The Midnight Library is one of those books that I keep noticing shows up in listicles of recommended books on Buzzfeed. I was kind of reluctant to read it because I find that heavily hyped books usually do not turn out to be as good as I hope. The Midnight Library is a novel that teaches its reader to appreciate the life that they have and to learn to see the good in it. It is a pleasant reading experience, for the most part, but I did not find it to be revelatory and it did not offer up anything that I do not already know.

The Midnight Library is about thirty-five-year-old Nora, who is anxious and depressed and not happy with how her life has turned out. Her mother has died from cancer, she does not have a good relationship with her father, she is estranged from her brother, she works at a dead-end job, and she is single and feeling very alone in the world. Her cat dies (this was the part of the novel that was very difficult for me to read) and then her boss decides to let her go from her job. Nora cannot take it anymore and decides to end her life.

Nora ends up in the “Midnight Library”, a place between life and death, where she is given the opportunity to erase her life’s regrets through living an infinite number of different lives, the idea being that she will find the perfect life where she is completely happy. The thing is, there is no such thing as a perfect life; there is no such thing as complete happiness. Life can be easy, but life can also be hard. Life can make you happy, but life can also make you unbearably sad. What matters is your perspective on life and how you make the most of it. The Midnight Library’s purpose is to remind you of this.

The worst thing that happens to Nora in all of her lives is that she gets a terminal illness, or people that she loves die of cancer, or in a car accident or of a drug overdose. The novel seems to ignore the really horrible things that can happen to a person, for example, assault or murder. But that’s okay. This is escapist fiction. No one (at least I hope no one) wants to read about violence when they are trying to escape from their own problems. Matt Haig is also a writer of children’s books, and The Midnight Library reads like a children’s book for adults, if that makes any sense. It is a somewhat simplistic look at human suffering. I do not want to minimize anxiety and depression, but as someone who suffers from both, I know that my life could be a lot worse than it is. So, if you are feeling depressed and you need to be reminded that you will not always feel this way, you cannot go wrong with The Midnight Library. And a cat.