Julia Tanaka
The Midnight Library tells the story of Nora Seed, a woman who suffers from depression and tries to take her own life. Suddenly, she gets brisked away to a midnight library, where she can see an infinite amount of lives she could have lived. With the help of comforting Ms Elm,the librarian, Nora finds out the secrets to life and how each of her options has its vices and virtues. This simple but powerful book reflects on life’s natural ups and downs and how many people around the world take their lives for granted.
The Midnight Library cover, https://lmhslionsroar.com/934/entertainment-review/the-midnight-library-should-you-visit/
In my opinion, this book does a fantastic job to destigmatize something fairly common in our society – mental illness. The struggles with mental illnesses, which can be a taboo subject in many books, is the main theme throughout this novel. Found from beginning to end, this theme acts as one of the main factors that make this book realistic and relatable, as mental illnesses are present in the daily lives of many people around the world.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist overdoses on pills because of her depression. This brings the story alive, as the events unchain the apparition of the midnight library to allow her to fix her regrets. As the story continues, we see a complete change in Nora’s character, as she starts to desire to live the life she once wanted to end. Nora Seed wants to live and live the life that she wanted to die in.
Whilst I was reading I found myself seeing patterns of people and the feelings they bring about. The beauty of human connection is gently sprinkled everywhere. One example that spoke to me is the very personal and privileged friendship between Nora and Mrs Elm (her old school librarian) with whom the protagonist usd to play chess with in the school library. Their bond is extraordinary because not only is Ms Elm a very comforting person to Nora, but also the person who is guiding her as she explores and discovers the different lives in the Midnight library. The bond between an older, more experienced, wiser figure and a younger, more innocent, and frightened figure (like the bond of a grandmother and granddaughter) is strong, beautiful, and loving, making this book feel especially cosy to read.
The Midnight Library is important to Nora’s character because it offers her a way to rewrite her life, fix her past regrets, and see what her life could have been like if she had taken the chances she never thought she could have taken. As Nora explores each new life and the different choices that got her there –some big, some small, some hard and some easy, she realises that by doing certain things differently her whole life could have changed. Lives with endless possibilities could have opened their ways to her; could have ended up as a musician, an Olympic swimmer, or if she said yes to a date she could be married with a daughter. This represents an aspect of everyone’s life: Every choice we make or don’t can create different outcomes, making us wonder sometimes “What would have happened if I had made a different choice?”
Overall, this book makes you realise how important and special you and the people around you are. It makes you stop and think about life, how each passing moment will never come back and how, in some situations we must make difficult and overwhelming choices. I believe that The Midnight Library calls us to reflect and invites all of us to take chances, appreciate the people around us and focus on romanticising the life we have right now and trying to make it better.
Julia Tanaka