The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
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In this video I discuss Matt Haigs novel The Midnight Library. I summarise the story and then discuss why it's such a bad novel.
Buy The Midnight Library here: amzn.to/38Glqfk
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OMG!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this genuine review. I literally screamed while watching your deep analysis of this The Midnight Library, one of the worst books I dared to touch by a lazy writer. I agree with everything you said and I was shocked most people have not read this book but have only heard about it being praised in media. I wouldn’t be shocked if Haig’s agency did a free-gave away of this book to the public who barely have time to look up the sky let alone read this crap!.
After finishing The Midnight Library, I thought I would give Haig another chance. I picked his “The Comfort Book,” and what a discomfort book it was. Imagine 254 pages and the book is literally empty. Haig repeats himself and he borrows quotes from authors. Some pages only have one sentence. And imagine he dedicated four pages to write “Nothing is stronger than a small hope that doesn't give up,” perhaps this was the only sentence he wrote it so he had to repeat it as a token of gratitude. And what does that sentence even mean???
He can hardly string a sentence together. Haig blocked me on Instagram page because I expressed my disappointment with his books in one of the posts. It found it hilarious because he has 800k followers on Insta and each posts get like 500-1000 comments. So he goes through all comments and deletes any reader who shows discontent?. Just how much free time he has on his hands???? He published The Comfort Book a few months ago and last week, he announced the birth of a new children’s book. I am not shocked at all because all he does is copy/pasts or paraphrases from other authors. Even my cat can publish a book if this is how books are treated.
Shame on book industries for allowing such crappy books!!
Two things i learnt from your comment. Mr Haig spents his time reading insta comments instead of writing/polishing his novels. two, he is a bit petty for such a successful author. Also he is a great milkman, milking the cow to death because he has a name now. Publishers are in it too. It's up to us readers to separate the wheat from the chaff, i mean rubbish.
When I was younger, I would read a bad book till the end. Now that I’m old and cranky, I’ll give any writer 50 pages to ensnare me. If it doesn’t happen in 50 pages, I put the book on the stack for donation to the public library.
I threw this one in my recycle trash bin!!! 🗑
God, I read it digitally otherwise if I could burn a book…..
I have never hated a book more in my life. Such utter garbage. So poorly written and utterly unoriginal. Knowing that this is so revered makes me question humanity. Christ almighty. Also, how is Haig getting away with basically plagiarizing the plot to the Canadian tv show “Being Erica”? How is a tv show so much more literary than an actual book? God almighty.
Man it's sad that these kinda mediocre works are what some countries get in their limited number of book shops. While works by masters are never even heard of. You are on point when you say publishers pushing shit down our throats. When it comes to small countries they make sure to put a tube first into mouth to shove shit more efficiently till it's only the taste of shit they are ever gonna crave. Thanks for the review man.
Thank for your wonderful comment. I agree. Bad books are necessary so that we appreciate good books. But the sad thing is that sometimes bad books takes the entire space.
I absolutely agree with what you wrote, mediocrity is everywhere nowadays and great art is a thing of the past, how sad! I think some authors and publishers should be locked up for the rest of their lives!!!
I agree with you on the mediocrity of art but locking people up is not the answer. I say educating them better books.
The dog is so cute. I remember when the book first came out I was eager to buy it. Then I read some write ups on it and I decided to sleep on it given that I already have so many books at home to catch up with. At a first glance, I thought this is similar to ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ because of the title which rings a bell with ‘The Cemetery of Forgotten Books’ but very soon I found out that it is a far cry from the depth and intrigue of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s book.
Thank you so much for saving me time and money.
The Shadow of the Wind is a great novel. This however is nowhere near that in terms of writing quality. I dont know how Zafon writes in Spanish but I found the English translation is great. Matt Haig writes in English so I suppose if he is translated to Spanish the translator can improve upon it.
@@Fiction_Beast 😂
I love when you get angry, you should do rant reviews more often. Matt Haig is probably not as good a writer as people on booktube claim he is. I read 'The Humans' after hearing praises for it and got so annoyed with it (also a mediocre book, also cliched). Immediately afterward I decided I'm not touching another Haig book. What are some books I absolutely hated? Well, I despise Frederik Backman - simplistic and Halmarck style novels. Tried two and couldn't stand them. Same thing with Paolo Coelho. Stephen King also recommended aspiring authors should read bad novels to see what doesn't work (but sells). However, there is a limit to how much garbage I'm willing to ingest in order to learn from a bad book. I've read more than my share of bad/terrible fiction. I'm more comfortable abandoning books now than I was a couple of years back. So many great books - classics and contemporary - to chose from, so why waste my time? That being said, when I do find a book I love, I tend to binge-read other works by the same author. Sometimes I get bored by their style, but other times I just keep finding treasures in they body of work.
You touched on a very important issue. A lot of authors are told to write the same type of books over and over because people buy them for their "style" so very few authors dare to write different kinds of novels. I read Backman's A Man Called Ove. Yes I was bored so I skipped but the ending was quite good i thought. I tend to alternatte between a simple novel and a heavy one. After reading a simple one, I like to read something heavy. Reading is like food, you dont want to eat spicy food all the time, as much as i love spicy food. Maybe bad analogy. Really appreciate your comment.
Just read it over two days. Amazed that every other life she chose ended up terribly. It was obvious that she would chose her original life at the end because everyone would have a perfect life after that. WTF have a just read!
