked in being called String Theory, nerdy and punny from a music and multiverse point of view!

Nora Seed, an ordinary woman living an ordinary life in the ordinary town of Bedford, is in despair. ('Only the Sertraline stopped her crying'). She's lost her job, walked away from her own wedding, and rejected both success in a band and as a competitive swimmer ('She'd been the fastest fourteen-year old girl in the country at breaststroke...'). Now she decides to end her life but she finds it isn't that simple...

I loved the idea of this book as soon as I heard about it - a woman who, rather than vanishing into oblivion, finds herself in an in-between place, an infinite library where her possible lives are filed and she has the opportunity to consider what might have. No, it's not a new idea - I thought of the film A Matter of Life and Death, or even the ancient idea of Purgatory - but I think the fact it seems familiar just shows how intriguing, how compelling it really is. We'd all like, I think, to be able to sift over what-might-have beens, to look for The Moment when it all changed - and what better way than in a library?

The setup gives Haigh an opening to spin many stories. Nora finds herself sampling lives, dropped into the middle of things, of alternative existences she might have lived if she'd gone different ways. It's fascinating but also panic inducing - she isn't the "her" of the alternate, she's still very much the "her" of her "root life" and hasn't lived as, say, the Olympic champion of the rock goddess. Yet she's still dropped in the deep end, about to give a motivational speech to a conference or the encore to a concert in sweaty, glitter San Paulo. Even in the most mundane of existences she might emerge from the Library out and about and not know where home is, or what job she does. This succession of existences is calculated to bring out the imposter syndrome in all of us, making even the most outwardly successful lives a stressy, high-heartrate business and creating an sense of unease, of imitation, of fakery as though Nora is, literally, an interloper to herself.

Against this unsettling background, the book, as you'd expect, allows Nora a level of self-analysis, of coming to terms with past events. And as you might expect, Nora comes to understand that many of her regrets are misplaced - to know all is to forgive all, including oneself, and the added insight allowed by running through the alternates (combined with a teeny bit of omniscience from her guide through library, her old school librarian Mrs Elm) lets her come to terms with a lot of past baggage. (No details, that would be too spoiler). Some authors might leave it there, with a relatively predictable message about acceptance but Haig has, I'd say, a slightly deeper understanding and does more than give us a succession of flickering lives for Nora from which she can choose the best.

Rather, as we see her friends, family and associates through the yes of all the different Noras - women who have achieved, or not achieved different things and who therefore have very different outlooks and experiences - we get a more rounded picture of everyone, because all those people, too, are living different lives for each Nora. So there's her beloved, estranged gay brother, Joe, who in some timelines is alive, some dead. The father who pushed her into swimming, as a compensation for his own loss. Her mother, who 'treated her like a mistake in need of correction'. Ravi, her brother's best friend who's never forgiven her for pulling the plug on the band and trapping him in Bedford - a town which 'was a conveyor belt of despair' (ouch). Dan, her sometimes-husband (and sometimes not).

All of these characters gradually reveal themselves, with little digressions into their own pasts and families. They are often different from timeline to timeline but also, always the same. They impact on Nora and she impacts on them. It's not as simple and as trite) as saying, oooh, look, Nora. Look at what happens without you, what those around you lose. Instead, we get a complex, many sides and always compassionate view of a whole group of people, the different (and overlapping) narratives making this book a sort of literal hologram, a dense and four dimensional rendering of all its characters. It's a rich, enjoyable reading experience with many moments of sad - or happy - recognition.

It's also vividly, gorgeously written. At a particularly low point, when she seems to have no friends, Nora sees herself as 'antimatter, with added self-pity'. She reflects on how 'Happy moments can turn into pain, given time' and considers her existence to be 'Incomplete living and incomplete dying'. There's a sense - which we've all had I think though hopefully, most off us rarely and not for long - of separation, of distancing from life, a thing which, as I have said, is only heightened by Nora's serial immersion into versions of herself which aren't her. I have rarely seen as compelling a realisation of a character, or such sharp writing. And there is a great deal of humour here too ('In this life, she clearly had no taste.' 'Her dad belonged in a world of landlines') as well as an overall fascination with life, and with the wider world as seen by the various Noras: the whales off the coast of Australia, the raging fires around LA, which recur and recur. Seld absorbed and inward-looking its not.

In short, compelling, compassionate and a great read. I would recommend.

When I first read the premise of this book I was so intrigued to see where it would go.

Matt Haig's easy to read story makes you think about every different path your life could've taken through the eyes of the very funny Nora. While touching on mental health, family, her love life and pets, we are taken on a journey through multi-verses and encouraged to think about what really matters to us overall.

Ultimately, I thought it felt a bit flat but this could be a result of starting with such a great premise, and the difficulty to end something like this in a way that really feels like the best was derived from the base idea.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was so disappointed by this one. I first heard about it last year, and instantly put it on my TBR list - it sounded amazing and like something I would love. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to expectations at all. I was expecting it to be multi layered and dark and rich with detail and instead I felt like it was very shallow - none of Nora's alternate lives are explored in any detail, and everything felt very simple. In places, it felt like we were supposed to stop and marvel at the insight Matt Haig was putting on the page for us, and there was just nothing there for me. I did like the concept, but I kept thinking how amazing it would have been in the hands of a different writer - if David Mitchell had written this it would have been my favourite book of all time.

So, Nora is in a limbo of sorts, between life and death. She has lots of regrets and has made lots of bad decisions.

In the midnight library, she is given moments in her life which would have changed had she made different choices. All Nora has to do is choose a book and she is thrust into that alternate reality.

Nora has the choice to stay if she is happy, but the lure of a happier life is always there.

I loved this book which I thought was so meaningful. There is something about this story that stays with you.

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices.

If I had to summarise The Midnight Library, I'd describe it as The Butterfly Effect meets It's A Wonderful Life, set within an episode of Doctor Who.

There were so many things I liked about this book. It has short chapters and the writing flowed easily. The main character, Nora, had enough depth that I felt invested in her life.

It also made me reflect on my own life and how different things might or could have been if I had made one choice differently. I think it's a book that will stick with me for a while.

This was the first book I've read by Matt Haig, but I'd definitely like to read some of his previous novels.

The only reason I couldn't give it 5-stars is because I thought certain parts were a little predictable.

CW: suicide, depression, death

Thank you to Netgalley and Canongate for the copy of this novel.

Matt Haig is a truly inspiring author.

Every book of his that I read, I come away with a real sense of enlightenment.

The Midnight Library is no exception.

We follow Nora as she works her way through various versions of her lives, as she too becomes enlightened. Gaining a different perspective to certain events and moments in her life.

This is a story that is beyond meaningful, one that can make you open your mind a bit more and allow you to consider things in a way that you may not have been able to acknowledge before.

If I could it rate it more than 5 stars I would.