The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue eBook PDF

User Reviews

Melanie

Rating: really liked it

ARC provided by Tor in exchange for an honest review.

"Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books."

This is a book about a girl, a boy, a devil, and the stories that get told and repeated and remembered. This is a tale of power dynamics and imbalances and what humans are willing to do to not feel trapped and alone. This is all about a young girl who lives her life for herself, who lives her life in spite of the odds, who lives her life in hopes someone will recall her from memory.

Everything about Addie LaRue completely blew me away. This is the first book by V.E. Schwab that I’ve given five stars to, and I’m not sure a day has passed since reading that I haven’t thought about it. I will say that I think this book (and more importantly the ending) could be a bit polarizing, but this story, this main character, and the way everything was structured just really worked perfectly for me and my reading tastes.

How do I even begin to describe this book to you? There are truly so many layers woven together to make this story. Many of you know, this is something that V.E. Schwab has been working on for a decade and you can tell they really put their whole heart and soul into these complex characters:

➽ Addie - A girl with seven freckles, and she is told that there is one for every love she would ever have. She was born in a small town, and had small town expectations placed on her, but Addie had big dreams and desired to see as much of the world as she possibly could. And when she turns twenty-three, and everyone thinks her time is slowly running out, she quickly finds out that time is something she will never have to fear again.

"Spells are for the witches, and witches are too often burned."

➽ Henry - Works at a bookstore in New York while trying to live his life to the fullest. And he happens to be able to see a girl that has never been remembered before.

"I remember you."

➽ Luc - A god you should never pray to after dark, unless you are very desperate, and feel very helpless, and are willing to pay the unknown price.

"I am stronger than your god and older than your devil. I am the darkness between stars, and the roots beneath the earth. I am promise, and potential, and when it comes to playing games, I divine the rules, I set the pieces, and I choose when to play. And tonight, I say no."

And maybe, just maybe, Addie felt like she should be able to pay the price when she runs into the forest one night, willing to risk everything to have a life that is hers once and for all. We get to see Addie and her struggles and her growth over the course of three-hundred-years, starting in 1714 France and switching to 2014 America. We get to see so much of Addie’s hurt throughout the centuries, but we also get to see so much of her yearning. Yearning for love, yearning for knowledge, yearning for art, yearning for a life that is worthy of remembrance. Truly, this book was able to evoke such visceral reactions from me, and I could truly feel Addie’s yearning, and her hurt, on every page.

Now that I have used the word “yearning” one-hundred times, let’s talk about some of the rep in Addie LaRue, because there are lots of queer characters and characters who read queer! Addie is pan or bi, and we get to see her in relationships with different genders throughout this book, but the main relationship (and yearning) is m/f. I believe Henry is pan, but it is never said on page, but "he’s attracted to a person first and their gender second" had me and my pan heart ascending to new heights, I promise you that. Addie and Henry are both white, but there are POC side characters and other identities on the LGBTQIAP+ spectrum (gay, lesbian, maybe some polyamorous hints)! And this book, has some very serious depression representation!

"It’s just a storm, he tells himself, but he is tired of looking for shelter. It is just a storm, but there is always another waiting in its wake."

Being unsure what you want in life. Especially in your twenties. Feeling like something is wrong with you. Feeling like you’ll never be enough. Feeling like you’ll never be whole. Feeling like you are just disappointing everyone around you. Feeling like no one will ever take the time to see you, the real you, and choose to love you unconditionally anyways. Whew, it’s a lot, and V.E. Schwab really didn’t hold back while writing Henry and his mental health. I don’t want to make this too personal, but it means a lot to me, and I know Henry’s journey is going to mean a lot to so many people and impact a lot of lives.

(Also, friendly reminder that life is truly a vast range of up and down journeys! And you, and your journey, are valid, and I see you no matter how hard that journey feels at times. There will be lots of heavy days, but lots of light days too, I promise. And you are so worthy of love, and kindness, and respect, no matter where you are at on your journey. And feeling too much is not a curse, ever. And I’m proud of you, and you are never alone with what you are feeling, and sometimes we all need help with some storms: http://suicidepreventionlifeline.org)

"His heart has a draft. It lets in light. It lets in storms. It lets in everything."

Plus, a key component of this story is the god who Addie makes a deal with. Addie and Luc’s three-hundred-year bargain is so very messy and has so very many different elements. But the key element is the unhealthy power dynamic. Over this course of time, we get to see their relationship change, and morph, and grow, and we get to see Addie desperately trying to gain some of the power for herself. But, it is a very unhealthy cycle of abuse and this story is told in a way where the reader gets to see these power imbalances come more and more into play and Luc and Addie set the stage of their game(s) more and more. I’ll be the first to say I always wanted more of Luc, and I loved every chapter he was in, and I constantly wanted to know more about him, but I will also say that I personally feel like V.E. Schwab was very deliberate with his character and with making him charming and intriguing and a character to be romanticized, because abusers can have all of those characteristics and still be abusers.

But we get to see Luc, and Henry, and Addie, and watch their intertangled stories unwind. I truly feel like I can’t say much more about the actual story, and I believe it’s probably best to not know much more than what I’ve said above, but seeing these characters, during all their different phases in life, both alone and together, is truly something like a work of art.

"Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one."

This entire story truly is a love letter to art and the beautiful, awe inspiring, mind-blowing way stories are held within art, therefore held in so many hearts forever. Maybe even creating and inspiring other art, to make the sweetest ripple effect of them all. Art and stories are so powerful because they have the power to heal wounds that are too deep to be touched by other things. From feeling love, to feeling not alone, to inspiring, to escape, to be thought provoking, to be educational, to make you realize things you have been forced to internalize and unlearn, to something as simple yet as hard as happiness.

"Because time is cruel to all, and crueler still to artists. Because vision weakens, and voices wither, and talent fades. " He leans close, twists a lock of her hair around one finger. "Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end, " he says, "everyone wants to be remembered."

While I was reading this book, me and my best friend Lea watched a video that was reuploaded on V.E.’s YouTube. It was basically just an hour-long discussion that they had with Tessa Gratton, where they talk about many things, but one of the things they talked about that I especially haven’t been able to stop thinking about since finishing this book was that we never get to really pick what work we will be known for. Obviously, Victoria is very well-know from their series A Darker Shade of Magic, and it very well could be the greatest legacy that the world will know from them. Yet, they talk about how Addie LaRue is the book of their heart, and (I do not want to put any words in their mouth) it kind of felt like to me the book they may want the world to know them for. Yet, we never really get to choose what we are known for, do we? A very astounding concept to think about, truly, and one I couldn’t stop feeling deeply in my bones while I finished the last half of this book. Also, to think about how the human experiences could boil down to this hunger we all have to leave a mark on this world before we are forced to leave it all together? Very powerful stuff, truly. But I promise, V.E. Schwab and Addie Larue most definitely left their marks on me, and my heart, forever with this book.

