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eNotes.com, Inc. Her relationships are in shambles and her cat is dead. Each life has its own advantages and disadvantages, and some feel better than others, but Nora inevitably finds herself returning to the library after each one. Afterwards, Nora thinks about her parents, the disappointments and the crushed hopes in their lives. Nora realizes that in her other lives there was an absence of love. Nora doesnt understand what is happening. As the night goes on, she notices how much Dan drinks and when they get into an argument, she learns that Dan has been unfaithful. The Quick Recap and Section-by-Section Summary for The Midnight Library by Matt Haig are below. All 120 characters in The Midnight Library are listed by chapter with character descriptions included. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig. As Nora continues her Arctic adventure, Hugo approaches her. 'The Midnight Club': The Full Ending Explained and Your Her situational grief and existing depression coalesce until she feels impossibly burdened by them, and she decides to take her own life. Online, she learns that she is a 2-time Olympian, having won a gold and two silver medals before retiring at 28. What do you think your Midnight Library would be? In the dining hall, there are about 17 other people. I read the whole thing in about 3 days. Nora also start volunteering at the homeless shelter once a week, and she considers getting a dog. Nora wonders if shes just someone who will be depressed and stuck in any life, but Mrs. Elm disagrees. High quality The Midnight Library-inspired gifts and merchandise. Your email address will not be published. His latest novel is The Midnight Library and the audiobook edition is read by Carey Mulligan. This is where we begin, in Matt Haig's new novel, The Midnight Library: with a young woman on the verge of making a terrible choice. Nora scares it off with noise, as instructed. When Nora tries to visit Mrs. Elm at a senior living center, she runs into the old man she lived next to in her root life, whom she helped with prescriptions and shopping. Matt Haig age rating / The Midnight Library age rating = 16+ is ideal. Chapters 5 6 (How to Be a Black Hole, Antimatter). She jokingly suggests glaciology. Shes a cat-sitter; shes on her third husband and already bored. As she writes, I AM ALIVE, she awakes on her own mattress and vomits. Chapters 19 23 (Fish Tank, The Last Update That Nora Had Posted Before She Found Herself Between Life and Death, The Successful Life, Peppermint Tea, The Tree That Is Our Life). Major spoilers for The Midnight Library are ahead. The call is amicable, and they agree to remain friends. In the depths of her wallowing, she comes across the Midnight Library. These books are portals to all the lives you could be living. 4 Mar. He gives her a tree, and though there are many branches, it is still just a tree. The story, then, forms solely around the lives she passes briefly through, the choices and their consequences. As they talk, Nora apologies for breaking up the band, and Joe apologies for things hes done as well. Please try again later. The audience looks uncomfortable, but she sees that Ravi is smiling at her. When she is released from the hospital, Nora visits the real Mrs. Elm in a care facility. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. Now that weve all read Where the Crawdads Sing, can we talk about the ending? Moreover, Nora must remember what she . Ravi blames Nora, but Nora says she was getting panic attacks that would have made it impossible. Toward the end of the novel, Nora visits what is clearly the best alternative life: the one in which she says yes to the coffee date with Ash, the cute surgeon who pops up in her root life and then again in others. Later, we learn that Huge experienced it as a video store, with a cherished uncle instead of a librarian. But her brother would no longer be part of that band. The system has broken down entirely, Mrs. Elm reveals, which means that Nora must be dying in her root life. date the date you are citing the material. Nora then thinks about the grief she felt, of disappointing Izzy about their plan to move to Australia, about pulling out of the wedding. The Midnight library is an easy read, the chapters are short, the margins wide and the story simple. During the interview, they podcasters reference a restraining order that Nora had against her ex-husband Dan Lord. The book weaves elements of science fiction and fantasy with philosophical contemplations on human mortality, happiness, and personal choice.. He is apparently her manager, and he manages others as well. Nora experienced it as a library because of the meaningful relationship she had with Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian. She was the only difference between the two Mr. Banerjees, but what was that difference? Nora lives a hundred lives. Ed. Then, Mrs. Elm talks to Nora about what success means to her, and Nora realizes that she doesnt know. Overdose. She left her former fianc, Dan, just before their wedding. A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time. She explains that Nora can stay as long as she likes in each life, but she warns Nora that if she loses the will to carry on while she is between lives, then Nora will truly die with finality. Humans are fundamentally limited, generalizing creatures, living on auto-pilot, who straighten out curved streets in their minds, which explains why they get lost all the time. Does it take a lifetime or a just few seconds? As the story progresses, Nora finds herself in lives that she could be more satisfied with than others that proved more difficult. Nora thinks about the many expensive instruments she did manage to sell in her original life. They are here to study climate change. