A review by mainstbooksmonroe
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

challenging emotional tense 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? Yes

3.0

I wanted to relate to this book as the author has been open about his own mental health struggles. But the plot concept doesn't allow for more than a shallow glance. 
The main character is suicidal, and at the moment before death she enters a magical "library" to browse through all the lives if she'd made different choices. But most of them have the same major thing wrong: one of her loved ones is dead, to the point of absurdity, and there's no actual consideration on whether each life would have been better than the original. She also skips through so quickly, and is in those lives so briefly we don't have time to care or grieve about any of the other characters. Basically It's a Wonderful Life meets A Christmas Carol with a sprinkling of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's not a badly written book, I can see how readers could have their heartstrings purposely tugged, but I found it flat.
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