"Humans are capable of such wondrous things. Of cruelty, and war, but also art and invention."

Overall, this book made me yearn for so many things while also constantly making me question what it is to hunger. To crave your freedom, to crave someone who will see all the parts of you, to crave remembrance. I just feel like this book really touched on the human experience, but in such a incredibly raw and indistinguishably beautiful way. I really loved The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and it will without a doubt make my best of 2020 list. Thank you for letting me be a part of your story, thank you for always reading this part of mine, and I promise you will never be invisible to me.

Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Blog | Spotify | Twitch

Trigger and Content Warnings: attempted assault, abuse depiction, loss of a loved one, substance abuse, depression depiction, suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide, and mention of cancer in the past.

The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Buddy read with Maëlys! ❤

Maryam Rz.

Rating: really liked it
When a book traps your soul from beginning to end and beyond, keeping hold of a string to your heart even as you leave it behind, you know it deserves all the constellations in the night sky.

Credit: Nicole

What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?

They say if you look through a wooden ring on the 29th night of July, just after dark, you’d see a wraith wandering valleys and alleys—singing, sighing, seeking. And if you lean in, shell of an ear pressed to the ring, you would hear the echoes of a madwoman, murmuring of a dance of three centuries, a game between the ruler of darkness and a ghost of a girl, a war that was a love affair and a need and an obsession.

They say that, if you follow closely, she’d take you through continents and centuries—chasing shadows, stalking the vanishing footsteps of an idea, a touch, a constellation of seven freckles. And if you stack up your courage in a fist and ask her what it is she seeks, she would tell you it is a god and a girl, a forgotten thing. And then she would turn to the night and cry out in challenge and raging prayer.

This, my friend, is where I suggest you let your fist fly open, scattering the gathered grains, and flee. For if you don’t, you would glimpse a man with raven hair and a fleeting emerald labyrinth for eyes set in the face of a wolf step from the shadows, a dark god bearing his own temples of need and desperation. For if you stay, the devil would take your soul.

They say, and they say it honest and true.
I would know—I am the wraith, after all.

“No matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.”

This quiet, languid, fleeting, wandering, aromantic romance that is more need and companionship than love; this tale of immortality with its heartwrenching wail and tragic tale of watching all you hold on to fall apart in your grasp; this book of a bewitching affair and search for freedom, love, and remembrance; this book with its ingenuous creativity, dwelling on the power of belief and ideas...stole my heart, bled it dry, and speared it atop the gates of hell to warn the unwary what would happen if you fell in love with the devil.

I persistently urge you to listen to the unbelievably flawless and fitting songs on my playlist of this book ➾ Spotify URL

“Nothing is all good or all bad,” she says. “Life is so much messier than that.”
And there in the dark, he asks if it was really worth it.
Were the instants of joy worth the stretches of sorrow?
Were the moments of beauty worth the years of pain?
And she turns her head, and looks at him, and says, “Always.”

In honour of Addie’s seven-star constellation of freckles, the feature that ensnared gazes and inspired artists and shone through centuries, I’m assigning each of the seven main stars of the Orion to the seven whys The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a haunting, blinding, bold sky:

★ Rigel: Storytelling

I would like to announce that I am the biggest idiot on earth for depriving myself of the writing of such a master storyteller. Such exceptional weaving techniques of piecing the tale together as a puzzle; such eloquent work, bringing the pages and words full circle; such perfect prose with sensible, tangible, and fitting metaphors.

Such talent. Much perfection.

What she needs are stories.
Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget.
Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books.
Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.

From sculpting characters that are more than a sculpture, real as any person with various outlooks on life that indeed leak into their way of speech, to scrutiny of details, wiping away any possible logical holes in the plot or magic, I am going to call V.E. Schwab my new all-time fave author even though this is my first book of hers. Let me just fold up my sleeves and get into the process of devouring the rest of her works.

★ Bellatrix: Addie LaRue, the Muse

Scarier than having a dream, a desire, a need, and making a huge mistake because of it, haunted by your blindness for 3 centuries, is watching it happen and thinking that could be me.

It’s the relief of understanding towards an unrestrained, wild thing in search of her freedom, her life, her own path—be it companionship or loneliness; it’s the warmth of kinship towards a defiant dreamer dreaming of a stranger with dark hair, crying out against the night to belong to no one but herself, be bound to none but herself; and it’s the resignation to a road undoubtedly ahead of a girl fleeing the smallness of a static life, a tomb, strings cut, head wandering.

It’s joy and it’s pain and it’s unforgettable.
Addie LaRue is unforgettable.

★ Betelgeuse: Love & Luc, the Devil

Before I talk of Luc and love, I will—in true self-centred-me fashion—talk about me. So buckle up for personal information you absolutely did not ask for.

# confession time

I’ve always believed myself a loveless creature. I’ve believed it and declared it, to friend, family, stranger. Strangers raise an eyebrow, family nods in understanding of a shared problem, but friends...friends always disagree, always start a speech about how kind and caring and helpful and generous I am, well-intendedly attempting to explain myself to me as if I don’t live in my head.

What those friends do not understand is the meaning of love. Frankly, I was not sure of it either other than knowing I am not capable of it. That is, until Schwab wrote:

“You are not capable of love because you cannot understand what it is to care for someone else more than yourself.”

Love comes with honesty and compassion and trust and understanding, yes, but, above all else, love is putting someone else before yourself. And I admit I cannot truly love because I know that, no matter how giving and caring and helpful I am, I will always choose me if choosing others hurts me, and the fact that I do not care for most things so I wouldn’t be hurt by them (like money) does not take away from my being an essentially selfish creature. I confess this without any sugar coating because I believe it’s crucial to know your most prominent flaws and be honest with yourself and those around you, to refrain from harming others through them.

That’s love. So what about Luc?

“Pain can be beautiful,” he says, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “It can transform. It can create.”

My uncalled for rant above makes it glaringly—blindingly, really, because if you didn’t get it then seriously whatareyoudoin—obvious I relate to this god of the dark between the stars; this selfish and lonely creature with secret longings and hidden loss; this cruel, moody immortal seeing the world as a game but also capable of being wounded and confused; this “vast and savage night, the darkness, full of promise, and violence, fear, and freedom” with a lack of respect for boundaries.

