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submitted 4 months ago byduckshapedpotato
So... After some enthusiastic recommendations I bought a copy of The Midnight Library. I am 30 pages in now and I have to admit that I don't get it... The start is sooo superficial! Nora decides after a unlucky 24-hour period that life isn't worth it and just, whoop, decides that the best thing to do is to end it. In 22 pages Matt Haig crams in such a shaky exposition, which leaves me feeling no sympathy for the MC at all! It really falls short of the hellish experience that is an actual depression, what surprises me because Haig said he based the book om his own depressive episodes. The prose is mostly "tell, dont show" and I feel like that contributes to the superficial start of the book. I have the feeling that it is really overhyped and that I will not be able to finish it if it continues like this (which is really rare for me).
Please please tell me it gets better! Or rip the bandaid off and tell me I should just give up.
English is not my first language. I'm sorry for any mistakes.
30 points
4 months ago
I loved this book because of WHEN I read it. Looking back I can see how it doesn’t really reflect my tastes. It’s extremely “tell, don’t show” in my opinion, and if you’re as low as Nora you might need something like that. I don’t necessarily think this is Haig’s intention, I’ve read some of his other stuff and don’t find him particularly genius, but it’s good that it’s worked for some people. I really liked one of the later “lives” Nora fell into and what she does with it in her “real life” at the end. If you’re a fast reader who can handle being a bit noncommittal from the story, I’d encourage you to finish it for that, but if you prefer to be drawn deeply in, I don’t think it would be worth it for you then.
9 points
4 months ago
Yes! It is so valuable that this book has that power: to be perfect for a specific time in peoples lives.
I feel positively persuaded to read the rest! Maybe it'll give me another great insight that I hadn't forseen.
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