This is a hard one to write. The easy part is to start off by saying thank you, to NetGalley and Tor/ Macmillan, and to Ms. Schwab, for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of the title. An honest review was requested but not technically required.

I had high, high, hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh hopes for this. Ms. Schwab is a terrific author and by and large I have vastly enjoyed the things she's written. I do think that this is, technically speaking, her best book yet. Her writing is so lyrical and evocative it's practically poetry. Her characters are multidimensional and well constructed. And yet, and yet.

I guess it comes down to personal preference in the end. I enjoy fantasy, and Ms. Schwab is certainly a master. This... veered away from fantasy. Sure, it has an immortal woman who made a deal with - if not the devil, then the darkness? - but it read more like straight fiction, which is not what I came for. It certainly had a modern feel, with people "feeing seen" [I dislike that phrase for some reason] and the (correctly) casual acceptance of the gender and sexual spectrum. It was deep and even sort of meta. Overwhelmingly, it had a French flavor, in the classically stereotypical bittersweet simultaneous "je repars à zero" and "non, je ne regrette rien" kind of way, which is appropriate considering Addie's provenance and history. It was a beautiful book. It just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

I thought it was going to be a fantasy in which Adeline fell, over the course of tumultuous exchanges and many free spirited years, in love with the darkness.

It was not.

Maybe it was a combination of getting my hopes up too high and having something else in mind? Like being so so so so so excited to see Avengers Endgame only to find you've been taken to the theater to see Wonder Woman instead. It's not that Wonder Woman is a bad movie, or even that it's so very different in genre, and in fact I enjoyed Wonder Woman a lot. It just isn't what I was in the mood for.

After all, I gave Invisible Life 4 stars. It's not a bad book; quite the opposite, it was beautifully written, moving, and entertaining, and I'm sure will be very popular. It's definitely a master work from Ms. Schwab, who keeps improving with every new title. I have to be honest and acknowledge how very good it was.

I just thought this was going to be my very favorite new book of the year, is all. It's up there, I certainly enjoyed it, but I don't think it topped A Deadly Education.

The nitty-gritty: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is pure magic, a grand yet intimate and emotional tale of art, love and memories, told as only V.E. Schwab can tell it.

A new V.E. Schwab book is always cause for celebration, but this time the celebration is well earned. This might be my favorite of her books to date, although I still have a special place in my heart for Vicious. I believe I read somewhere that Schwab has been working on Addie LaRue for the past ten years, and it shows. This is the author at the top of her game, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is her masterpiece. This book is so carefully constructed, each theme developed to perfection, each piece of the puzzle placed just so, and it all adds up to a spectacular reading experience.

The story begins in 1714 in the small village of Villon-sur-Sarthe in France. Adeline LaRue is twenty-three and it’s the night before her wedding, a wedding she’s being forced into by her family. Addie can clearly see the future she’ll have once married: a life of drudgery, taking care of babies and a husband she doesn’t love, and worst of all, stuck in Villon for the rest of her life. She wants nothing to do with any of that, and so she calls upon a demon in order to strike a deal: she agrees to offer up her soul if she can live a life of freedom. The demon, who we come to know as Luc later in the story, agrees to the deal, but he adds a cruel twist: Addie will be immortal and cannot die, but everyone she meets will forget who she is once they turn away from her.

We then jump ahead to the present day, New York City 2014. Addie has lived her strange life for three hundred years and has managed to be happy, despite the challenges she faces. One day she stumbles upon a hidden bookstore called The Last Word, and when she tries to steal a copy of The Odyssey—because that is the only way she can acquire things, by stealing—a young man named Henry Strauss catches her in the act. Addie talks her way out of it and Henry ends up letting her take the book home, but when she returns the next day to give it back, she’s shocked to discover that Henry actually remembers her from the day before. Henry and Addie are immediately drawn to each other and begin a relationship, but Addie knows her secret is bound to get out eventually. And of course, once Henry discovers the truth, Addie finds out that he has one of his own.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is crafted. Not only is Schwab’s prose simply glorious, but she’s meticulously created a work of art. The story jumps back and forth from the present to the past, covering a span of three hundred years, as Addie gradually learns the ins and outs of her “curse,” as she refers to it, figuring out what she can and can’t do. Often multiple timeline stories can be confusing, but Schwab never once lost me, and in fact, these time jumps added so much to the story. And speaking of art, one of Schwab’s overarching themes is that of art and how it immortalizes life. Because of her curse, Addie can’t leave a mark at all: she isn’t able to hold a pen and write, she can’t draw or appear in photographs, she can’t even tell her story out loud to someone else. But over the years, she has some remarkable moments with artists who are able to at least capture her essence on paper. In that way, she has left her mark on the world, and in doing so she feels as if she’s found a way to cheat Luc and the curse.

