Chapter 1: The Library
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. A life with different choices... different people... different outcomes.
For Nora Seed, the books are a little too literal: She finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a book's instructions to the letter. Living a new life means trying a new career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; a new way to experience something you never had: first love.
But soon enough, Nora must decide: Do I step into the next life? And, if I do, can I ever go back again?
The Library
The Midnight Library was like no other library I had ever seen. It was vast, stretching in every direction, its high shelves disappearing into a darkness that was not quite the absence of light but more like a deep, rich blue. The air smelled of old books and something else—something I couldn't quite place, like the scent of possibility.
I stood in the center of the library, a single book in my hands. It was a simple, unadorned volume with a title that seemed to shift when I tried to focus on it. The book felt warm, as if it had been waiting for me. I opened it, and the words on the page began to rearrange themselves, forming a new story, a new life.
As I read, I felt a strange sensation, like the world around me was dissolving and reassembling. The library faded, and I found myself standing in a different place, at a different time, with different people. I was living a life I had never lived, making choices I had never made.
This, I realized, was the power of the Midnight Library. It didn't just hold books; it held infinite possibilities. Each book contained a different version of my life, a different path my choices had taken. And I had the power to step into any of them.