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (Sullivan) - Discussion Questions. Meanwhile, String Theory has closed down, as was the case in the Dylan reality as well. Nora finds herself surrounded by mist, and she discovers The Midnight Library, where infinite rows of books represent portals into different variations of her life. She tells Mrs. Elm that she wanted to stay in the previous life, but Mrs. Elm disagrees. As in the book that inspired it the Midnight Club is a gathering of terminally ill teens telling each other scary stories in front of the fire. The Best Books to Get Your Finances in Order, Cook a Soul Food Holiday Meal With Rosie Mayes. Transported back to the library, Nora tries on a few different lives. Nora thinks of their dashed hopes and considers that it was their unfulfilled expectation to achieve in the first place as opposed to the lack of achievement that caused their unhappiness. That the prison wasnt the place, but the perspective.. Nora is bright and talented, but she hasnt managed to turn her gifts into a fulfilling career. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. Haig also writes award-winning books for children . He has no idea who Nora is and has never taken music lessons. The Midnight Library is the place where Nora gets to find out. Nora can visit as many as she wants to find out what her life would have been like if she had made different decisions. Chapters 51 59 (Buena Vista Vineyard, The Many Lives of Nora Seed, Lost in the Library, A Pearl in the Shell, The Game, The Perfect Life, A Spiritual Quest for a Deeper Connection with the Universe, Hammersmith, Tricycle). At home, Nora sees Voltaires empty bowl and takes two anti-depressants. Matt Haig's latest book, 'The Midnight Library,' discusses the potential lives every human can experience depending on the choices they make in the present. Harper Avenue, 2020. The book opens in the library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford. And her music student, Leo, ended up falling in with a bad crowd instead of discovering his aptitude for piano. She also runs to Ravi, who she was once in a band with along with her brother Joe. Sign up for news about books, authors, and more from Penguin Random House, Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network. 1. Mrs. Elm also adds that Nora gave Voltaire the best year of its life, and that Nora wasnt a bad cat owner. 5 Highlights from The Midnight Library - One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2020 | by T.J.Parker | Books Are Our Superpower Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. He had an affair with Nadia and left Noras mother. Nora experienced it as a library because of the meaningful relationship she had with Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian. And yes, it really is presented that plainly. Mrs. Elm tells Nora that almost all of the books on the library's seemingly infinite shelves represent lives that Nora could have lived if she had made different choices. The Midnight Library opens with a teenaged Nora Seed, who is smart and a talented swimmer. The Midnight Library is different for each person who enters it. Mrs. Elm encourages Nora to try a less obvious life, saying that a more ordinary life can still lead to victory. Really, who doesnt need to hear that? Should I have just asked? And who would be there? To her surprise, she comes to understand and forgive herself better through this process, too. Joe also tells Nora that hes thinking about becoming a sound engineer in Hammersmith, and theres a cross-training gym nearby. Maybe you already knew that regret is a waste of time; I hear it constantly. Haigs response: Of course we would. Eventually, however, Nora starts feeling like shes losing track of who she really is and she wants a life that she can settle down in. Joe is no longer in the band. But its easier to buy when you recognize that all those other outcomes would have come with their own problems. But here's the problem. The Midnight Library is different for each person who enters it. Midnight Library is one of my favourite books I've ever read. This story is part of a series for people who have already read the book and want to think more deeply about the plot and ending. Certain that she now wants to live, Nora begs Mrs. Elm to help her get out. Nora sees that her neighbor, whom she used to help out, ended up having to move to a care facility. Published Oct 23, 2022. Through these alternate realities, she learns that the paths she'd regretted giving up weren't what she'd thought they would be. Perhaps endless. Nora wonders if hell ask her out again, but instead Ash tells her that her cat, Voltaire (Volts), has been hit by a car. Instead, Nora feels like a fraud because she hasnt earned this life. Next, Nora asks Mrs. Elm to take her to a life where her mother is still alive. While this is a charming book that reminds us not to get bogged down in regret - and to know every life has positive meaning whether you realize it at the time or not I am left disappointed in the writingit was predictable, and I wanted more depth to the quantum mechanical theories and philosophical theories which were only touched upon at the What transpired was a magical