The Midnight Library

Whoa! Like every book by Matt Haig that I’ve read, the premise of this book blows my mind.  He is one of those authors I would so love to sit down in a quiet, dark pub with. To have a few hours to listen to how he crafts his stories and ideas would leave me in a world of total book-nerd bliss.

Each chapter put me a state of existential query. The possibilities about life, past life, future life, the present and the decisions we make are blown wide open in this gem of literary greatness.  It reads like a moving picture and after I closed the back cover, I actually had to peek back inside to see if it was still going.  I sat in my chair with my hand on the book and just let the whole thing wash over me again and again.

This is not a light, glowing transport-you-to-a-happy-place type of book. It’s deep, dark, penetrating and thought provoking. Haig deals with mental illness in much of his work, and does so in a clear and direct way.  It’s not a romantic book, but there are parts where romance exists in a way that made me revel in the happiness of the characters just like their pain made my breath catch.

His previous essay type book called Notes on a Nervous Planet that is part autobiographical and part self-help is a must read for our time. Having suffered from anxiety and depression, the author’s understanding and detail of how our minds are affected by our lives is prevalent in all of his writing. And don’t stop there. Haig’s last novel, How To Stop Time had the same effect on me in the sense that I totally fell into the concept he presented and the story sat with me for a long time after.

If you are looking for a deep, enraptured read Matt Haig is your man.