3. The Midnight Library

Matt Haig. 2020.

I found this book really problematic.  It is a take-off of It's A Wonderful Life written by someone who clearly learned about multiverses and the idea that there are parallel universes out there for every alternative time line you could have lived and thought that was a cool concept.  In this story, the protagonist tries to kill herself and is left in limbo, between the world of the living and the world of the dead.  As a result, she becomes able to live in other timelines where she made different choices in an apparent attempt to convince her that her own life is valuable and worth living.  I found the entire storyline problematic.  Setting aside that is only makes sense if it is all a creation of her own mind, rather than a fantasy novel where things actually happen, it completely minimizes mental illness and suicidality.  The whole book was preachy and I felt that the message that if people with chronic, acute depression could just step out of themselves for a few moments and appreciate how good they have it really, then they would want to live their lives is an irresponsible representation of what depression is actually like for people.  Moreover, the idea that you can just "cure yourself" of depression by looking for the positives things in your life shows a complete lack of understanding and appreciation for what it is to be suicidal or engaging in self-harming behaviors.  I just could not get past this problem at all.

Not recommended.

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