story about Nora Seed. This recap of the Netflix series The Midnight Club season 1, episode 10, "Midnight," the ending explained, contains spoilers. Nora realizes that her parents not loving her properly as a child likely had more to do with unhappiness in their own marriage. The one-paragraph version of this is: Nora Seed is unhappy in her life, tries to kill herself and finds herself at The Midnight Library, where she is able to try out different versions of her life. How is Lydia's relationship with the past presented, and how do you . An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations. While The Midnight Club already tells a beautiful story of self-acceptance and mortality, the show has plenty of loose threads to explore in an eventual Season 2 and the ending of the series . A simplicity to the narrative that has to be taken as a choice on Haig's part, not an accident. And a character who doesn't actively want something even when it is something so basic as to keep on living is a hard character to identify with. GoodReads. And finally she wakes, gasping, at home, summoning all her energy to ask her neighbor (Mr. The Midnight Club ending, explained. The game is interrupted by a phone call with bad news for Nora. Log in here. 5. A woman is there, and she either is or resembles Mrs. Elm. She and Ash are happily married, they have a daughter named Molly and a dog named Plato, and Nora is a Cambridge professor writing on sabbatical. Dylan is a good person. Izzy has also responded back to her text and shes actually planning on moving back to the UK soon. Shed still be there, but her friend would have died in a car accident. There is sadness and pointlessness, soft meditations on the cost of fame and the dignity of smaller lives, lots of quotes from philosophers (because that's what Nora studied in school), and quiet thoughts about the weight of meaning in a universe where everything that can happen, does. Everything changes because of Anya's . After attempting to end her life, Nora wakes up in the Midnight Library: an immense space filled with shelves of books that stretch endlessly. Nora sees the cat and feels sadness, but also a bit of envy at seeing him lying there peacefully. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or find something interesting to read. Also, in this reality, Nora is still close with Izzy, which makes her happy. In her mind, Nora marvels that Dan would be bored of her and cheating in one life, but practically obsessed with her in another. Instead, here, her mother had started drinking a lot after their father left and shed hid her sickness from Nora and Joe. However, in the current reality, Doreen had never found affordable lessons, and Leo had taken a bad turn in life. Neil, her boss, is nice about it, but questions why shes still even working there since he thinks shes meant for bigger things. This article was published more than1 year ago. Dylan mentions having happened to have seen Mrs. Elm not too long ago at the Oak Leaf Residential Care Home, a retirement home. They have a young daughter named Molly, and Nora was a professor at Cambridge but shes currently on sabbatical writing a book. The Midnight Library Trigger Warning: suicide, attempted suicide, death, depression, cancer. She eventually finds a life she's happy in, but in the process she learns that her original life had value. As Nora travels through different iterations of her life, she begins to see the motivations of those in her root life more clearly. Nora immediately gets up out of the interview and heads downstairs, in shock and sadness, and soon she finds herself back at the Midnight Library. As the Library continues to burn, Mrs. Elm tells Nora that theres a way that she can escape. In the library, Nora learns that the life she gave her cat was one of the best he could have experienced. Afterwards, Nora is brought to a lavish suite to do an interview with two podcasters from O Som, the most popular music podcast in Brazil. As she comes to see the value she had in her original life, Nora senses her grip on this reality is fading, even as she reminds herself how great this reality is. Haig's novel is divided into 68 chapters. Nora Seed was burdened by them. ), Chapters 7 12 (00:00:00, The Librarian, The Midnight Library, The Moving Shelves, The Book of Regrets, Regret Overload). Nora thinks about the career in glaciology shed considered but didnt end up pursuing after Mrs. Elms (joking) suggestion so many years ago. If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ($2, $3, or $5) or joining the Patreon! The book is not one to be missed. Do you think the role books played in the Midnight Library is similar to the role they play in your own life? But while it's uncharted. Hugo has seen hundreds of lives and plans to continue to do so. Ultimately, it became a saga about how Kevin feels like he's let down everyone he loves. When Nora loses hope, the library starts to collapse. After a string of other unfortunate events -- fired as a music tutor, reminded of having grown apart from her former best friend Izzy, etc. Nora ends up letting go of that life and returning to the Midnight Library as it is falling apart. After meeting another "slider" (as those who can bounce around between multiverse possibilities are called), and discussing the pop-science implications of a multi-dimensional existence, Nora muses on her situation: [She] had read about multiverses and knew a bit about Gestalt psychology. Nora sees scars on her arm that she realizes are self-inflicted.