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Book Review of The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library
cyndij avatar reviewed on + 1031 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6


Umm. I thnk I was supposed to feel good after reading this, be uplifted and open to all life's possibilities and all that. Instead, it's like I had to sit through a showing of "It's a wonderful life" interrupted by hundreds of Hallmark commercials. Self-help and motivational books are not my thing, and this one is stuffed full of little motivational paragraphs and life lessons, augh. I was interested in the premise - there's been quite a few good books along this theme - but this one is awfully sappy. And it's so predictable. I did like Haig's writing style, anyway. Biggest gripe: Nora is supposed to know if the alternate life is one she wants, but the library drops her into it at her same age and she has no clue who people are or what she's done. And people notice she's suddenly an amnesiac. How could she be comfortable? Second biggest: Isn't depression usually diagnosed now as a physical thing? You don't just get told "Brace up, girl, life isn't so bad" and you're able to go "Oh yeah, how could I be depressed". Third: this seems like a underhanded permission to commit suicide, because you could decide in your overdosed coma state that you really want to live after all. I know a lot of people will like this book, but although I finished it, I couldn't like it in the end.