Travel Book: Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library Review

There has been a huge hype about The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and so you’ve probably heard about it already but here is my The Midnight Library by Matt Haig review from a travel perspective.

The Midnight Library is not a conventional travel book but it is a parallel universe travel book and the reader is taken to the protagonist’s dozens of lives and we travel to places that we do know in this life. Similar to The Midnight Library blurb, there are no The Midnight Library spoilers here except for the epic travel journey around the world. Let’s review Matt Haig Midnight Library.

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Places We Travel in The Midnight Library Review

• England: Bedford, Oxfordshire, Oxford, London
• Australia: Byron Bay, Sydney
• Svalbard and Longyearbyen (Norway)
• Mentions of Paris, Antarctica, Sao Paulo, Rio, Porto Alegre, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, West Hollywood, Mexico, Barcelona, Helsinki, Venice, Rome, Botswana, Montreal, Chile

The Midnight Library Summary

The Midnight Library Trigger Warning: suicide, attempted suicide, death, depression, cancer. Matt Haig age rating / The Midnight Library age rating = 16+ is ideal.

Nora Seed is not happy with her life and so after her cat, Voltaire, dies and she loses her job, she kills herself. She arrives at the school library from her childhood and meets her childhood librarian, Mrs Elm. Here, Mrs Elm tells her that she is in The Midnight Library and every book that surrounds them is another life of Nora’s.

“Between life and death, there is a library […] within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived.”

So we travel with Nora to each life that she finds herself in after visiting the “midnight library” to change the moments that she regrets and see how they each play out. It’s a lovely library fiction, fantasy and story in an almost bedtime tale way.

You won’t find any spoilers in this review nor will you find The Midnight Library ending explained, sorry.

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Matt Haig The Midnight Library Review – Travel Perspective

Something I took from travelling through all of Nora’s lives was the fact that I know that if that were me, I could travel to every country in the world in any of the different lives. The world, the globe, countries, cities, people are a constant but it’s Nora’s choices that change the outcome of each place.

Travel aspects of The Midnight Library I love:

• I like how wherever Nora travels, she compares it to her home in Bedford because we all do that when we travel. We think of home and compare it and when we’re abroad, it always seems better.
• Haig drops in small details that are relatable when at a tourist spot like the parrots posing for photos with visitors in Sydney, same favourite restaurants and yellow backpacks at feet.
• A recurring object throughout the book is National Geographic magazine that she reads/sees/hears about in different lives. I think this is a lovely detail for travel lovers as well as reflecting that there are constants, such as the world and travel, no matter what life you lead.
• What people wear reflect the places they are but sometimes people don’t suit the outfit such as Hugo wearing the winter clothes in Svalbard but really would’ve been better suited for the Riviera.
• In one life (I won’t say what) but she travels for work to Rio, Porto Alegre, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Taiwan and doesn’t get to see any of these wonderful places. That life is not for me!
• I’m happy that I learned a few things from the book; Antartica is so dry it’s actually a large desert, humans are supposedly wired to know only 100 people, quantum physics suggest there are infinite lives.

When you are bitten by the travel bug, you look for any kind of armchair travel and this book feeds that urge. This book has all the places you want to hear about and things to do in those places (see specifically chapter 54, my absolute favourite part).

The Midnight Library Length

So how long does it take to read The Midnight Library? I read The Midnight Library Audible version. Well, I listened to it on Audible and it takes about 9 hours but I speed up the narration and so only took me 6 hours to read. I loved it and finished it in two days.

The Midnight Library narrator, Carey Mulligan, was believable, soothing and gripping. She had that fairy-tale voice that suited the bedtime feel of the story and I want to read more books that she has narrated and I knew I had to include this element when I would review The Midnight Library.

The Midnight Library book cover / Audible cover:

The Midnight Library Rating

I really loved this book and there’s not many that I’ve read recently that I thoroughly enjoyed so much. It was an easy, nice story to listen to and although it was fantasy, there were real elements that made it relatable. I’ll definitely be looking at reading more Matt Haig books. I like the way Haig weaves philosophy throughout the novel, especially with the main plot about what is after life, or rather, in between life and death. I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who is looking for a comforting read and a what if answer for what happens to us all…

The Midnight Library movie would be a fantastic idea and I am really hoping this becomes a film adaptation. I’d also love to know any books like The Midnight Library so please comment if you have any suggestions.

Stars = 4/5

The Midnight Library Quotes

“She could see a beach at a lower level in the distance, curving around in a semi circle to welcome the sea lapping on its sand. Beyond the beach, inland was a stretch of grass. A park complete with palm trees and distant dog walkers.” – Reminds me of Australian seaside towns like St Kilda in Melbourne.

“Bronte Beach Swimming Pool. […] Jane Eyre on a surfboard.”

“Maybe life was automatically better when the sun shone so confidently in April. Everything seemed more vivid, more colourful and alive.”

“She saw a wall of ice outside the porthole rising out the sea. She was either very far north or very far south. She was very far somewhere.”

“Places are places. Memories are memories. And life is fucking life.”

“They passed a small island, teeming with nature […] birds, little orcs and puffins clustered together […] life surfing against the odds.”

“I am also skydiving in Arizona. And travelling around Southern India. And tasting wine in Lyon and lying on a yacht off the Cote d’Azure.” – This is what I would like to do and I can do this in my route life.

“She quoted Robert Frost. ‘Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.'”

“It was one of life’s rules. Never trust someone who is willingly rude to low-paid service staff.”

“She cycled by the Seine and read lots of books on park benches.”

“We just have to close our eyes and savour the taste of the drink in front of us.”

Buy The Midnight Library Matt Haig:
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