Juan Fernandes reviewed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Makes you think
3 stars
Not my usual type of fiction but it was a good read. Makes you think.
paperback, 304 pages
Published Sept. 29, 2020 by HarperAvenue.
The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
3 stars
(4 reviews)
Library Denizen reviewed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Mileage may vary
3 stars
May have gone into this book with too many expectations. I did bounce out of the narrative more than once when the self-help psychology overshadowed the story. Cataloged mentally in the 158s, Dewey.
KowloonGhost reviewed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Review of 'The Midnight Library' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I'm actually quite disappointed with this novel after being so excited based of the reviews and social relevance. I feel that this book lacks a lot of nuance of how people with depression feel and the dilemmas they face.
Also, I find it pretty insulting that the most perfect life for the protognist is quite conservative and traditionalist. Then there's the aspect that the midnight library relies on a false premise.
There's some things we can't change and we do not have a chance to just pick an infinite number of lives. This book also neglects the realities of those who live with insurmountable misery and pain. It feels very anti euthanasia and purports that anyone can just chance their reality if by themselves by changing their mindset.
There's an aspect of this book that's about the protagonist choosing a life by temporarily occupying the body of a version of …
I'm actually quite disappointed with this novel after being so excited based of the reviews and social relevance. I feel that this book lacks a lot of nuance of how people with depression feel and the dilemmas they face.
Also, I find it pretty insulting that the most perfect life for the protognist is quite conservative and traditionalist. Then there's the aspect that the midnight library relies on a false premise.
There's some things we can't change and we do not have a chance to just pick an infinite number of lives. This book also neglects the realities of those who live with insurmountable misery and pain. It feels very anti euthanasia and purports that anyone can just chance their reality if by themselves by changing their mindset.
There's an aspect of this book that's about the protagonist choosing a life by temporarily occupying the body of a version of themselves from a different universe, but without retaining the memories of that universes' version of their self, instead they keep their base lifes' memories.
One, picking a life in which you occupy a body but not their experiences or memories is not actually picking a life at all. The book falls once you realize that. Two, such an aspect also creates all kinds of disgusting and harmful complications.
If you are for all intents and purposes actually a stranger in another person's body and living in that person's life, ie, sleeping with their husband, raising their children, etc are you not actually an unethical intruder, and an abuser?
