Intro
These are books like The Midnight Library: stories about second chances, alternate lives and what we do with our regrets. Everything here is spoiler free.
Here’s the quick answer. For the closest idea, read Life After Life. For a gentler romance, Maybe in Another Life. For a thriller, Dark Matter. For something short and cosy, Before the Coffee Gets Cold. And if you just want more Matt Haig, I’ve got that too, plus the latest on the movie.
I’ll give each book a content note, because The Midnight Library opens with a suicide attempt, and not every follow up is as gentle as it feels.
What To Look For
First, what are we matching? When people love The Midnight Library, they usually love three things. One is the what if: a life split into branches, with a chance to see the road not taken.
Two is the tone. It’s warm, funny and quick, with short chapters and an open hearted message. And three is the heart: a character who feels like a failure and slowly learns that she isn’t.
No single book has all three, so I’ve sorted these by which part they give you. I’ll go roughly from the closest match to the more different ones, and I’ve only chosen books I’m sure of.
One more thing to keep in mind. Books about alternate lives tend to sit on a scale. At one end are the cosy, hopeful ones, like The Midnight Library itself. At the other end are the cold, clever ones, where the point is the puzzle, not the comfort. I’ll tell you where each pick sits.
Life After Life
Number one is Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson, from twenty thirteen. Ursula Todd is born in England in nineteen ten, and she dies, and is born again, again and again, with small changes each time. It won the Costa Novel Award that year.
It is the closest cousin to The Midnight Library in terms of idea: one person, many versions of a life, and a feeling that something deeper is trying to steer her. But it’s a bigger, more literary novel, and it moves through both world wars, including the Blitz.
Content note: it is much heavier. There is wartime death, violence, and sexual assault. Read it when you’re ready for something serious. It was also adapted for television by the BBC.
Maybe In Another Life
Number two is Maybe in Another Life, by Taylor Jenkins Reid, from twenty fifteen. Hannah Martin is twenty-nine, back in Los Angeles after years of drifting, and at a welcome home party she has a choice. Leave with her best friend, or stay and let an old flame drive her home later.
The book follows both versions at once, in alternating chapters, and asks whether there is such a thing as fate. It’s a much lighter ride than Life After Life, and closer to the romantic, emotional side of Haig.
Content note: a few romantic scenes, some heartbreak and tragedy, but nothing like the opening of The Midnight Library. If you want a story about a woman learning who she is in two lives, this is a great weekend read.
The Post-Birthday World
Number three is The Post-Birthday World, by Lionel Shriver, from two thousand seven. Irina is a children’s book illustrator in London, in a steady relationship with Lawrence. One evening she is tempted to kiss another man, Ramsey, a snooker player.
The novel splits in two. In one chapter she kisses him, and in the next she doesn’t. Over the following years, we watch two entire lives unfold from that single moment.
It’s sharper and more cynical than Haig, and it’s long. But it’s one of the most interesting treatments of what if love ever written. Content note: adult relationships, drinking and drug use, and some bitter arguments. Choose it if you like clever, grown up fiction.
Dark Matter
Number four is Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch, from twenty sixteen. Jason Dessen is a physics professor in Chicago with a happy family. One night he’s abducted, and he wakes up in a world where he never married and became a famous scientist.
From there it’s a fast thriller about getting back to the life he chose, through a chain of parallel worlds. If you liked the physics talk in The Midnight Library, such as Schrödinger’s cat and many worlds, you’ll enjoy this.
The tone is very different. It’s tense, with violence and some frightening scenes, and less about regret than about love and choice. Read it if you want the multiverse with a hard edge, in a page turner you can finish in a day or two.
Replay
Number five is Replay, by Ken Grimwood, from nineteen eighty-six. Jeff Winston is forty-three, and he dies of a heart attack. Then he wakes up in nineteen sixty-three, eighteen years old, with his memories intact.
He gets to live his life again and again, trying new choices each time. It won the World Fantasy Award, and it is often named as a forerunner of the film Groundhog Day.
This one is an older, more melancholy book. It asks what you would do with a second shot, and the answer isn’t always happy. Content note: adult themes, death, and some sadness about wasted time. If The Midnight Library made you ask what you’d change, Replay asks what it costs.
Before The Coffee Gets Cold
Number six is Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, a Japanese novel from twenty fifteen. The English translation by Geoffrey Trousselot came out in twenty nineteen. It’s set in a small Tokyo cafe where you can travel back in time, with strict rules.
You must sit in one particular chair, you can’t change the present, and you must return before your coffee gets cold. Several visitors use it to say what they never said.
It’s short, soft and cosy, and very gentle compared with Life After Life. It has some sadness about illness and loss, but no suicide on the page. If you want the warm, forgiving side of The Midnight Library in a few sittings, this is the one.
How To Stop Time
Number seven is How to Stop Time, by Matt Haig, from twenty seventeen. Tom Hazard looks forty-one, but he was born in the sixteenth century, because of a rare condition that makes him age very slowly. He now teaches history at a London school.
There’s a secret society that protects people like him, and one rule: don’t fall in love. The book jumps between his long past and his present, and it’s full of the same wry, tender tone as The Midnight Library.
Content note: there’s some historical violence, but it’s much lighter than the other books on this list. If you want to stay with the same author, this is the best place to start.
More Matt Haig
More Haig, then. The Humans, from twenty thirteen, is about an alien who takes over a university mathematician’s body and learns to love Earth, and it’s funny, warm and surprisingly moving. Reasons to Stay Alive, from twenty fifteen, is his memoir about depression and recovery. It’s not a novel, but it explains where his writing comes from.
And in May twenty twenty six he published The Midnight Train. It’s a companion to The Midnight Library, not a sequel, with a new hero: Wilbur Budd, an eighty-one year old bookshop owner who boards a magical train. I haven’t read it yet, so I can’t tell you how it compares.
The Movie
Many of you asked about the movie, so here’s where it stands as of October twenty twenty six. A film adaptation of The Midnight Library is in development, with Florence Pugh attached to play Nora Seed. Garth Davis, who directed Lion, is attached to direct.
Laura Wade and Nick Payne are reported to have written the script, and the rights sit with StudioCanal and Blueprint Pictures. Paramount has reportedly acquired it for much of the world, with StudioCanal handling the UK and some other territories. Pre-production is expected in autumn twenty twenty six, with filming planned for early twenty twenty seven.
No release date has been announced, so treat any date you see as a guess. I’ll update this when there is real news.
How To Choose
So how do you pick? For the closest idea, Life After Life. For a love story, Maybe in Another Life or The Post-Birthday World. For a thriller, Dark Matter. For a story about time, Replay or Before the Coffee Gets Cold. And for more Matt Haig, How to Stop Time.
If you’re not sure where to start, my advice is simple. Begin with the one closest to your mood. Want to cry in a good way? Maybe in Another Life. Want to think? The Post-Birthday World. Want to be swept along? Dark Matter. You can’t really go wrong.
Any double feature works. Try The Midnight Library with Before the Coffee Gets Cold for cosy comfort, or Dark Matter for a bigger shake up.
Tell me in the comments: which of these have you read, and what did I miss? Links to every book are in the description. If this helped, please like and subscribe, and thanks for watching.
