Nora Seed’s life is not what she hoped it would be. She could have been an Olympic swimmer or a rock star or living in Australia with a friend, or married. She feels guilty for many things and unsatisfied with many others. One night, she decided to finally end her misery. It did not work out the way she expected. Instead of dying, she found herself in a library with her former school librarian Miss Elm, a woman who had played an important, positive role in her life.
Instead of dying, Nora was in the Midnight Library, a place where she could revisit specific periods of her life and relive them, this time with different perspectives and different outcomes. As soon as she decided she really didn’t want to live, she would die.
She goes back to things she regrets and realizes that there was more to what happened than she realized. She learns that she really didn’t want what she thought she did. And she learned to focus on her needs, not what someone else wanted for her.
Continuing on the life she might have had, she discovers that it wasn’t as wonderful as she thought it was. People didn’t act the way she thought they did.
I think the book went on too long after the point was made.
One interesting quote: [S]ibling rivalry isn’t about siblings but parents.
Afterthought: I wonder if Miss Elm’s initials are deliberate. ( )