The Midnight Library

Regret is the most powerful emotion that Nora struggles with throughout the novel, as she feels like she’s wasted every opportunity she’s been given and disappointed everyone in her life. In fact, her entire journey is framed as an opportunity for her to undo her regrets and watch how the consequences unfold. When she attempts to commit suicide and finds herself in a mysterious library between life and death, she’s given the chance to experience…

Philosophy is a strong through-line in almost every version of Nora’s life that she visits, from her studies in her original life and her “perfect” life, to her Thoreau tattoo in her rock star life, to her cat named Voltaire, and so on. The constant presence of quotes and ideas from philosophers emphasizes the fact that Nora is relentlessly searching for “the good life,” both figuratively and literally. As she slides from one version…

Ultimately, The Midnight Library is a story about acceptance. After her journey across the multiverse, where she’s lived countless different versions of her life, Nora learns to accept hard truths about herself and the world. No matter which life she chose to live, every version of reality had problems of its own, often turning out to be much worse than Nora’s original life. But even in her “perfect” life, where she was married to Ash…