“Do not mistake this—any of it—for kindness, Adeline.” His eyes go bright with mischief. “I simply want to be the one who breaks you.”

But beyond being relatable, he is possessive, obsessive, abusive, and other unattractive -ives. And this plus Addie’s unwillingness to ever back down is what makes their bloodsport of a dynamic so utterly irresistible—one that, despite its toxicity (that is never overlooked or romanticised), has its perks (how he pushes her, challenges her, to be better, if ruthlessly) and hilarious moments (how he ruins her dates, even as he’s a god for god’s sake).

But remember that, no matter how these two cutthroats fit, no matter how their passionate, warlike back-and-forths are something they both crave, she only really had him in the vast emptiness of her world, and he made it so. Her thoughts are filled with him, because he made it so.

Remember that, however alluring their affair, it is not love.

★ Alnilam: Henry, the Storykeeper

You know that feeling when you get gifted a box of sweets and you think well okay this will probably be cloyingly sweet and ah, well, I will end up tired of it and then you have a taste and oh will you never forget the moment it sizzled on your tongue and you realised no no it is not more of the same and it’s simply unique?

That’s Henry for me.

Because sensitive, caring, soft, quiet, strong characters haunted by failure more often than not fail to hold my flickering attention, yet I now trust Victoria Schwab to do the unlikely. Because he is more than those adjectives strung up together; he is lost and hungry in a world that holds an insurmountable number of tastes, insatiably craving too many of them to choose; he is a boy who sees stories in theology, who fears being himself as much as he hates not being seen as himself; and he is more than simply sensitive, carrying a cracked heart that lets in everything and anything, and Schwab’s exploration of his mental health and anxiety was soulful and unforgettable.

★ Alnitak: Feminism

Sometimes I wonder if, through the millennia that humans have roamed the earth, there has ever been a girl who has not looked away, looked up, from what life had handed her, seen the lot of boy next to her and wanted more. I wonder if, even among the content and kind and incurious of generations ago where being a dreamer was not yet a seed planted, not a one of them dreamt of freedom and ownership of one’s own life.

And mostly, I wonder if the women who called after questioning girls as one would a sheep gone astray, are in reality the ones who’d seen the most injustice, dreamt the hardest, and learned such a hard lesson to end up helping in the keeping of the leash.

Freedom is a pair of trousers and a buttoned coat. A man’s tunic and a tricorne hat. If only she had known. The darkness claimed he’d given her freedom, but really, there is no such thing for a woman, not in a world where they are bound up inside their clothes, and sealed inside their homes, a world where only men are given leave to roam.

I might never know, but I will always seek tales of dreamers who would look at men and see at what little cost they moved through life, who would look into the woods and ask to be a tree, grown wild rather than pruned and cut down to burn in someone else’s hearth, be someone else’s chair.

Addie LaRue’s is one such tale.

★ Mintaka: History & Art

For a book that spans across hundreds of years and yards, it goes without saying that there will be history and humanity with all its wonders and cruelty and war and art. And yet, as Addie would put it, “history is a thing designed in retrospect” and Addie LaRue is less a lesson on history than a parable of a great many presents.

“Art is about ideas. And ideas are wilder than memories. They’re like weeds, always finding their way up.”

So while there is history with clever commentary on evolution of fashion and glimpses of war and death and revolution, that is not what it is about. Schwab’s new novel is about history taking shape. About stories and ideas taking root in unseen places and climbing up through the darkest places of mind that have never seen the sunlight. Not about the world-changing historical figures and world-ending historical events written as a hammer falling, but as a friend and a brief conversation and a flash of life. This is not about the affect of the grand but the power of the minor.

It’s about life and art and humans and how, even after one hundred years or three hundred years, there is yet more to find. Unknowns to see. Novelties to discover. And it is all the more memorable because of it.

★ Saiph: Loneliness & Remembrance

Have you ever watched that glorious, solitary tree of decades and centuries and memories struck down by a lightning storm? Ever held that tiny, inconsequential keepsake of a forgotten soul, refusing to ease your desperate grasp? Have you spent hours and days and a lifetime breathing your heart and soul and life into that lifeless thing, shaping it with your will and need and then, just a blink too soon, a moment before perfection, resolution, completion, seen it fall apart?

Tell me, have you ever felt that abyss of sadness reserved for the lost? The forgotten? The lonely?

“Why would anyone trade a lifetime of talent for a few years of glory?”
“Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end,” he says, “everyone wants to be remembered.”

I am a creature doomed to loneliness, seeking its banishment and knowing it is here to stay, and this book is the song of my soul. Because this, this is the why behind the exquisite pain of this book: a loss so stark, so sharp it cut straight through me and I poured, I poured until I drowned and I poured until all was washed away and there, right there—beneath the pain and the dirt and the injustice—there lay the gem of names and marks fading into darkness; of identity and reality with its bittersweet embrace; of dreams and time slipping through your clutching hands; of me, and you, and humanity’s unending need to be remembered and chased and never replaced.

“The vexing thing about time,” he says, “is that it’s never enough. Perhaps a decade too short, perhaps a moment. But a life always ends too soon.”

Millions of thankful stars and constellations to my superhero for sending me an eARC from Edelweiss!

Info on the film adaptation with Schwab as screenwriter.

Joel Rochester

Rating: really liked it
Déjà vu. Déjà su. Déjà vecu.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue or The Invisible Life of Addie the Street conveys a tale about a girl who makes a faustian bargain with the devil and is thus forgotten by everyone she meets. Addie becomes convinced she must make her mark upon the world in unique and influential ways, as she believes that an idea can spark into so much more. It is a story that deals with the consequences of our actions, how one choice can make life fall apart at the seams, and how everyone, despite everything, truly wants to be remembered by someone.

I was really excited about this novel, the story that V.E. Schwab would bring. I enjoyed her Shades of Magic series and I was intrigued to read her latest novel. As a fan of books that contain deals with gods and devils, I was hoping that this book was able to deliver, especially since some of my friends had loved it too. However, whilst this book emphasized on palimpsests and the meanings of making your mark, of love, and of finding your way in the world, I was lost in how not only white but how eurocentric this novel was.

Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations.

