The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Audiobook released by Audible 13-08-2020. Narrated by Carey Mulligan.
A book that I only listened to because it was offered for free by Audible and a book with a little bit more language than most I would read, I found The Midnight Library to fairly enjoyable. Considering it is a book that begins with the main character attempting suicide ('offscreen'), I am surprised to announce that it is quite an uplifting and encouraging book overall.
Nora Seed's life is going from bad to worse. Not only is she estranged from her brother, regretting past decisions and being made redundant from her low-paid job at a music store but this morning her cat was found dead on the road as well. Convinced that she doesn't want to live anymore, Nora attempts to end her life. Instead of dying, however, she finds herself in the titular Midnight Library, where Mrs Elm - her former school librarian (!) - gives her the chance to live alternate versions of her life by selecting them from the library shelves. She will be allowed to live as many versions of her life as she wishes, each one starting at midnight on the same day that in her 'root life' she is hovering between life and death, and stay in that life until either she rejects it or embraces it as the life she wants to live.
To begin with Nora dislikes this, arguing that in fact she doesn't want to live at all, but as she is enabled to see the alternate versions of her life and the changes that various outcomes would have led to her regrets begin to lessen. A particularly dramatic moment in one of her lives helps her to see that she doesn't really want to die, and from that moment on she begins exploring the 'multiverse' of possible Noras out there.
One difficulty for Nora is that as she steps into each life she does so with only her memories, meaning that she must bluff her way through unfamiliar relationships, jobs and talents to a greater or lesser degree of success. Another difficulty is that her 'root life' may not last forever, and if she does not successfully select a new life she could risk dying 'for real.'
This comes across like a novel mixed with a bit of self-help, and some reviews I have seen online have found it a little bit 'preachy', but although it won't blow you away in terms of originality (I had a hunch about where the story would wind up and eventually it did indeed go in that direction) it was an interesting premise and, as I've already said, strangely uplifting for a book with some fairly heavy elements as well. It is certainly not a 'Christian' novel, but despite some worldliness I did enjoy it for the most part.
Having the actress Carey Mulligan as a narrator was interesting too. I'm not used to listening to someone when I can picture what the person looks like and have seen them giving interviews on Jimmy Fallon! She does a good job overall - as one would expect from a professional actress - though two instances where the wrong character name was said distracted me slightly (this might not be her fault though, depending on what her script version said).
Completed 18 August 2022.
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