The Midnight Library: Overcoming Regret and Finding the Will to Live

Have you ever wondered about where you could be right now if you had taken another path? Would you be happier? More fulfilled? Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library answers just that. Nora’s mental health is already fragile, and at the end of a particularly low day she finds herself caught between life and death. Lost in a strange fog, she happens upon a library only open at midnight, and must lighten her burden, her Book of Regrets, and find the will to live before the clock strikes 12:01. We journey with her as she lives all the lives she can, makes and unmakes all the decisions that were ever open to her, and discovers the difference she really makes in the world.

‘To be part of nature is to be part of the will to live.’

Haig’s novel has come at a good time. While the world stoops into panic and disarray, many find themselves locked inside their homes or too afraid to go back into society, pushing the mental health of the general public to the edge and meaning that many people’s coping mechanisms are no longer available to them. In a time where isolation feels unending, a message of hope and light is more than welcome. Haig’s accessible prose pulls anyone and everyone into the mystical library, led into the multiverse by Nora’s helpful old school librarian who guides us through her journey. Although the main message of the novel was, at times, a little heavy handed, I cannot criticise it too much as I feel it is something many will need to hear. I approached this novel with a bit of trepidation – I’ve read novels that focus on mental health before and there is always the risk of them being too explicit. However, Haig treads this line with the utmost care. The novel remains an honest portrayal of mental health without becoming triggering and becomes a safe way of opening a much-needed dialogue.

Nora journeys through a multitude of lives, staying in each so long as she doesn’t feel the fog of disappointment creeping over her, whisking her back to the ever-changing library of her lives. While the novel poses a number of philosophical questions and threatens many a plot hole, these are dealt with in a simple yet effective way, with our friendly librarian guiding us to Nora’s conclusions. This enables the novel to keep a sharp focus, although I was sometimes left feeling as though I were merely paddling in its potential. While I would have liked to see the flashes of Nora’s growing autonomy sustained throughout the novel, she remains an easily relatable character, carrying me along with the familiar feel of an easily accessible read.

‘Is happiness the aim?’

The Midnight Library spreads a message of hope and brings a little light into what can feel like an overwhelmingly dim world. Haig’s message about the burden of regret transported me to my younger self when I came to the very realisation Nora does: if I had changed anything then I might not be where I am today, so I strive to live without regretting the past. It was heart-warming to see such affirming philosophies entrenched in a widely loved novel and it is no wonder it has topped the bestseller charts.