The writing was beautiful, but the story lacked some substance. Addie LaRue truly told us (emphasis on told) through her lens how difficult and hard her life was. How she was only a shadow, a whisper, a lost thought in the wind. Addie LaRue desperately wanted someone to remember her, to know her name, to know her story. However, as we traveled throughout Addie's life, I couldn't feel connected to her tale, to her story. She had lived for three hundred years, and yet the experiences we saw were so narrow in comparison to how grand her life could've been. We flashed back for only brief moments before returning back to New York for the main plot of the tale, and its focus on art, white culture, and history. I feel as though it concentrated on the ✨ white aesthetic ✨ of her experiences as opposed to ensuring it had good execution.

The plot (is that the right word?) felt extremely repetitive, although potentially done on purpose to emphasize how painful it was for Addie to be forgotten, after a while, it began to lose its effect. Again, it could be to potentially showcase Addie becoming desensitized to her curse. However, it made the novel to be predictable, and at the end of it, I guessed what was going to happen, and I was left feeling meh. The emotional impact that the ending would've had was 85% lost. Henry's gift to Addie at the end was the only thing I felt for, the only thing I could connect to at the end. (view spoiler) It emphasized the fact that words are powerful, and the words you choose mean everything, especially in Addie's case.

I also had problems with Addie's character, in the sense that she didn't evolve that much throughout the novel. I experienced the same feeling when reading another of Schwab's characters, Lila Bard. Addie is intelligent, calculated, and experienced whilst Lila is young, naive, and spontaneous. Addie is careful of the consequences whilst Lila doesn't care about them. However, I can't help but feel that both characters are similar in the sense that their extent of evolving surrounds becoming selfless as a result of their relationships. Lila becomes selfless through meeting Kell and changing her view of the world whilst Addie becomes more selfless through meeting Henry and experiencing what it feels to be remembered again.

Whilst it was nice to see Addie change slightly and become hopeful, I felt as though she was still the same girl three hundred years prior, who had made the deal, with no regards as to how the (traumatic) events in history have shaped her, how it was to be in a German cell, how it was to live through wars and death. Instead, the story continued it's great focus on Addie wanting to be remembered like it was the only thing that mattered in the grand history of things. This is evident through her repetition of certain phrases throughout the novel, showing that she still holds onto her past which reinforces the person that she was, is, and will always be. Addie refuses to let go of it because only she can remember her past, and thus cannot change as a person. She wants to be the same person as it's how she wants to be remembered, she wants to be able to tell her story.

One thing I did like was the anniversary between Luc and Addie. It was a nice touch and I personally enjoyed the conversations between them in the beginning, how it was two opposing forces that couldn't help but revolve around one another like two planets. Addie basically plays the longest game of doing things out of spite, just to prove a point and I loved that Luc came back with "huh you thought". Although near the end, I found that Luc became a lot more possessive and manipulative, as a god such as he usually does. But for the life of me, I cannot see why people would want Addie to be with him for that exact reason. Like Team "Boy who remembers Addie" or Team "Tall, Dark (but white) and Handsome who not only plays with Addie, but manipulates, punishes and abuses her for not doing what he wants." HMMMM??!??!?!?!!?!??!??

Henry was... Henry. Whilst he was cute and I enjoyed reading his perspective and backstory, I just felt he only existed to give Addie's story more meaning. (view spoiler) I just wished Henry had a greater sense of purpose.

This novel is a standalone according to Schwab, but the way that it ends implies that there'll be more to the story. Is this Schwab keeping a wedge in the door in case she decides to come back to the world, or is it just to leave readers intrigued as to how it all truly ends? We might never know.

However, as I was reading this story, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. Something made me uncomfortable about this tale apart from the mild existential crisis I was having about whether I'd be remembered after I died. Addie's story is white, extremely white. We are shown one black woman, Bea, who Addie calls beautiful. That is it.

Throughout her three hundred years of living, we aren't shown Addie being in any other continents apart from the UK, Europe, and America. Addie knows French, Italian, Spanish, Greek but doesn't think to learn other languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Afrikaans, Arabic, Hindi, you get the gist. It seems Addie LaRue wanted to be remembered, just not by people of colour. Someone managed to go around the world in 80 days whilst Addie has only visited three continents in three hundred years. The fact the only thing she can also say about a person of colour is that they're beautiful? It made me uncomfortable.

This presentation of the west in a novel about the meaning of being remembered is ironic, as it's often the west that's remembered and exemplified in history, leaving the histories of people of colour to be forgotten, erased. Where were the references to colonisation, how France, Spain, Italy Britain, and America partook in the scramble for Africa? She was literally going between Germany and England during this time. Also, there is no excuse for her not to notice, oh i don't know, RACISM OR THE TRANSPORTATION OF SLAVES?! Like, it just shows how apathetic Addie LaRue is to colonization and slavery, and the fact she didn't note it at all in her history shows how complicit she was in the system. The fact that Henry never questions her on it either? I just find that this novel displayed such a white lens, it was blinding.

I find that the eurocentric focus in this story just took the meaning of this novel away from me, as it just felt to me that whilst all these white people were trying to make marks upon the world, were trying to make themselves known and loved, Bea, the only person of colour, was just... tokenized in the narrative. In a story that focuses on the importance of leaving your mark, I feel like this book told me that the marks people of colour leave just aren't important or valued. also, voltaire??? really????

This novel shows how much privilege Addie has in not needing to care about or notice the brutality and violence that people of colour suffered under during this time. It shows how fortunate she is in the fact that she feels the need to not mention it in her grand history, and instead only focus on the times in which she thought were important to her story.

There is also the argument that Schwab intentionally left them out in order to not anger people of colour for the representation of their countries and cultures. However, sensitivity readers could've been employed and a majority of measures could've been taken to ensure the representation was somewhat accurate, and that there was at least more representation! We did get some queer rep though.

Can I also just mention how funny it is that during the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s, Addie is "Everywhere, Nowhere", and yet fails to make one single comment about the impact of the movement? Oh yeah, it's because Addie is too self-absorbed in her curse, in the circumstances surrounding her curse, her desire to be wanted, remembered. Did Addie LaRue partake in the Civil Rights Marches? Did Addie LaRue meet Martin Luther King Jr.? Or was she too busy (view spoiler) Questions we'll never know the answers to.

I adored the exploration of the meaning of art, history and love. How in one instant, memories can slip away and your life could amount to nothing. However, Addie LaRue forces you to remember her in the text, as everyone else (apart from Luc and Henry), especially people of colour are simply forgotten.

This is a well-written novel and one that I enjoyed experiencing. However, I can't help but feel I am not the target audience for this book, and instead it is a story for white people and white people alone.

