01
If you loved living a life over and over
Life After Life
Kate Atkinson
Why Matchbook recommends it: Ursula Todd is born, dies and is born again across the 20th century, each life a little different.
What to read next
Books Like The Midnight Library
The Midnight Library takes Nora Seed, at her lowest point, to a library between life and death where every book is a version of the life she might have lived. Readers looking for books like The Midnight Library want gentle speculative premises about second chances and alternate lives, stories that treat depression and regret honestly, and endings that leave you feeling more hopeful about the life you already have.
Our picks
02
If you loved the rules of a repeating life
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Claire North
Why Matchbook recommends it: A man relives his life again and again, remembering everything — clever, thoughtful and gripping.
03
If you loved alternate timelines
Recursion
Blake Crouch
Why Matchbook recommends it: A technology that lets people relive memories begins rewriting reality — a faster, sci-fi take on choice and regret.
04
If you loved a life examined after death
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Mitch Albom
Why Matchbook recommends it: An old man meets five people in the afterlife who show him what his ordinary life meant.
05
If you loved waking up in a different version of your life
Oona Out of Order
Margarita Montimore
Why Matchbook recommends it: Each New Year, Oona lives a random year of her life out of order — warm, funny and about making peace with time.
06
If you want more Matt Haig
How to Stop Time
Matt Haig
Why Matchbook recommends it: A man who ages impossibly slowly has lived for centuries and must learn how to live in the present.
07
If you loved lives connected across realities
Sea of Tranquility
Emily St. John Mandel
Why Matchbook recommends it: Lives across centuries are linked by a strange moment in a forest — spare, beautiful and quietly profound.
What did you love about The Midnight Library?
The romance? The characters? The setting? The twists? Tell Matchbook what worked for you — and what didn't — and we'll find your next read.