Regret appears as one of The Midnight Library's main themes. In the present timeline of her life, Nora is filled with regret about her various choices. She often wonders how her life might have turned out differently had she made various other choices or taken certain risks. When she arrives at the Midnight Library, Nora is shown a book called the "Book of Regrets" which compiles the things in her life that she wishes she had handled differently. However, the book complicates this idea by showing Nora taking different paths but still remaining unhappy. In a life where she is stuck with competitive swimming, she is close with her brother and her father is still alive, but her mother is dead and she struggles with her mental health. In a life where she married her ex-fiancé, they own a pub together and are deeply unhappy. What she learns over the course of the book is that choices have consequences that can't be precisely predicted and that some regrets are more complex than they initially appear.
Purpose is another major theme throughout the novel. Nora struggles to find meaning in her life. At the beginning of the novel, she loses her job at the music store as well as one of her piano students. Her cat dies and she is told her neighbor no longer needs her to deliver her medication. Feeling estranged from other people and lacking any real purpose in her life, she decides she no longer wants to live. What she discovers in visiting parallel versions of her life is that people do rely on her in ways she did not immediately perceive, and that her small actions (being a piano teacher, keeping her cat outside) actually have a definite positive impact on the world. In this way, by the end of the book, she develops a renewed sense of purpose and decides to keep living.
Loneliness is also a key theme in the novel. When she decides to end her life, Nora is driven by the feeling that she has no remaining connection to the people around her. She and her brother are on bad terms. She no longer speaks with her ex-boyfriend, Dan. She was acrimoniously fired from two jobs and she lives far away from her best friend, Izzy. She has the distinct sense that no one in the world loves or cares about her anymore and feels a crushing sense of loneliness. In this way, the book emphasizes the importance of human connection, as Nora being able to reach out to the people she loves at the end of the story helps her to regain her sense of meaning and happiness.
Possibility is a major theme in the novel. The story begins with Nora playing chess with her elementary school librarian Mrs. Elm. She explains to Nora that many possible lives branch out from the minor decisions that people make every day, in the same way that a chess game can hinge on the placement of a seemingly inconsequential piece. This idea is expanded on when Nora enters the Midnight Library and is able to explore the repercussions of her actions. She discovers how wildly different her life could be as a result of seemingly small choices, like going on a date or teaching a piano student. At the end of the book, Nora realizes that her life is full of possibility, as she recognizes how much she can change things.
Success is another main theme in the novel. In various versions of her life, Nora attains a certain level of success and renown in different careers. In one, she is a famous rock star with millions of fans. In another, she is a swimmer who has competed in the Olympics. In that life she delivers a speech reflecting on the nature of her success, noting how its definition is vague and how every life has its good and bad aspects.
While the narrative contends with the impact of various decisions, it also notes how little control people have over these outcomes. In one life she decides to marry her ex, thinking that she was too hasty in breaking off their engagement. However, she finds that they are both unhappy in their marriage and that he cheats on her. In another, she sticks with her rock band and becomes famous, but learns that in that life her brother is dead and that she has had a number of difficulties with mental illness. In revealing the complexity of these lives, the book shows that Nora’s perception of these decisions as mistakes isn’t entirely accurate.
1. The Midnight Library is different for each person who enters it. Nora experienced it as a library because of the meaningful relationship she had with Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian. Later, we learn that Huge experienced it as a video store, with a cherished uncle instead of a librarian. What do you think your Midnight Library would be? And who would be there?
2. Nora experiences a number of alternate lives in which she achieves a great deal of success in one area of her life at the expense of all the rest, be it in music, swimming, or polar exploration. Do you think it’s possible to reach fame and fortune in a single field and still maintain balance with other areas of your life?
3. In the library, Nora learns that the life she gave her cat was one of the best he could have experienced. Are there any parts of your life that you feel could not be improved by living it differently
4. In her life before she finds herself in the Midnight Library, Nora gave up many of the pursuits that brought her joy because she didn’t feel like she could be the best at them. Do you think it’s understandable that she would have given these things up? Do you think that wanting to be the best at something can inhibit us from enjoying it?
5. Mrs. Elm showed Nora the Book of Regrets when she first entered the library, and Nora was overwhelmed by it when she first looked in. But as she experienced more and more lives, her list of regrets began to shrink. Do you think by considering the ways in which our lives might have turned out differently our regrets truly go away, or do we simply learn to live with them?
6. In the world of the Midnight Library, the books take on the role of portals into alternate realities. Do you think the role books played in the Midnight Library is similar to the role they play in your own life?
7. As the story progresses, Nora finds herself in lives that she could be more satisfied with than others that proved more difficult. Do you think you would be able to live as an alternate version of yourself? Would you want to?
8. Over the course of the book, Nora lives a whole spectrum of lives, some for minutes and some for months, but only at the end does time actually pass, and by the time she wakes up in her root life it is one minute and twenty-seven seconds past midnight and her outlook on life has changed entirely. What do you think this says about the speed at which we decide things about our lives and ourselves? Does it take a lifetime or a just few seconds?
9. Is the ending satisfying? If so, why? If not, why not...and how would you change it? Is anything left unresolved or ambiguous? How do you picture the characters’ lives after the end of the story?
Discussion Questions from the Publisher