I've been rambling for the past three hours but I just hope this makes sense LMAO

The live show for The Late Night Book Club's discussion of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is on Noelle's channel, link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTrg8...

chai ♡

Rating: really liked it
Oh, to be a French girl who knelt in the woods, on the eve of a wedding she did not want, and prayed for freedom to a god—or perhaps a devil—who made her a deal that'll grow to be like a thorn in her, a goad: she will live forever, but she will be forgotten by everyone she meets, always slipping out of reach. An eternity of flitting from one place to another, never feeling quite at home anywhere, and from one person to another, leaving behind only the phantom feel of her touch, and the faint memory of seven freckles dotting her cheeks, like a scattering of stars.

That is, until a boy born with a broken heart says, “I remember you”, and it feels like a prayer. Like a crack in the mortar of her curse.

“Why would anyone trade a lifetime of talent for a few years of glory?” Luc’s smile darkens. “Because time is cruel to all, and crueler still to artists. Because vision weakens, and voices wither, and talent fades.” He leans close, twists a lock of her hair around one finger. “Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end,” he says, “everyone wants to be remembered.”

That is possibly one of the sexiest premises for a book that I've read, and having read many of Schwab’s books, I can confidently say that this is undoubtedly the single best piece of writing she’s ever produced.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is beautifully written. The novel teems with passages of transfixing description, and I could not but let myself sink into the velvet-soft embrace of the author’s voice, as cozily as into a beloved sweater. Even now, days after I’ve read it, I find myself returning to parts of the book to re-read passage, and re-experience the heady prose within, to open up those moments and stretch them out full length, see what new effects they might have on me.

I should say that this is not a novel of thrilling conflicts so much as it is a story of poignant and unforgettable encounters. The novel breezes by at a leisurely pace as the story slowly takes shape before its reader like smoke poured into an invisible mold. This could potentially be frustrating for readers who prefer propulsive plot-lines and clear-cut resolutions as the novel offers neither, but I honestly loved it precisely for that. The real strength of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue lies in the way the author manages to tug so many difficult themes into a heart-wrenching whole, making you feel the characters' depth of anguish, their loneliness and longing to be seen.

Three hundred years is a long time to be alone. In three hundred years, that aloneness grows deep roots; it works its way into every crevice, it gnaws at you from within. It was longer still for Addie LaRue who moved through the world like an apparition, unseen and unacknowledged by everyone except the devil who condemned her to this life of invisibility. His stare, however, brings little comfort, as he reminds her at one point: “Do not mistake this—any of it—for kindness, Adeline. I simply want to be the one who breaks you.”

Twenty-eight years, too, is a long time to be alone. Henry, our other protagonist, was born into a world he felt only halfway inside of. Full to the brim with desires, Henry yearned to be loved, to be wanted, to be enough, and he wanted it all with the greed of someone starved. For years, Addie and Henry both formed the same crooning, desperate, yearning plea in their minds: to not be alone. They had long been wandering in the same labyrinth—both comfortless, lonely, and empty—and had finally rounded the corner that brought them face-to-face. It was the feeling of being invisible and lost and searching and then suddenly neither—and it was heady. But it’s that loneliness that drew Luc’s—the devil’s—eye like a blight on the horizon. Perhaps, because it reminded him of his own.

It's a dangerous thing to be alone after all, but as the reader soon realizes, it's even more dangerous to want. There is so much fear at the center of this novel, like a thorn deep in a festering wound: Will you always drift through life more than you walk, feeling less like yourself and more like a kind of lost and wandering mist? Will your heart always hurt for the wanting of someone? Will you be remembered or will your memory be washed away as though it never were? What will survive of us? Of all the profound ideas echoing throughout this novel, that last one was its most resonant.

Still, hope is a small heated ball at the heart of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and the answers the characters find for themselves at the end ((view spoiler)) feel like a weight released at last after long hours of bearing it up. Three hundred years is indeed a long time to be alive, but for three hundred years, Addie LaRue twirled around the world, holding her eyes wide open, and always found something new. Addie LaRue learned to love it, all of it, even when it pounded over her in waves that left her gasping, even when it hurt, because it was wonderful too. And always, always worth it.

But this is how you walk to the end of the world. This is how you live forever. Here is one day, and here is the next, and the next, and you take what you can, savor every stolen second, cling to every moment, until it’s gone.

Nilufer Ozmekik

Rating: really liked it
This time: I have no words for this masterpiece. Literally speechless, wordless, expressionless, blinking, sighing, awed, adored, fell hard, truly loved! I may announce you one of top ten best books of the year.

I know we’re at the fourth month and during our quarantine if I resume finishing approximately 10 to 14 books weekly, this means I can read nearly 500 more books but when you know, you know, this book is like unconditional love at first sight.

It’s a unique story about a village girl’s true demand of her independence, free will and having choices about her own life. She doesn’t want to be someone’s wife and somebody’s mother. She wanted to die standing tall just like trees. So she prays for the old gods and new gods but nobody answered her prayers but somebody heard her. She grabbed somebody’s true attention! Before her wedding, she knelt down on the soil and made a big mistake to pray after dark because she summoned the darkness. And she made a deal with the devil( green eyed, curly dark haired, a version of Lucifer Morningstar who uses contact lenses) for her freedom, earned her immortality at the expanse of being forgotten.

That’s right. Adeline La Rue became immortal and also expendable, cursed, living like a shadow by giving each person she met a short term memory lost. Anyone she meets turns into Guy Pearce from Memento and forgets her a few seconds later. That was the punishment his charming and cunny evil she called Luc gave her. She cannot even tell her name and write it anywhere. Only devil can call her name.

So Adeline shortens her name as Addie and starts her epic adventure, witnessing the world’s history, mostly spending her time at European countries, seeing the French Revolution, world wars, artistic, political, social economic movements and awakening of the cities.

She loved, she hurt, she suffered, she is neglected, abandoned, abused. She lived like a fugitive in people’s houses, learning to be skilled thief. Mostly at each anniversary she resumed her meeting with Luc who wants her obey and surrender to him completely by giving her soul.

But her biggest strength is her endurance and stubbornness because no matter how lonely she is, how she witness the people she fell for treating her like a stranger each time she meet them again, she still love to live fulfilled and learn from experiences. And she is wise enough to become unforgettable by living her thumb prints to the many art masterpieces from the drawings to the songs, books. Even her blurry photos left quite stunning impression on the people. She enjoyed the art and she was talented enough to leave her trace. That’s the real essence of immortality she contributed to the changing world.

