This was my most anticipated release of 2020 and I was SO excited to read it. I'd read a whole bunch of glowing reviews, heard that Dolly Parton had it on her bedside table, and the premise of the book sounded like the most wonderful plot. However, once I started reading, things almost immediately turned out to not be what I expected.
This post (and the book itself) comes with a big trigger warning for suicide.
When Nora Seed's cat died, its the final straw for her. Feeling as though she can't go on anymore, Nora makes the decision to end her life. She wakes up in a library, where her old school librarian explains to her that she's somewhere between life and death. Nora is given a book of all the regrets in her life, and Mrs Elm explains that each book on the infinite shelves of the Midnight Library offers her the ability to step into a different life where she changes something she regrets.
*Spoilers from here*
Every review or tweet or mention of the book I'd seen never stated that the main character ends up in the library because of attempted suicide, rather than a death she hasn't chosen, and it changed the whole vibe of the book for me. I'm not sure if it's my current mindset, but I found the book increasingly miserable as it went on. The idea that none of the potential lives she could have had would make her happy is just desperately sad for me? I loved seeing all the different lives and found that fantasy aspect of the book great, but the plot was so predictable that I figured it out by the fourth or fifth life she tried.
The idea that the only life that was 'right' for Nora or could possibly make her happy was the one that she wanted to end made me unbearably sad. I don't know if it's because I hope there are lives in which I've made different choices that have made me even slightly happier, but every life she entered that was yet again miserable just made the book sadder and sadder.
This was the most disappointing book I've read in a while because it had been so hyped up, but I gave it 3 stars as I enjoyed seeing the different lives Nora could have led.
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