Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Midnight Library

each sentence was thoughtfully written. imperfect yet punchy. tackles the most complicated themes in such a simple, digestible manner that makes it beautiful.

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jenniferbowman's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

JUST finished this book, and my inclination is to go with a 2.5/5 rating. Beginning the book, I expected it would be 4 stars, but as the story went on, the premise of the story wandered back and forth from “who would you be?” scenarios to long discussions about string theory. I could have done without all of the scientific explanation, and would have welcomed more of a magical realism acceptance of what was happening.

I was also a little off-put by the fact that a male author wrote a female protagonist…it wasn’t always obvious, but I feel like the characters lacked depth and I wonder if that might have been why.

In the end, I think this is probably more of a 3 star read, but the fact that I couldn’t wait for the book to end and ended up zoning out in the second half so often led me to enjoy the book much less overall than I expected.

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bagel_bites's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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catbeeisafraid's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rat_girly's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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cassenoire's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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jodean's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ettegoom's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A story about love, family, loneliness, the importance of community and maintaining connections.
I really liked it. I'm a sucker for books with libraries, librarians, philosophers or hope, so this really ticked all the squishy optimist book-nerd boxes.
I feel like it's intended to help folks who are feeling like there's nothing to live for, but ultimately it's a book for those who are looking for reasons to live.
It gets a bit cheesy in the last chapter, but the examination of the choices not made, the impacts of different actions and the Nietzschean demon who asks you whether you'd live your exact same life, is interesting.
I want to read Thoreau now.

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