The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Matt Haig's The Midnight Library is an extremely popular book, with well over 2.6 million ratings on Goodreads. Is it also quite highly rated, with the average of almost exactly 4 stars (3.97). In contrast, the most recent book I reviewed here and which I consider a masterpiece, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, has almost 130 thousand ratings, not even one-twentieth as many, with an average of 3.85.

I believe Midnight Library's popularity is based on its cute premise—that at the critical time between life and death there exists a way to explore various possible trajectories of one's life—and that it is a fast read with a feel-good ending, a tears-of-happiness kind of ending. Yet, to me, the gimmicky premise and the uplifting message do not excuse the total lack of depth in the novel. I have not learned anything about humans, their motives, or behavior.

I am, grudgingly, raising my two-and-a-half-star rating to three stars because I appreciate the central message of the novel—that life is worth living since it is everything we have—and also because my favorite band, The Cure, is mentioned twice. :)


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