Agreed with your review
I really enjoyed your reviews and how you articulate your anger and disappointment. By stating all the things that made it a bad book it really make me realised what I enjoy in books. Your videos are full of humour and its a delight. Are you writing?
Yes honey, I'm a full speed full time writer. I'll catch up with Shakespeare very soon, 😆😆
Thank you for the feedback. I should let it out more often I think.
Yes I’m writing. Slow going but it’s fun.
@@Fiction_Beast keep us posted !! =)
A while back I posted here a short story. If you want to see my writing you can listen to it. It’s called Norwegian raspberry I think.
@@Fiction_Beast thank you for sharing! I am going to listen to it and comment =)
"Tissues are like lives..." 🤔🧐😆
Did Haig's publisher employ an 11 year old ghostwriter for this book?
Thank you SO MUCH for stopping me from wasting my precious time reading this one. I was just about to dive-in when you SAVED me. (And KUDOS for doing so with wit, levity...and a bit of very entertaining sarcasm.)
I agree! I thought the concept of the book was was very interesting but I found it hard to get through. Like you said, the dialogue was pretty stale. It made it really hard to connect to Nora as a character.
Oh my god! Again, everybody in this world should watch your videos and read your scripts!! This was the worst book I read last year. I was so traumatized that I almost gave up on contemporary fiction completely. Exactly like you said, this was a self-help book. But it wasn’t even a good self-help book... I needed more help after reading it!!!
I rarely read contemporary fiction.
You asked if this is the worst book read recently. I am pretty sure it is, BUT I read "Greenlight" by Matthew McConaughey and it is a close second. Both a waste of time. Your review was spot on!
Awesome. It's a best-selling novel, now I have a recipe: self-help plus bad writing plus plenty of marketing, bingo!
I was looking for someone who found something bad about this book since everyone liked it and I didn't. I don't agree with all what you said but I liked your review. In addition I want to say I though that book was fantasy but is a motivational weird one. Something that I'm really disappointed with is when the bear was getting closer and she got scared then she magically understood she did not want to die. I think that is obvious, when you want to die you don't actually want to die in the worst way, being eaten by a bear in the middle of nothing. I think this is like when people say, don't be sad you have everything, depression is not like that, and also is a book that try for us to think everything is possible with effort, which is absolutely not the reality, the economy, the skin color, the country we are from, there are a lot of circumstances that affect, is not that easy and I really hate that. Thanks for your review 💜
It got billed a lot as a modern It's A Wonderful Life and a feel-good read, so I didn't feel compelled to read it, even as intriguing as the library within it sounded. Then a reviewer whose opinions I respect a lot said the depression and suicidal ideation aspect actually was so much a focus, it threatened to dredge up her past trauma with the experience, so she didn't finish it. I ultimately decided to skip it, but I'm not surprised to hear you say it doesn't have much real substance anyways. 😬
Sometimes I think I read novels with too critical eyes. A lot of people actually enjoyed the story as it’s quite uplifting but I just couldn’t get past the bad writing and terrible philosophical references.
I felt the same it was so poor, the only good moment it's when she attack by the polar bear 🐻❄️ it's the only intense moment I felt something going on ...
I will read the cloud of dream than thank you for the recommendation
Do you have Indonesian books reference my wife she's Indonesian 😊
I am watching this review while i am in the middle of reading this book.. and i can't stop laughing!! You need to do more critical videos as they are more entertaining than the books themselves ❤😂😂
I completely agree. First i saw so many booktubers suggesting this book to read and literally crying over this (i respect their emotions) i bought one for myself and read it. I had high expectations for this book after hearing so many good reviews by so many people but when i finished it, it wasn't that influential for me or if i particularly say that the protagonist got dissapointment in every life she chose so much dissapointment towards life made me stop reading this book but anyhow i finished it. It'll be fine if you directly read the last page of the book because thats what in the book is...
One of the reason this books has sold a lot is the message of the book is uplifting for many people, esp after the lockdown and all. For me the writing was pretty terrible, and the message too very simplistic for a novel dubbed philosophical.
Genius review! Really enjoyed it and couldn't agree more.
Thanks a ton!
Despite the fact that I enjoyed how it made me think about philosophers such as Jean Paul Satre and Albert Camus who have written on the subject of extensialism, the book was simply not for me.
An OK idea turned out to be a children's book read directly to adults with 300 pages extra commentary from a dad doesn’t read.Why kill trees for this?? I appreciate toilet paper way more.
P.S. as a third world country Asian who have suffered severe depression since teenage, and still combat with the self-harming thought from time to time , please don’t ever let anyone gift this garbage to someone who is suffering real depression,NO!!This is a textbook of what not to say and do to!God.
A perfect book description. Totally agree with you.
This review is too funny I love it 🔥
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 😀
Helloo thanks for the review. It def saved time and money to not read it. Anyways, I think you'll enjoy reading Dune by Frank Herbert since you mentioned that you like books that tackle philosophical questions. I'm def interested on your take on the book. Best wishes and thanks for the videos!!
I'll check it out!
Which theory can be applied in this novel for reserach work,. u can tell me and which aspects used for reserach work
Re: worst book I've ever read - for me it's Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, it's desperately trying to be deeper than the author was actually capable of creating. I thought it would have involved quantum physics many world interpretation as an analogy, but noooo it didn't, and the story is just meh (I still managed to finish it though 🙃).
Anyhow absolutely not recommending that novel 💀
I have not read Life After Life but I have heard a lot about it, so thanks for the comment.
Also your review is 😂
😂
>baddest
i thought it fit well with the book is written :)