by Maggie Meehan
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a fast paced page turner about a girl and her experience with life and death.
When Nora Seed dies one night in her apartment, she finds herself in a place in between both life and death. She soon learns that this place is actually a never-ending library filled with books about key moments of her life. She is guided through this mysterious library by an important person from her past, her old librarian named Mrs. Elm who once acted as a mother figure for her. Mrs. Elm explains to her the rules of the library and how it works and Nora is given the option to live again. To do so, she must pick a moment or decision she would like to change in order to alter her life up until the moment she dies. Once that is done, she is transported to that life and if at any time she experiences any sort of distress, she is sent back to the midnight library. Now, the “midnight library” is named so because in this period between life and death, time stands still at 12:00am, but when the clock strikes 1:00am, she is out of time and will die.
I personally loved this book. The main character, Nora, had amazing character development throughout the books and you could see how her mindset changed and how she grew. She faced harsh realities and along the way, she started to understand herself more and found what her meaning of her life was. This book definitely tugs at your emotions, but I wouldn't classify it as a sad book. The ending could be shocking for some and predictable for others, so I think it really just depends on the person. But despite that, it had a really great ending.
I read it during the summer while traveling and I think that it was honestly the perfect setting to read a book like this. During the upcoming holidays, would be a perfect time to read this book!