The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig was published in 2020 by Viking, an independent publisher of Penguin Random House. It is a fantasy story centering around Nora Seed, a woman caught between life and death after attempting suicide over events that occurred in her life years earlier. 

The story takes place in the Hazeldene School Library in Bedford. Nora was a professional swimmer until she gave up the sport, much to her father's disappointment. In a state of flux about what she will do with her future, Nora discusses her concerns with Mrs. Elm, the librarian at the Hazledene School. Mrs. Elm points out to Nora that now that she is free from the rigors of swimming, she can do and be anything she wants. When Nora discovers that her father has died from a heart attack, Mrs. Elm comforts her during her grief.

Fast forward 19 years, and Nora is leading an uninspired life. Within two days, Nora's cat dies, and her estranged brother comes to Bedford to visit and ignores her; she's also fired from her job at a music store where she works and loses her only music student when he cancels his lessons. Coupled with earlier events in her life, Nora is spiraling into a depression. Events such as her mother dying of cancer, breaking her engagement to Dan two days before their wedding, turning down the opportunity of moving to Australia with her best friend, and backing out of becoming a rockstar with her brother Joe and his best friend, Ravi, are the contributing factors. Finally, with her life imploding, Nora writes a suicide note and washes down a handful of pills with wine. 

When Nora awakens, she finds herself in a building filled with books, confronted by someone who is the spitting image of the school librarian, Mrs. Elm. Hovering between life and death, Nora soon comes to learn, she is in an in-between state. Where exactly is she, you ask? It's a place called the Midnight Library, and the premise is that it allows her to move between an infinite number of possible versions of her life. Nora must use this library to find a life worth living before she dies, which may sound confusing because death is, after all, Nora's primary objective, or is it? Still, she engages "Mrs. Elm" by trying on countless lives and attempting to find and understand the meaning of life to her.

Midnight Library is a fantasy work of fiction on an unsettling topic. It brings the readers along Nora's journey to rethink some of her choices and save her own life.

My personal rating is ⭐⭐⭐½