But 300 years of solitude and loneliness end when she stops by the bookstore. Henry, the owner of the store, feeling too much, suffering from broken heart and melancholia looking for something but as like the song he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. Till he sees the girl tries to trick him by stealing books and he remembers her name.

Yes, after 300 freaking years later, somebody remembered Addie. How? Who is this? Just a lonely boy who wants to love and to be loved in return! Addie thinks she tricked Luc, she found her soul mate but everything comes with the price like her free will and immortality. Is she ready pay for the unconditional love? Is there still hope for her future? Or Luc is about to win their duello by pulling out a last deadly trick? Let’s get lost at this incredible journey to find out.

The ending is a little surprising but it was also hopeful and motivational. I don’t want to talk about because I’m afraid of giving too many details and ruin everything but I wish I could read more adventures of Addie. Fingers crossed!
This is the best book tributes to living and enjoying life fulfilled and healing power of the art. Even though Addie is lonely, cursed, abandoned, she has strong willpower, tough and fearless because she never regrets the life she has lived.

Here is one of my favorite part of the book:
“And she is tired. Unspeakably tired.
But there is no question she has lived.
“Nothing is all good or all bad”, she says. “Life is so much messier than that.”
And there in the dark, he asks if it was really worth it.
Were the instants of joy worth the stretches of sorrow?”
Were the moments of beauty worth the years of pain?
And she turns her head, and looks at him, and says, “Always”

So is this book worth to fall in at first sentence? ABSOLUTELY! Five stars won’t be enough!

So much thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for sharing this fantastic ARC and giving me this opportunity to read and review it. I loved it so much! This is not one of the best books I’ve read lately, this also turned into one of my favorite books of V.E. Schwab. I wish it would never end!

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Roel ✿

Rating: really liked it
BR with the lovely Marta

I know how many people love V.E. Schwab to death, and I know how many people were completely blown away by The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but I just do not get it. This was a nightmare.

Plot-wise, this story could have been so thrilling. The plot begins when Addie LaRue, our protagonist, makes a deal with the devil in order to get out of an arranged marriage, and finally live the adventurous life she has always dreamed of living. But there is a catch. Not only does she become immortal, she is also instantly forgotten about by every person she meets as soon as they leave the room she is in.

Ultimately, the book was anything but exciting. Most of my favourite books lack a spectacular plot, and I am always in the mood for a good slow-burn, but this could easily have been condensed to a 200-page book without leaving out anything of the slightest importance. At least half of the book did not add a single thing to the overall narrative, the development of the characters, the atmosphere...

About three hundred years after the spell is cast, Henry Strauss (somebody with no interesting characteristics whatsoever) meets Addie in the second-hand bookshop where he works. When Addie returns to the shop days later, Henry still remembers who she is. This is the part where the insta-love and the cringey rom-com montage scenes come in.

"Three words, large enough to tip the world. I remember you."

Now, Addie is an incredibly dull character to begin with. She is self-centered and insensitive, and really has no hobbies (which is quite strange for someone that has been alive for three hundred years and counting). So, as you can imagine, when circumstances push her toward developing feelings for another flat character, the relationship is as stale as can be. Because what do Henry and Addie ever do except walk around in New York City?

I understand that insignificant scenes of everyday life can have the ability to let readers fully connect, but what this book lacks is a clear point. Over-explaining is Schwab's downfall with this one. At the beginning of the novel, I enjoyed the theme she explores of art essentially being the only truly immortal part of human life — but as the chapters went by, and Schwab kept substantiating the point she was trying to make a thousand different times in exactly the same ways, I ended up being bored out of my mind.

This repetitiveness is not only to be found in the plot itself, but also in the writing. I have heard many people say that this is the best writing they have seen from Schwab to date. That it is beautiful. That it is lyrical. To each their own, but if this is considered to be amazing writing, I do start to wonder how low the bar is on that topic. The text is filled with obscure metaphors that do not make much sense, the same sentence structure is used continuously, and many words and phrases are used, reused, and re-reused...

Can somebody count how many times a sentence starts with 'and yet' or 'blink'? How many times some boy has 'black curls tumbling over their forehead'? How many times Addie's seven beautiful freckles form a constellation or some shit?

Or how many times Addie LaRue wants to be a fucking tree?

You would think, with that off-beat plot, the author would have been able to make up for what was lacking in other areas. It could easily have been made less excruciating to get through this book if, say, Addie got involved in the historical events that shaped the world as we know it today. That would have been interesting. The author, however, decided to mention Frank Sinatra and Beethoven, have Addie be imprisoned in Germany for a split second before letting her be saved by the devil, and be done with it. Schwab gave herself ten years to write this book, and she still let herself (and her main character) gloss over the most important events.

To me, this book is just as forgettable as Addie LaRue herself.

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Additional Notes:
- First time reading anything by Schwab. Possibly also the last time
- The cat called Book is the only thing I wanted to read about

emma

Rating: really liked it
CALLING ALL DEMONS.

Attention: all ghouls, witches, wizards, sorcerers and -esses, devils, creatures of the night, and other harbingers of vaguely this-seems-like-a-bad-idea type magic…

Let’s make a deal.

According to this book, you’re making bargains with any bozo who sputters her way into seventeenth-century French bodies of water, and I want in on the opportunity.

Yes, you read that correctly. Our protagonist, Addie LaRue, is a complete bozo.

For those of you who have been living under a rock that no overhyped bestseller can permeate, 1) drop that address and 2) I’ll give you a lil synopsis, so you can continue your very wise decision to avoid this book but for my review (high praise, really).

We begin with the most boring story ever told: A girl in seventeenth-century France who is bored. Her name is Addie. She has freckles that look like stars, for some reason, but you do not have to remember that because she and every other person she meets will never shut the ever-living f*ck up about it.

Speaking of ever-living f*cks, Addie considers herself better than all those other girls who are also expected to marry and live normally, so she makes a deal with a devil-type guy that she’s allowed to live forever. In exchange, no one remembers who she is.

Tough luck? I guess? I don’t know, I got sick of Addie complaining within about 4 months. And we have 300-some-odd years to go. So sorry your immortality isn’t exactly what you pictured. Boo-hoo.

The whole thing reminds me of how I watched Marie Antoinette with a friend recently and spent the entire duration of it unable to believe I was expected to sympathize with MARIE ANTOINETTE. Sure, she had to get married to someone she didn’t want to marry...along with EVERY WOMAN ALIVE. Is it my fault she lived a life of incredible privilege and didn’t spend it very well? No, it’s not. And I won’t allow Sofia Coppola to punish me for it.

Relatedly, no one could have lived from the early 1700s to present and done a worse job of it than Addie LaRue.

She travels only within Europe until World War II (and really mostly in France at that), then moves to America and really sees nothing more than LA, NYC, and NOLA. (Love an initialism.) She manages to meet no people of color. She never considers slavery, revolution, women’s suffrage, or civil rights. She doesn’t travel to a single majority-POC area. She learns several languages, all of them Western.

She is the most irritating stupid idiot alive. I want to throttle her.

On top of that, this book has very little going for it other than pretty writing. (I’ll hand it to you, Schwab - your style went from doing nothing for me to almost distracting me from what a dumpster fire everything else was from time to time.)

I didn’t like Addie for a second, but I tried to like everyone else. Henry, for example, seemed like he could be My Type, as a skinny guy who works in a bookstore - but he felt like anyone. Henry’s two (2) friends, who represent the entirety of the, well, representation in this book, seemed fine, but we never got to confirm or deny that because (as you may have already guessed from the inkling of diversity) they are almost never present.

This just felt half-baked and silly. There was no plot to speak of until maybe the last 100 pages, and the ending was ultimately so disappointing and ridiculous that I almost wish the plotlessness had stuck around.

Just a note, to any, ahem, authors who might find it helpful: If characters are boring and unremarkable, and the story feels flat, and the romance never hits, then going for a big emotional ending isn’t going to do much for anybody.

Anyway. Yeah, I hated this.

Bottom line: Dropping from a 3 to a 2 to 1.5. (The writing was nice.)

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pre-review

took me long enough.

review to come / 3 stars (actually 2)

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currently-reading updates

at the rate i am reading this, i will finish it just in time for my 2021 wrap up

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tbr review

no, i have never enjoyed a VE Schwab book.

yes, i desperately want to read this one.

we exist

Emily May

Rating: really liked it

"And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark."

It's interesting. I read a couple of reviews for this book that said it was a slow-starter and took a hundred or so pages to get going, so I thought it was a good sign when I fell in love with it right away. The premise captivated me, drew me in, and took me away to another time and place; to an 18th century French village where young Adeline is being forced into a marriage she doesn't want. She prays so hard to escape the constraints placed upon women, and upon mortals themselves, but it seems no god is listening. In the end, she makes a desperate Faustian bargain and learns that old lesson: be careful what you wish for.

Totally sucked in. The prose is a little more poetic than Schwab's usual style, but I think it worked. I also really got on board emotionally with the premise of this book. In exchange for immortality, Addie is doomed to be forgotten by everyone she meets, unable to leave a mark. As soon as she's out of sight, she's out of mind, never to be remembered. Her family forget her. She becomes a stranger to everyone she loves. It is, as you can imagine, a most painful lonely existence.

I can see why some might find it slow, but I found it sad and infuriating enough to be engaging.

It is that big chunk of book between approximately page 150 and 350 where this story lost me. As soon as the love interest arrived on the scene and the whirlwind romance started, I began to lose my emotional attachment to the story. A number of things about this part irked me. The way the purple prose bled over into dialogue (which I never like), the way I instantly guessed the truth about Henry, and, my god, the way we had to be reminded of his "black curls" every time he appears on page.

We also get a lot of backstory about Henry and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I appreciated the discussions about depression and anxiety, and I honestly related to a lot of what the author describes here, but I also found Henry just quite boring in general. I wasn't interested in his relationships with his friends and family, so the chapters we spend with him dragged for me.

It grew repetitive, too. After the interesting start, the story seemed to wander around aimlessly. Addie & Henry gazed into each other's eyes a lot between various flashbacks to Addie's escapades during the last 300 years. The darkness appears and whispers evil things, Addie meets people and is then forgotten over and over.

I did like the ending, though. I feel like it will be polarizing because it is left somewhat open (though not for a sequel, I hope), but I liked the lack of neatness and found the final chapter very satisfying.

One more thing. There's been a bit of controversy over how Schwab's adult books are often wrongly categorized as YA because she is a woman. While I have no doubt women writers do suffer this indignity, I've read a good amount of YA and adult fantasy from both men and women and I still cannot shake the feeling that this book has a very strong YA vibe to it. I know it's a completely subjective line to draw anyway, but I would be far more likely to recommend this book to YA fans than to fans of adult fantasy. Compare this to other women who write adult fantasy like Jemisin, Le Guin, Butler, Wecker and Marillier, and it's a whole different vibe and maturity level, I feel.

megs_bookrack

Rating: really liked it
**4.5-stars rounded up**

With the tagline, A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget; I should have known this was going to happen. The infamous book hangover.

Y'all, she hurts. Everything hurts.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is an experience. I don't feel like I have ever been this beaten up by a book.

It was literally like Schwab was taking an ice pick to my heart and slowly chipping pieces away through the entire story. I felt the weight of it.

There were times I actually had to set it down and step away. I can't be held accountable for my actions during those moments.

Honestly, it's a bit of a blur.

Addie LaRue is a character who has an extraordinary story to tell, yet no way to tell it.

In 1714, she entered into a Faustian bargain granting her eternal life. The downfall, she will be forgotten by every person she ever meets, unable to do even the simplest of things, like telling someone her name.

Addie flounders for years, trying to determine how best to live within the constraints of the deal.

It is a struggle; nothing comes easy. Addie's only connection, the dark being who granted her wish, a being named, Luc.

These scenes of Addie trying to find her way, adapting to her new reality, were hard to read. In fact, they were some of the most melancholy scenes I have ever read.

It was gripping, beautiful and painful, all at the same time. The writing was able to elicit such empathy for Addie's position. I found it to be extremely powerful.

Addie eventually develops a semi-comfortable pattern for living, until one day, in 2014-New York City, a boy in a bookstore changes everything.

He remembers her.

Intricately weaving together both past and present timelines, Schwab sweeps you up into a love story centuries in the making.

There's tender intimacy, sacrifice and tasty bites of food for thought the entire way through.

Additionally, I loved the exploration of the power of the arts to transcend space and time. There's an underlining theme of art, in many different forms, creating a sort of timeless influence on future generations.

It felt like a love letter to artistic expression and I was so into that whole vibe.

Overall, I think this is a very special story. One that will have a great and lasting impact on a lot of people.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I will never forget Addie, or her story.

Kai Spellmeier

Rating: really liked it
“What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?”

Where do I start? This was a good book. What you'd expect from Victoria Schwab. Magical and lyrical. And yet...I turned the last page and was left wanting.

