The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue // Review

Author: V.E. Schwab
Published On: October 6, 2020
Publisher: Tor
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
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Synopsis:

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.

Addie, Addie, Addie. Where do we even begin?

For once in my life, I’m going to say that it’s a great thing that I didn’t receive an arc of this, but instead was forced to watch as everyone else on the internet read and reviewed it pre-release. Why, you might ask?

Because I knew going into this not to expect that the synopsis teases.

I think that’s the most important thing to know about this story: it’s mis-marketed. It is not, in fact, a love story between a girl and the devil, as many people think going in. If you forget that expectation, I think you’ll have a higher chance of enjoying this.

**There will be (clearly labeled) spoilers at the bottom, so tread with care!**

• V.E. Schwab’s writing style. It’s absolutely gorgeous. She just has ways of weaving words together that can leave you breathless. Some of the quotes in here hit me right in the feels, and I wish I would’ve annotated so I could hold on to them longer.
• The theme of “remembering”: This story talks a lot about “leaving a mark”, and how doing so is one of the most important aspects of humanity. Seeing the ways that Addie was able to leave a mark (though not directly) was fascinating, and I love the thought that ideas are wilder than actions.
• The fact this it made me question my entire purpose on this earth. What is my mark going to be? Is it okay that I don’t think I’ll leave a huge, scorching impact on this earth and this world? What if my sole purpose of being here is to consume other people’s stories, like Henry says – a storykeeper instead of a storyteller? Is that a life worth living? Will I look back and regret not writing my own? Ugh, goddamit, Schwab!
• Addie’s stubbornness: I mean, we stan a queen who rejects the devil.
• The ending. Kind of. I think this was the best possible ending for the book, and while it left me wanting, I couldn’t really see any other way to wrap things up. (Though I will say, where the ending left off is really where I would’ve liked this book to start.)

• This book was so lonely. Which, I mean, is the point. But sadly, I’m just too fragile. Watching Addie drift through life without any roots, any connections, was so heartbreaking. Each time someone forgot her, my heart broke a little more for her. I guess I’m just not equipped to handle so much emotional pain!
• I didn’t feel any serious connections to any of the characters. Okay, I know I just said that I felt sad for Addie, but other than that, I didn’t really care much about what happened to her. Other than a strong desire not to die, I feel like neither Henry nor Addie had any other personality characteristics.
• The “darkness”/Luc: He was SO wishy-washy! Like, are you good? Are you bad? Are you just a simp for Addie and otherwise totally demonic? What is going on, dude?
• The way that the entire book was SO westernized. I’d like to point everyone to an absolutely wonderful review that goes in-depth on this topic by Read at Midnight, which you can find here. In this review, Aentee discusses the white-washing of Addie’s history and her entire lack of desire to feature POC and non-western culture whatsoever. It’s a very well-written and thoughtful review that I encourage you to check out!

**SPOILERS BELOW!!!**

• I didn’t love how Addie settled upon “the long game” of destroying Luc. Like, I know I said this book isn’t girl-and-devil-fall-in-love, but it also kind of is, and I feel like V.E. Schwab could’ve leaned into that at the end for a more satisfying conclusion. I don’t buy for a second that Addie didn’t fall in love with Luc throughout those 300 years, and I personally don’t have a problem with my characters embracing the darkness and becoming a bit more morally ambiguous. Addie had her “human love”, and I would’ve enjoyed seeing her be like “yeet!” and decide to be with Luc for real.

**SPOILERS OVER!!!**

I liked this, I did. But I don’t see myself ever rereading it. It’s just a bit too sad, a bit too flowery.

My rating:

Have you read Addie LaRue yet? What were your thoughts??

Thank you for reading, my friends! (: