The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V. E. Schwab

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever-and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore, and he remembers her name.

My Review of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

I am glad I let this sit for a little while to write this. When I first finished it although I thought it was great, I didn’t think it was as great as I do now. It has had some time to linger.

In 1714, Addie is in a situation out of her control. She pleads with the Gods of the darkness for help and ends up striking a deal with one for eternal life. However, there is a major catch. Everyone from then on will not remember her. As in, they will forget her the moment they walk away from her. So when she meets Henry, and he REMEMBERS her, she is taken aback. So begins a new journey in her life. But who is Henry exactly? And HOW does he remember her?

What follows is an amazingly original and complex story about Addie’s life, from learning how to survive with this crappy curse, to 300 years later – being adept at surviving.

Thoughts

It jumps back and forth in time which I usually find jarring, but in this case she has eloquently written the settings of the timelines so uniquely that you could not get confused about where the part of the book was set.

It is just written so cleverly. Each chapter weaves its way in time, forward and backward to the ultimate conclusion.

I adored how Addie managed to have ‘relationships’ with different people throughout her lifetime and how she navigated that with her curse. I appreciated how it did not focus on one character in particular, but on the way that the characters impacted Addie’s life. From this perspective, it was extremely enjoyable. Love was merely steps on her journey, almost literally.

I also adored the way she wrote Addie into history. Noone could remember her, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t make a huge impact into historical events.

Yes, there have been a lot of complaints about where the ending went, and I get that. And the ‘love triangle’ which I generally hate – but I didn’t even feel like it was a love triangle. Once all the time jumping had concluded, everything felt right to me and I actually really enjoyed the ending.

I didn’t feel totally captivated by the end. I didn’t put it down and brag to my friends that it was the best book I had ever read. But it did linger there in the background, and it made me reflect even more fondly on it.

Would I recommend it?

I think if you are into romantic fantasy and brilliant writing you can’t go wrong. I was expecting it to be a bit of a dud, I like to expect little from super hyped up books just so I am not disappointed. And I thought it was just great!

(4.5 / 5)