This is the book that Victoria has been working on for 10 years. And yes it's pretty. It's an amazing concept and an intriguing beginning. But I first read this in July and now, barely three months later, I cannot remember all that much except for the fact that Addie has seven bloody freckles in her face like a constellation of stars. It was mentioned so often, I had no chance to forget. It's on the cover too. Literally couldn't be more in your face. This is probably the thing that bugged me the most about this whole book. The damn freckles.

Character-wise I have to admit that I didn't fall in love with either main character. I didn't warm up to Addie and I cannot tell you why. I can't say much about her except that she's smart and really doesn't want to die, which is relatable I guess, but not enough to make me feel for her. The same goes for Henry. He's pretty and smart and doesn't want to die, which is relatable I guess, but he doesn't have enough edges for me to care for him. I did love that they were both queer, though. But that alone doesn't make for a fascinating character.

It took a while for the plot to get rolling. For the first half of the novel Addie simply floats through time and makes some wondrous and some horrible experiences. And everyone who meets her forgets about her as soon as she leaves the room. But after that happened to the third person, I got it. After that, the book didn't hold many surprises.

Overall, definitely a nice book to pass the time, and for someone who is only just getting started reading her books, it sure is a beautiful introduction. Personally, I've gobbled up every single one of her books and Addie didn't do what Vicious and A Darker Shade of Magic and The Archived did to me. That is draw me in and never let me go.

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ELLIAS (elliasreads)

Rating: really liked it
Pretty book filled with pretty people and pretty writing.

That's it.

I felt like I was missing some weight or substance in this book. And I know why. There was to much (probably the most in any book that I've read), way too much of telling and less showing. Like the whole book was basically described to me; I couldn't live, learn it, or see it. And that was fundamentally most disappointing to me. We were living through someone else's view- a narrow field of view at that, and still could barely get a taste.

Also this book is very white. We're told that Addie got to experience and travel to a plethora of different and vast places- Spain, Singapore, India, Beijing, etc...and yet we never even got to visit those places with her; instead, we're stuck in Europe- mainly France, Germany, and Italy. And then New York. So much could have been done and said in these other different places and countries that are full of rich history, context, and people of color. But I guess that doesn't matter because Addie has fully lived. Sure. We just didn't live long enough to see it (pun intended). It would have been nice to see Addie play some part or take part in large of the events and movements important in history regarding BIPOC and LGTBQIA, especially since Addie is bisexual in the book. But none of that is ever brought up.

The writing for this book was incredible. Chef's kiss. My type of writing right here. Not too flowery or pretty; just the right kind of song, beat, and rhythm. Probably the best aspect of the entire book. Henry to me, was the better character to read about; I wanted to get to know him better and I preferred his arc over Addie's. Even though he's a basic lonely boy just wanting to be loved. Still, the ending of the book, I think, was the weakest. I could already tell what was going to go down and what would happen. Does that necessarily mean a bad thing? No. But if that was the scale of the ending to a whole premise based on bargain of immortality, finding love, and being able to live again, I would have expected it to be different, a roaring epic showdown of proportionate value.....instead it was kind of lame.

Overall a book with a great premise and wonderful writing that ultimately fell a little too flat for me. Henry <3 I love you bb.

Read for The Late Night Book Club

3.75 STARS
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Yun

Rating: really liked it
Please don't hate, ok? I know how much everyone loves this book, but for me, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was a very uneven reading experience, with some gems buried under seemingly mountains of fluff.

Addie doesn't want the traditional 18th century life of just being a wife and mother at her poor provincial town. So on the eve of a forced marriage, she makes a deal with the devil for her heart's most fervent wish. Though that deal traps her in a curse, it also sets her on a most unexpected journey.

My foremost thought while reading this book is: gosh, this sure is a very long book for the amount of content in here. Not much happens through most of the pages. The actual plot in here is fairly simple and straightforward. In fact, you could safely cut out a lot of the paragraphs and chapters and not lose any meaning to the story, which is never a good sign.

So what is 450 pages filled with, you ask? Paragraphs and paragraphs of pretty writing. If it could be said in one sentence, it's said in several fluffy paragraphs. If one metaphor suffices, well, they come in sets of three or four, every time. It's all a bit much. In fact, it often seems as if the author cared more about putting together clever floral word arrangements than moving the plot along.

The other issue is that Addie is fairly naive, so this book comes across as distinctly YA even though it's marketed to adults. Her decisions, her thoughts, her growth (or lack thereof), her romances, they all feel very young. Though we follow Addie through her youth and later years, her character sounds exactly the same throughout.

Yet, for all the flaws, there is something undeniably charming in the story. I cared about the characters and what happens to them. And I found the premise intriguing. It reminds me of the movie The Age of Adaline, which takes a similar concept and does it much better, though coincidentally with a similar name.

In the end, I liked this book enough. There were moments of brilliance that really made this story shine. But they were often buried deep under mountains of indulgent verbal gymnastics that tested my patience to the extreme. I can't help but feel this was a missed opportunity, that with some aggressive editing, this could've been a stellar read.

Cindy

Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars. VE Schwab has consistently great writing as always and really wrote her ass off here. I can tell many of the internal struggles that the main characters go through (particularly Henry) come from a personal place in Schwab's life, and you can feel that earnestly pouring through the pages. This book would be enjoyed by people who like slower, atmospheric, and character-driven stories. I think this works if you relate to the characters; if you don’t, the narrative becomes quite repetitive and saccharine. The level of navel gazing is 110% and really lays it on thick - it feels like watching an artsy indie film with sentimental white hipsters and a splash of magic, albeit written elegantly!

jessica

Rating: really liked it
oh, addie. who could ever forget you?

__________________________

i honestly dont know what i could say that hasnt already been said. every positive thing you have read about this book, take it and multiply it by 100. thats how stunning this story is.

ive always been a fan of schwab. i love how atmospheric, energetic, and wholly engaging her stories are. but wow. i would have never expected her to write something so beautiful, so alluring, so comforting. i really like this look for her writing and i hope she continues this style of storytelling. i think i would dare to say this is probably her best work to date. its that remarkable.

easily a new favourite.

↠ 5 stars

Victoria Schwab

Rating: really liked it
As I do my final read-through on this book, a story nearly 10 years in the making, all I can think is that I've put my heart and soul, my teeth and blood and bones into this one.

I hope you love it.

ETA: I can't believe we made it. Addie spent so many years haunting me, I hope she haunts a few of you. <3

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

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