Addie is a marvelous character, and I loved the way she grew over time. Her curse is a double edged sword—she gets to live forever and experience the history of the world, but she’s also extremely lonely and unable to form any lasting personal bonds. It doesn’t take long to discover that being invisible means she can’t find a permanent home or buy food or clothing, and so she struggles in the beginning to survive, which is ironic since she can’t die. But little by little, Addie finds ways to make her odd life work, and she flourishes. I loved her tenacity and drive to live life to its fullest, even with the restrictions that the curse has put on her. And when Luc appears each year on the anniversary of the deal and tries to bully Addie into giving up her soul, she resists each time.

Some of my favorite parts of the story were the snapshots of the different times in history. Addie lives through wars, plagues, and inventions. She sees opera for the first time, flees Paris during the war, meets famous writers and artists and much more. Schwab takes full advantage of those three hundred years and gives us an ambitious story that spans history, all with one smart and resilient girl as witness. People may not remember Addie, but Addie never forgets anything, and this dichotomy was one reason I loved this book so much. 

And while I loved Henry and his budding relationship with Addie, it was Luc who ended up seducing me. Make no mistake, Luc is the devil himself (and in fact we get to witness him steal a soul) and he’s only out for one thing: to take the soul he’s been promised. But I loved the subtle shift in his personality over time, and he ended up really surprising me. Addie and Luc have a constant dance they do when they are together, a competition of sorts to see who will win, and these moments are full of thrilling tension.

And oh the emotions! Schwab knows how to tug on your heartstrings, and these emotional moments seemed to pop up when I was least expecting them. Addie returns to her hometown in France many years after leaving, only to find that nothing is the same. Addie sees herself in a famous painting and is thrilled to discover in some small way, she’s left a piece of herself behind. And always, there is the sadness that comes each time a lover or friend forgets who she is, the one part of her curse she can’t seem to rise above.

It may sound corny, but Schwab has cast a spell with this book, and I almost wish I could experience reading it again for the first time. Whether or not you are a fan of her other books, I highly recommend you give Addie LaRue a try. You won’t regret it.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

4.5 stars. I confess - I may have had way too high expectations going into this one. Don't get me wrong - it was great! I very much enjoyed reading it and it's not a story I will be forgetting any time soon. But it just wasn't a full 5 star read for me.

This is a Faustian story about a woman who is cursed to be immortal but forgotten by everyone she meets (basically the second she is out of their sight, including if they fall asleep), after she makes a deal with an ancient god who she names Lucifer. The story goes back and forth between the late 17th century moving toward the present, and the "present" (2014) when she meets someone who - for the first time - remembers her, the plotlines meeting together at the end.

It had Hollywood feels akin to Benjamin Button and also the magic meeting by chance of The Golem and the Jinni . I adored the relationship between Addie and Luc. Honestly though, the absolute best romance of this book was the language. Ah, stars, the language! It was so beautiful that there were multiple times I had to stop reading because I was arrested by a sentence and just had to ponder it for a while. I have a ridiculous amount of highlights for this book. It's one of those stories that has turns of phrase and prose that reminds you of why you fell in love with the written word in the first place. For the language, the writing? 5 stars.

I have very complicated feelings about the ending and need my buddy reader to finish this asap so we can discuss it.

Thank you Edelweiss and Tor for the ARC!

My words will never do justice for the girl who is always forgotten but I can never forget! This book is beautiful, captivating, heartbreaking, glorious! My emotions were rolling waves that soared and crashed as I read page after page of V.E.'s gorgeous writing. After 10 pages I was swept away at the beauty of her words. Swept on a journey through history, art, love, longing, memory, and remembrance. This book is a celebration of life even in its moments of despair! I have never read anything like Addie and I doubt I ever will! I will remember you, Addie!

Her best book yet. This was absolutely fantastic and my favorite book ever.

Right from the start, the story is engaging, thought provoking, and full of twists and turns.

Next, the characters are absolutely stunning. I loved every single one of them. They are well developed, lovable, and I literally want to be friends with them.

Lastly, the writing is vivid, beautiful, and I was never confused.

I’d recommend this book to everyone. Though it was fantasy elements, I’d still recommend this one to fans of contemporary and literary fiction.

Review for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Thank you so much to Tor for sending me a NetGalley e-ARC of this to read and review! All opinions are my own.

Trigger Warnings (TW): Depictions of someone with depression, assault, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts.

Summary:
“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 Thoughts

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

There are only so many ways for me to express the fact that I truly feel like this was the story that Schwab was meant to tell.

We start this book, and lifetime, with Addie, a young girl born in the small French town, Villon, who only wants to travel and explore the world, and be free.
When she is told to marry, to settle down, to be stagnant in her hometown, this is a thought she cannot bear.
So what can one do but make a deal with a devil?

This leads her, in the middle of the night, in agony, to seek out some way to get out, to live for herself and to be free. She and Luc strike a deal.

”Don’t you remember, she told him then, when you were nothing but shadow and smoke? Darling, he’d said in his soft, rich way, I was the night itself.”

This is where the trouble begins. Addie will live forever, and the tradeoff is that nobody will ever remember her. Not her parents, not anyone that she has known her whole life. The deal that she makes throws her life upside down, so she flees her hometown in search of somewhere to belong.

I’m going to let everyone else enjoy the rest from here, and not go into spoiler territory. I received this ARC, screamed and cried with joy, and then read it until it was far past dark. Then I reread it in order to catch all of the perfectly interwoven details that I’d missed the first time around.

There are some amazing characters in here, and while we do mostly follow Addie, we do meet a boy named Henry, who is the only person who has ever remembered Addie.

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

Henry struggles with depression, and as someone who also struggles with depression, there were many points in this story where I felt very seen. Everyone’s mental health struggles are their own, so I do not speak for everyone who deals with depression.

There is also queer rep, Addie has relationships with both men and women over time, as does Henry, though I believe he might be pansexual (but I’m not 100% sure).

I think that once you have read this through the first time, that on the second go round you catch so many hints and things you wouldn’t have even second guessed were important upon a first read.
This is where Schwab’s brilliance really comes to light in my opinion.
I can go on and on about representation and the huge character study that this book is, but every time I am able to read something new from Schwab, it’s the little things that are so subtly woven into the story that gets me to fall in love with it.
The amount of detail and care, and pure love that she puts into her work is what has kept me consistently reading and enjoying her work.


Overall (TLDR)
If you are ready to take your time, and really sink into this book, come to love these characters and their struggles, you will enjoy this. It will sucker punch you in the chest, but you’ll be left wanting to read it again. Once you’re done crying.

Schwab knocks it out of the park with her prose, her character work, and all of the stunning small details that are interwoven so brilliantly. I could quote the lyrical prose, and fill an entire notebook with memorable quotes, but this is a story I want every single person to experience in their own way. I think that this entire book is a pure work of art, and Addie LaRue is someone you will never forget.

All quotes are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication

This beautiful book tells the story of a young woman's evolution throughout her first 300 years of immortality, where she can't make a mark on the world or be remembered by others. This would have been the perfect opportunity for a different author to place Addie into historical high-points - a la Forrest Gump - but this isn't that kind of book, thankfully. Instead, Addie experiences the times she lives in as a real person might and though she influences artists who become significant in the universe of the book, it never feels like a cute time-travel-type gimmick. Her love story with the one person who can remember her is emotional and passionate, but the almost pragmatic Addie of the book's ending was a surprise and an exciting revelation.

I don't even know where to begin with this beautiful book! I don't think I have the right words to do it justice because V.E. Schwab writes with such poetry and vividness. I bow down to her.

The plot is so different and takes you to so many places seamlessly. Addie is filled with contradictions and she is so incomparable to any other character I have read. Her lust for life and freedom delivers us into a world that changes and we follow along. Henry, oh Henry, my heart was full when they were together. Luc, oh Luc, I can understand being swept up in the mystery but boy, did I want to see him disappear so many times throughout the story. Everything comes with a price, especially your soul, and yes, there were tears but there was also a deep satisfaction in how things ended. (for now)

My daughter is a big fan and I had never read any of her books before but I definitely will be. She has a way with her descriptions that sweeps you up like a tornado and brings you back down with an understanding that you might not have had before.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor/Forge for an advance copy of this fantastic book.

A bargain sought in youth only to regret ? Thus is the option of Addie who comes to understand only to well bargains made with a devils twist will take many lifetimes to regret. It is the character and circumstances that carve out the world she lives in and comes to in the end embrace. Only to have to see them gone and her starting over again and again.

Epic love story or epic battle of wills?
An interesting story of the idea of immortality and how humans leave their mark in the world.

This might be in my top 10 for the year. I loved Addie's journey. I love the setting and how deeply I felt for her. It felt just right for fall with the dark and the magic and the relationships that she creatively built over time. This story is just perfect for a reader who likes a big story with twists and turns but also needs to feel for the characters.

I didn’t want this book to end. Both the characters and ideas presented, while not totally original, were given a new and fresh and compelling presence. I so admired Addy who, finding herself in the loneliest and most desperate situation, persevered and thrived through cleverness, resourcefulness, strength and determination—while also never losing a sense of wonder and delight. Over the course of 300 years, Addy continues to find opportunities to learn and delight in finding something new. “Cursed” with being forgettable, Addy finds ways to leave her mark on the world over and over, having embraced the realization that “ideas are wilder than memories.” The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue will offer book clubs so many things to ponder and discuss. And I love the constellation of freckles the identifies Addy throughout the ages and its clever use on the book cover. All in all, a story to be savored and shared!

Honestly, I am not fully ready to review this book yet because I am so blown away by the entirety of it. It was so unlike anything else I have read and completely memorable. All of that being said, this book was a slow burn throughout which I enjoyed the journey and the destination. You can just feel the love and care that went into every sentence in this book and the love and suffering that Addie goes through is resonant.

I will be coming back to write more of a review once my heart calms down but for now, I am rocked to my core.

*Thank you Tor Books for the eARC from Netgalley.

Addie LaRue makes a bargain with one of the Gods she has been warned to stay away from. When Addie is about to be forced into a life that she does not want, she knows that a sacrifice must be made in order for her to have freedom. What Addie does not know is that her new life will be a lonely life filled with struggle. Addie soon realizes how great the cost is as she gives up her name and presence since no one can remember her as soon as she is out of view.

This book is a masterpiece. I would describe this book as a story of life, journey, loss, and happiness with a small blend of fantastical elements. Do not expect a high fantasy story with a rush of action. This is not that. This is a story of a girl who must journey to find herself. Our main character goes through so much as she learns how hard it can be just to survive.

I loved reading about Addie’s journey. Addie is pretty naive in the beginning, but we see her go through so much as she evolves into the strong woman she is in current time. I loved being able to see both Addie’s past and present. I love how Victoria Schwab blends history into this story. Addie goes through so much and while struggle is definitely present we still see how much these events change her and how she still manages to leave her own presence behind, even if it is in small ways.

I loved all the characters and their roles in the story. It was so interesting to see Addie at different points in her life with different people.

This is a journey book at its finest. I loved the small blend of fantasy that is paired with the plot. This is a book about a young girl finding herself and living despite everything that tries to stop her.

I'm a big Schwab fan so went in with very high expectations and she blew it out of the park. I know Schwab fans will love this, but will also be an easy sell to people who haven't read her before.

V.E.Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a charming, thoughtful, sometimes-dark, sometimes moving, story about memory, love, rash decisions, female agency, stubborn defiance, mortality, resilience, and the power of art. In this time of Covid, a novel focused so much on the desire for human contact and fear of dying without leaving “a mark” is especially timely, though Addie LaRue would have been a highly recommended book in any other year.

Addie LaRue is a young woman in 18th Century France who yearns to be her own person, like the old woman outside town, Estele, “who belongs to everyone, and no one, and herself” and who is said by her mother to be bound for hell and by her father to be mad. But Addie wants nothing so much as Estele’s kind of freedom and wisdom, as opposed to her mother’s attempts to make her more like “Isabelle Therault, sweet and kind and utterly incurious, content to keep her eyes down upon her knitting instead of looking up at clouds, instead of wondering what’s around the bend, over the hills.”

This being 18th Century France, though, what Addie wants is of little account, as when she turns 23, she is “gifted like a prize sow to a man she does not love, or want, or even know.” Nor is there anyone she can turn to for help: “Her mother said it was duty. Her father said it was mercy . . . Estele said nothing, because she knew it wasn’t fair. Knew this was the risk of being a woman.”

But on the night of her wedding, when “the church bell tolls the same low tone it calls at funerals,” Addie does find, if not an ally, someone who can at least get her out of this trap. One of what Estele calls the old gods, though she’d always warned Addie against those who answered “after dark.” Desperate times call for desperate measures, though, and so Addie makes her wish: “I do not want to belong to someone else . . . I want to be free … to find my own way . . . I am so tired of not having choices . . . I want more time,” sealing the bargain with “You can have my soul when I don’t want it anymore.”

And so it is done. But as all the stories note, such bargains are never what they seem. The “freedom” the old god (called Luc by Addie) bestows on her is the curse of being forgotten by all she meets so that she moves through the world wholly untethered, leaving no mark — not in the minds of people she encounters, not on the physical world she moves through.
When she spills wine on a sofa, “She simply watches as the stain soaks in, and through, and disappears. As if it was never there. As if she was never there.” When she “upsets a tiny pot of varnish, spilling the precious oil onto her father’s notes . . . The parchment lies unmarked, untouched … Only her hands are stained.”

Addie LaRue is a dual-stranded novel, with alternating chapters following Addie either from the 1700s to the near-present or during a single year from 2013 to 2014. Across that span of centuries, Addie is at varying times enraptured and devastated by her vow. In the earliest stages, she is merely sussing out the actual logistics of things, as when she returns one day to her home: ““Fifty years and she is still learning the shape of her curse. She cannot make a thing, but she can use it. She cannot break a thing, but she can steal it. She cannot start a fire, but she can keep it going.” Later, she finds ways to make her gift/curse work for her (as when she “meets” a noblewoman multiple times, the woman always forgetting her, until Addie gets the meet right so that she is taken in by the lady).

She also figures out a loophole in the “can’t leave a mark” aspect — art. Something she realizes after being sketched: ““her image will still be there, charcoal on parchment, a palimpsest beneath a finished work. It will be real, and so will she.” This epiphany extends her long war with Luc, who had at first shown up once a year, sure she’d be ready to give up. But she has proven more stubbornly resilient than he’d expected: “I have found a way to leave a mark … You though you could erase me from this world, but you cannot.”

The biggest shift in her long life though, comes when she, for the first time ever, meets someone (Henry) who remembers her. This is the 2014 story, and I won’t say anything more about that save to say that Henry’s ability to remember her is a mystery ((eventually explained), a source of joy and tragedy, and a catalyst for change with regards to Addie’s view toward her life and her relationship with Luc.

Addie LaRue is a character and theme-driven book more than an action one. Suspense comes into play with regards to how Addie lives to the 2000s, why Henry can remember her, and whether or not Addie will give in to Luc (who can be both suavely charming and terrifying). But mostly it’s a character study of both Addie and Henry (though this is clearly mostly Addie’s story, as well as an exploration of a host of ideas.

The agency of women, as noted above, is one. Something we see not only in the 1700s, but later as well, as when Addie passes herself off as male, because “Freedom is a pair of trousers and a buttoned coat. A man’s tunic and a tricorne hat … 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.” The concept is not always so bluntly stated though; even Addie’s curse, for example, can be read as a clear metaphor for how women (and we’re talking present-day as well) are often treated as “invisible,” are often “forgotten,” written out of history, denied recognition and honor (Rosalind Franklin, Lisa Meitner, and a dismayingly long list of others) or just ignored day-to-day. In the world of “Me Too,” Addie’s recognition of “how much the word [no] was worth” coming from a woman in 1714 is hardly an obsolete discovery. Even Addie’s recognition that “Being forgotten is a bit like going mad. You begin to wonder what is real, if you are real,” calls up stories like “The Yellow Wallpaper” or the classic madwoman-in-the-attic tales.

All this means that being basically immortal doesn’t lead to her galivanting around the world like a man would have been able to: “She watches these men and wonders anew at how open the world is to them, how easy the thresholds.” This also means this isn’t an historical fiction novel with Addie thrown into all the major events she lives through, a la Zellig (look him up youngsters).

The character study of Henry, meanwhile, is smaller, more on a human-scale as opposed to a societal or cosmic one (a battle between two immortals, one once-human and other that might be a god, the devil, or a demon). His is the anxiety of daily insecurity, of mounting anxiety that alone amongst those around you, you’re the one who doesn’t know what to do with life, what to be, what to become, what to choose (partly because to choose one is to reject the other options). It’s a wholly different kind of story than Addie’s, but it’s also admittedly a fine line to walk between a story that is relatable and empathy-evoking and one that is wince-inducing thanks to being about some whiny privileged-with-choices white boy. Luckily, Schwab is (mostly) able to sidestep the latter pitfalls. I also liked how Schwab not only presents his and Addie’s relationship as gentle and tender, but also gives us the a less “shiny” but more realistic aspect of having Addie trying to figure out if this is real love or just joy at finding someone whom she can actually interact with. Both of them, in fact, all three of them (Luc is a pleasant surprise in terms of his complexity) have to distinguish between what they really feel/ need and what they’re driven to think they feel/need by the crushing weight of loneliness (years’-old for Henry, centuries’-old for Addie, and millenniums’-worth for Luc).

The writing is another strong point of the book. I particularly loved Schwab’s use of metaphor, as when Addie thinks “she would rather be a tree . . . left to flourish wild instead of pruned . . . better that than firewood, cut down just to burn in someone else’s hearth.” A metaphor that Schwab returns to multiple times — when Addie is forced into marriage “Adeline was going to be a tree, and instead, people have come brandishing an axe” or when she herself plants a tree on Estele’s grave and then returns to see it change over the centuries. Another lovely metaphor occurs when Addie mourns that, “She never get closure, never gets to say good-byes — no periods, or exclamations, just a lifetime of ellipses. Everyone starts over, they get a blank page, but hers are full of text.”

That image is a constant refrain in the novel, as Schwab makes liberal use of the word “palimpsest” (a half-dozens times in the book), which refers to a page (or something similar) that has been erased to be used again, though one can still discern traces of the old text/drawing beneath the new. The connection is clear, and even when Schwab doesn’t use the word itself she uses similar imagery — the above referenced wine and ink, a description of her family’s home after a half-century as “New clothes laid over old bones,” or Addie’s feeling of, “The present folding on top of the past instead of erasing it, replacing it.”

The book is rife with these sort of motifs and allusions (I love motifs and allusions): references to doors being locked against her, to Dorian Gray, The Tempest, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, maybe The Seventh Seal, and others. Sometimes, I confess, I did wish Schwab had let the reader make some of the connections themselves or wasn’t quite so blunt in usage. The Dorian Gray line, for instance. Or when Addie visits a museum and thinks how she “feels like a museum sometimes, one only she can visit.” I already had made that recognition. And while I think Schwab gives us an absolutely killer ending (or near ending), I also wished she hadn’t gone down another path at the end, a sort of meta-fictional one that I won’t divulge save to say it involves a book. Finally, it’s possible the novel goes on a little long; I did feel a bit repetitive toward the end.

But those were relatively minor complaints. Overall, The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue was one of my favorite reads in the last half-year or so thanks to its characterization, themes, and craft, and I certainly highly recommend it.

It has been a long time since a book has made me cry this much. I give high praise to authors that are capable of making me shed a tear or two. I’m so glad Schwab decided to publish this after many years, and that I was able to read and fall in love with Addie LaRue.
This story of a girl who just wants to be known and remembered was tragical, poetic, and heartbreaking. It made me think about my own life and how short it truly is. This story had a poetic rhythm that made the story feel so real. I felt as though I was reading a eulogy of a girl once forget but then, after three hundred years, she is finally known.
Addie’s persistence to prove to Luc that her decision, while trying every minute of every day, wasn’t the wrong decision. She is a stubborn, strong woman that is capable of so much. Her relationship with Henry was so romantic and a fairytale-esque feeling about it, and she absolutely deserved it after the prior centuries she had to endure. She shows that if you just keep moving forward and never giving up, something good will come.
I think the ending was prefect. The perfect way to end a tragical tale. I remember you. I will always remember this book and Addie LaRue. Victoria Schwab, you have done it again. You have written a heartbreaking tale that no one will ever be able to forget.

Rating: 5 stars

My review can be found at https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr266752

V.E. Schwab, author of children's books and the bestselling Shades of Magic series, returns with a magical realism novel geared toward adults.

In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, readers follow the eponymous heroine through history, from rural 18th-century France to modern-day New York City. As a child, Addie is told by an older friend and mentor, "No matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark." When a crisis unfolds, though, she does the unthinkable and summons the type of being she was specifically told to avoid. She tells the creature (it's not clear if he's a demon, a god, or Satan himself), "I want a chance to live. I want to be free...I want more time," and with that, she sells her soul. Such Faustian bargains are never straightforward, and what Addie doesn't realize is that while the deal means she'll live precisely as long as she wants to, the flipside is that she will leave no mark of her passage, no proof she existed; she is cursed to be forgotten through all time. The story follows her escapades over the next 300 years until something remarkable happens in New York City in 2014: someone remembers her.

Addie's antagonist, whom she names Luc, always visits her on the anniversary of their agreement to ask if she's ready to give up her soul yet (at which point her body would die). Of course, the stubborn young woman refuses each time. The plot bounces back and forth between these visits and Addie's life in 2014. After the initial setup, the chapters occurring in the past illustrate how she learns to adapt to her curse while simultaneously exploiting its loopholes and actively seeking to thwart Luc's decree that she be completely forgotten. (She can't write a song, for example, but she can inspire others to do so, thereby leaving subtle traces of her presence throughout time.) Although she experiences history — she's in France for the Revolution and in Germany during World War II — the book contains surprisingly little historical background, with the focus of these chapters remaining solely on Addie, the curse and her love-hate relationship with Luc, the one "person" who knows her. As the plot progresses, the emphasis gradually shifts to the present and the mystery of why one person seems immune to the spell.

Everything about the novel is stellar, from the pacing to the characters to the exceptionally well-thought-out plot. Schwab's writing, too, is superb, convincingly reflecting the longing at her heroine's core while at the same time being beautifully descriptive. Indeed, I'm hard-pressed to come up with any flaws in this novel at all. At times reading like a fairy tale, at others like a romance, I enjoyed every minute; I still smile when I think about it — truly the sign of a great read.

At the risk of pigeon-holing The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue as "chick lit" (a label that belies the book's depth), I imagine the plot, with its strong heroine and romantic leaning, will appeal most to female readers. I wholeheartedly recommend it for a broad audience, though, as a feel-good and overall charming read. The novel would also be an excellent choice for book groups, as it raises many wonderful topics for discussion, such as the lengths one might go to for love or what one might do with eternal life.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a genre defying book that is beautifully written and completely captivating. There is a touch of fantasy and a touch of historical fiction, but I thought it read more like literary fiction than anything else. I heard that Schwab spend 9 years crafting this novel, and her time and effort are evident in the poetic writing and thoughtful construction of the story.

Addie LaRue, desperate to escape an arranged marriage, makes a deal with the darkness. The deal is he will help her escape her marriage and allow her to freely live forever. Unfortunately the deal comes with a curse: everyone who meets Addie will forget her as soon as she is out of their sight. After living under this deal/curse for nearly 300 years, Addie finally meets someone who could change everything.

The story jumps around between different time periods in Addie's life, and I thought this was an effective storytelling method. Especially as the novel nears the end, it is interesting how the story lines all start to come together. This is an epic novel that spans more than 300 years, and it is expertly crafted from start to finish. This story is just so original and unique, and I can't think of anything that I have ever read quite like it!

The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that the pacing is pretty slow. It's definitely a slow burn kind of story, which is not bad. But there were some moments in the second half where I grew restless and ready for something to happen already! Since no one remembers Addie, her life is very repetitive and the story had some moments where it felt repetitive.

But really I was just holding my breath through the whole book to see how it ended. It's such a big story in scope and ambition, how would it all wrap up by the end? I won't spoil the ending of course, but I was very satisfied with the end and thought the last 100 pages or so were the most compelling pages of the whole book.

This is an excellent story that is unique and well-written. I highly recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for sending me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! This book was something else! The world and writing are so gripping. The characters were so sad but poignant and I was unable to forget their stories. It was a slower read for me, I needed to take breaks to gather myself because it really hit my heart. I was constantly intrigued with both Addie and Henry's deal and how it all worked. I couldn't fathom living as Addie had lived and for 300 years. This was really an incredible piece and on another level with the heartfelt writing.