The Midnight Library Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library (2020) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

The Midnight Library book club questions · readeasy.app/book-club-questions/the-midnight-library/

1. 1. Nora's Book of Regrets opens the story. Which of her regrets looked most fixable from the outside - and why did every life built on one still go wrong?

2. 2. Mrs. Elm is her childhood librarian over a chessboard. What does it mean that Nora's mind staffs its own rescue with the one adult who saw her clearly?

3. 3. The vineyard life with Dan looks like the life she mourned - and it hollows her out. What is the book actually arguing about the lives we think we lost?

4. 4. The rock star life is the dream that works, and it still costs her Joe. Why does the novel insist that every glittering life has a bill - and is that consolation or fatalism?

5. 5. 'Sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness.' Does the group agree, or is that a lesson only fiction can afford to teach? Where has real life argued the opposite?

6. 6. Nora finally chooses her root life, losses included. Is the ending earned by the lives she lived, or delivered by the plot? What would you have needed to see to believe it?

7. 7. What did The Midnight Library make you feel that you didn't want to feel?

8. 8. If you had to cut one plotline from The Midnight Library entirely, which goes — and what does the book lose?

9. 9. Whose story in The Midnight Library deserved its own novel instead of a chapter?

10. 10. The first line of The Midnight Library — does the book keep the promise it makes? Where best and where worst?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

The Midnight Library runs about 81,000 words - roughly 288 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the The Midnight Library quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like The Midnight Library list is the handout.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

Twilight questions, The Fault in Our Stars questions, It Ends with Us questions, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions