If you finished reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and are looking for something similar to read, here’s a list of readalikes and Books Like The Midnight Library to read next!
As a quick refresher, The Midnight Library is about a woman who ends up in limbo in a magical library where she is able to try out alternate realities that represent different versions of her life. It’s an uplifting, life-affirming and uptempo story.
What It's About: If you're eager to dive into another book by the same author, Matt Haig's How to Stop Time is a great place to start. It's an entertaining and thoughtful love story across time about a man who ages very slowly and has been alive for centuries.Publication Date: July 6, 2017
What It's About: Frederik Backman's Anxious People was published around the same time as How to Stop Time. If you're looking for the thoughtful-but-essentially-upbeat feeling of The Midnight Library, Anxious People hits a lot of similar notes tone-wise. It's a zany story about a group of people in a hostage situation, but it turns out to be quite a funny an heartwarming book.
This book was also The Bibliofile Book Club pick for Fall 2020. See the Full Review and Summary of Anxious People from The Bibliofile.
Publication Date: April 25, 2019
What It's About: If the questions about how to live your life is what appealed to you about The Midnight Library, then Chloe Benjamin's The Immportalists could be a great book to turn to next. The Immortalists is a book that asks the question: If you knew when you would die, how would you live your life?
In it, four siblings go to a traveling psychic and learn their fortunes. The story then follows the Gold siblings across the next five decades. It's a family drama about life choices, fate and destiny.
I would warn that tone-wise it's a bit different from The Midnight Library. It's quite a bit darker and more depressing, and it's a bit of a slower paced book as well.
Publication Date: January 9, 2018
What It's About: For another novel set in a library that asks questions about self-determination versus 'destiny', The Library at Mount Char is a thrilling story about a family of children who are being raised by a god in a magical library. Each of the children are tasked with mastering a different field of study, and the book follows what happens with them as they mature.
It's been described as dark, weird and funny. Note that this is much more straight fantasy than The Midnight Library. It's also much more grim and brutal book, with graphic depictions of violence.
Publication Date: June 16, 2015
What It's About: For a more literary novel about how the decisions we make shape our lives, The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult is a gentle and rather academic story about a woman exploring the two paths her life could have taken. Framed in the context of the two paths that the soul can take in the afterlife according to Ancient Egyptians, in one, she becomes an Egyptologist and in the other she gives it up to be a wife and mother.
See the Full Review and Summary of The Book of Two Ways from The Bibliofile.
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
What It's About: For another book with a page-turner feel and light elements of magic, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turon is a Groundhog's Day whodunnit. In it, Evelyn Hardcastle keeps dying each day as the day repeats on a loop, and the main character has to figure out why. It's an action-filled and inventive mystery novel.Publication Date: February 8, 2018
What It's About: Oona Out of Order is another lighthearted book about the decisions we make in life with a semi-fantastical twist. In this case, each year Oona lives a different year of her life, but in a random order. She's able to reflect on the things she's gained and loss and get a better understanding of herself through the process. Like The Midnight Library, it's a hopeful and upbeat book.Publication Date: February 25, 2020
What It's About: Another great book that focuses on single decisions and twists of fate through multiple lives is Life After Life. A moving and profound novel, Life after Life explores the character of Ursula by looking at small changes and decisions that create vastly different outcomes for her life. We get to know three versions of her as a teenager, three as a young adult and three as a fully grown woman.Publication Date: March 14, 2013
What It's About: A lesser known novel written by Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Andrew Sean Greer, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is a story that transports readers through the other possible lives of the titular Greta. In this case, electroshock therapy is what triggers Greta's time traveling exploration of her life. Publication Date: June 17, 2013
