The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab Pages: 448
Published by Tor Books on October 6, 2020
Genres: adult, Fiction, supernatural
Source: Finished Copy from Publisher
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
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.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is a magical tale that honestly blew me away. Everything about this book felt fresh, unique and magical- the plot, the prose and all of the little details that I know will be stuck in my head for long after I turned the last page. This book made me think so much, and I am going to do my very best to leave the plot as mysterious as possible and just give you my thoughts on why this is such a special book without hitting major plot points. But know this, if you are a fan of supernatural books, or magical realism novels then The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a must read book. I think this is a must read book of 2020.
In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, we meet Adeline, or Addie as she is a young woman in France in the early 1700s. She makes a deal which gifts, or curses, her with immortality. The cost of this immortality is that no one will ever remember her. Once they leave her presence all memory of her is wiped from her mind. Addie wanted the freedom to live her life, and what she got was a very lonely existence. Just thinking about the implications of this was fascinating to me. Every time Addie would go somewhere, some new situation would arise like eating at a restaurant or shopping in a store, and a new “how does this work?” hypothetical would pop into my head. I loved watching how VE Schwab would work little details into the story. Her writing and storytelling elevated this book to a whole new level! It was so magical to watch it unfold, and to see it surprise me and make me think and make me become totally engrossed in Addie’s life.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is told in split timelines, alternating between present day and back tracking back through the previous 300 years that Addie has lived. There are so many surprises and historical tidbits thrown in to make the book super interesting and riveting. This was truly a joy to read! I knew from the summary that we were going to meet a character that does remember Addie, and I found myself really excited to meet him and figure out what his deal was and how he was going to play into the overall story. But then he was taking a really long time to show up into the story and I was worried that I was going to get bored waiting for him, but I was never bored! I loved the lyrical, art filled journey that Addie had experienced, and not one bit of it was boring to me. Quite the contrary, Addie LaRue captivated my mind 100%. I loved this book. I think it is a story that every one needs to read. You will not be able to forget Addie LaRue!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2020 New Release Challenge
- ARCtober 2020
sherry fundin
i love when i find a book and character that sticks with me long after i have finished reading it
sherry @ fundinmental
Aj @ Read All The Things!
I’m glad you mostly liked it! VE Schwab is one of my favorite authors, so I’ll end up reading this book eventually.