The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, a review

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue’s Back-of-Book Description

Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine
#1 Library Reads Pick―October 2020
#1 Indie Next Pick―October 2020
BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST―Book of The Month Club

A “Best Of” Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads, etc

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.

 

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

 

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman named Adeline meets a dangerous stranger and makes a terrible mistake.

 

As she realizes the limitations of her Faustian bargain – being able to live forever, without being able to be remembered by anyone she sees – Addie choose to flee her small villiage, as everything she once held dear is torn away.

 

But there are still dreams to be had, and a life to live, and she is determined to find excitement and satisfaction in the wide, beckoning world – even if she will be doomed ot be alone forever.

 

Or not quite alone – as every year, the alluring Luc comes to visit, checking to see if she is ready to give up her soul. Their darkly thrilling game stretches through the ages, seeing Addie witness history and fight to regain herself as she crosses oceans and tries out various lives.

 

It will be three hundred years before she stubles into a hidden bookstore and discovers someone who can remember her name – and suddenly everything changes again.

My Thoughts

I have a feeling I’m late to the game with this one and that everyone has already heard of it? But you guys know me – I read things in my own time.

I actually chose The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue way back in October 2020 as my Book of The Month book…and then it sat patiently on my shelf waiting for me to be ready. I flipped through quite a few books before settling on this one (in late April 2021, to be clear).

Do you ever do that? Pick up a couple of different books, and see which one is really “speaking” to you right now? Well, I do! And this one felt perfect for right now. Let me tell ya….was it a good choice!

I absolutely adored this book! I had never read anything by this author and while I had seen the title around a while back, I don’t think I read any reviews, so went into it with no expectations.

Because the main character developed the curse (or pleasurable ability – depending on your outlook) to live forever, I think The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is technically considered a fantasy. But don’t let that throw you if that’s not usually your jam! There was drama and suspense and intrigue all throughout this amazing story!

The writing was so lovely. The story immediately grabbed me. The main character felt incredibly relatable – in her inner dialogue, her emotions, and her actions. Even her fears and curiosities were things I could understand and/or share. And all the other characters were wonderful, too. There were a few that we only meet for a moment and several that stick with the story and I found them all equally compelling in their own ways.

The settings were fantastic – the story takes us to several locations around the world. I thought this was cool, and I loved the world the author built.

It uses a nonlinear timeline, so some chapters are Addie’s life in the past and some are in the ‘present’ (2014). I thought both were equally interesting and I think this does a good job of giving just enough background information while still encouraging the reader to keep going to find out more.

This story was so beautiful, you guys. All I wanted to do was read, all the time. It was so amazing! And I swear I could have marked up almost every page.

Favorite Quotes From The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“…[she] had only shrugged and said ‘I like it here’.As if you couldn’t like one place and want to see another.”

 

“And by the time they return home…she will already be a different version of herself. A room with the windows all thrown wide, eager to let in the fresh air, the sunlight, the spring.”

 

“Her future will rush by the same as her past, only worse, because there will be no freedom, only a marriage bed and a death bed and perhaps a child bed between them, and when she dies it will be as though she never lived.”

 

“Now that it is gone, there is a guilty gladness tucked among the grief. The last, brittle thread to her old life has broken, and [she] has been set well, and truly, and forcibly free.”

 

“Live long enough, and you learn how to read a person. To ease them open like a book, some passages underlined and others hidden between the lines.”

 

“Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put there feet. But if you only walk in other people’s steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark.”

 

“… but life isnt snapshots, it’s fluid. So photos are like fictions. I loved that about them. Everyone thinks photography is truth, but it’s just a very convincing lie.”

 

“When the truth is not an option, fiction takes on a mind of it’s own.”

 

“Greatness requires sacrifice. Who you sacrifice to matters less than what you sacrifice for.”

 

“She has kissed a lot of people. But none of them will ever kiss like him. The difference doesn’t lie in the technicalities. His mouth is no better shaped to the task. It is just in the way he uses it.”

 

“She missed him the way someone might miss the sun in the winter, though they still dread its heat.”

 

“Belief is a bit like gravity. Enough people believe a thing, and it becomes as solid and real as the ground beneath your feet.”

I had so many quotes marked… but I don’t think I’m giving too much away. And to be fair… it’s a 440-page book!

In Conclusion

Incredible! 5 stars. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue might seriously be my new favorite book. The writing was so enjoyable – I honestly can’t wait to read more of V.E. Schwab’s books because of that. I also hope they make this into a movie. Of course, it won’t be nearly as good. but the story is just so amazing that I think it should be told on a larger scale.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction, dramas, fantasy (that’s its technical classification, I think), and romance. It would also make a great gift for people you know who like to read but you’re never sure what to get them. I honestly can’t think of anyone I know who wouldn’t like this book.

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