The Midnight Library follows a predictable character arc, but the interesting world building makes it a worth while read. I love the concept of this story and I found it enjoyable once I got through the first 10% of the book, but I didn't find it groundbreaking.

I have experienced suicidal depression, so I have to give the warning that the first 10% of this book would absolutely be a bad idea to read if you are in a bad place mentally. No matter how life affirming the rest of the book is, it can be a rough ride to read a book that counts down the hours until a person kills themselves. This is especially true if you find the death of a parent or death of a pet to be particularly triggering.

That said, I related a lot to the character's struggles and the concept of each life paths was fun to read. I didn't find the writing overly sugared, but I did find it incredibly predictable.

You have seen this story before. I think there is at least one episode of every 90's/early 2000's tv show where a character ends up living a different version of their life during some dream sequence and they learn pretty much the same life affirming lessons as you will see in this book. Sometimes the life you think you want, isn't actually what you want. I generally tend to enjoy these kind of stories. I like the life affirming stuff, I like things even if they are cliche. This book plays it pretty safe though. I was excited when new characters were introduced to the story or when it looked like maybe a twist was about to happen, but then nothing really would come from it.

I think what makes this book interesting for me is the idea of the library and how the structure of the library adds some drama to the overall story. I think that the library was a great idea and I really enjoyed seeing that element of the story play out.

I can see why this book did so well and am glad I picked it up.