I picked this book up on Audible because it was one that I'd heard a lot about. I've had a couple of students read it over the years, and it sounded really interesting.
Nora Seed wanted to die. Her life was utterly hopeless: her brother hated her, she had no friends, she lost her job, her cat died, she'd turned down every opportunity that had ever come her way. After attempting suicide, Nora finds herself in a giant library, accompanied by her grade school librarian Mrs. Elm. Mrs. Elm explains to Nora that the books in this library contain every possible life she could ever have possibly lived in, and invites her to undo all of her regrets. Once she found the one that she was most content in, Mrs. Elm explained, she would simply stay there forever. Can Nora overcome her desire to die and find the perfect life?
I loved the overall message of this book: that the life you have is a life worth living. This is what Nora finds after all of the lives she chooses to experience. This overarching theme is obvious, and clearly the point the author wanted to get across to his readers.
I loved the development of Nora's character throughout the book. I thought that Haig's discussion of depression and mental health was key to this. I didn't see Nora as whiney, like some other books, but I felt that he really tried to capture the utter hopelessness that hits a person when they start to have suicidal ideation. Nora feels completely alone and isolated, and sees this as her only way out. I loved how each life that she experiences starts to slowly shift her perspective, and how the last life that she chose focused in even more on that character development.
This story was expertly constructed. I felt that each progressive decision that Nora makes highlights her growth and development as a character. This is a very character driven story, and I enjoyed how real Nora felt. I liked the logical building of the plot, focusing on the regrets that Nora wanted to undo. I liked the realism of focusing on her biggest regrets first, and was fascinated that (while perhaps a bit obviously) they didn't fix all of her problems like she imagined they would.
My one real complaint with the book was that it was a tad predictable. I figured out fairly early on that she would return to her root life, and that idea only became more obvious to me the further in I read. By the end of her last life, I really had it figured out. She runs across her piano student who was being arrested, and realizes that she had a significant impact on his life. She also meets her old neighbor, who she'd never helped in this version of her life, and so, he'd ended up in a retirement home, and dreadfully unhappy. Once that happened, I knew that I'd guessed correctly, and she does end up returning to her root life. I wasn't sure how Haig would make that possible, but the outcome was not surprising to me.
Other than the predictability of how the story would end up, I did really enjoy this book. The Audible version is also really well done, and I loved the narrator.
I gave this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
PG-13 rating for discussions of suicide, drug overdose, sexual themes, language
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