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

Posted On March 31, 2021

Hi Readers! I am back with another book review and this time it’s for a book I truly enjoyed & loved reading! I wanted to read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue since months. I kept seeing it everywhere & moreover I saw a lot of 4 & 5 star reviews, which was a happy thing to witness. I used this last long weekend to finish this long book in 3 days! This story is a combination of fantasy, romantic fantasy, historical fiction & magical realism. Fascinating, isn’t it?

 

~~INTRODUCTION~~

As Goodreads describes, “A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.” Such is the story of Addie LaRue. Born in 1700s, Addie makes a deal with the devil for her freedom. The cunning & intelligent shadow monster Luc gives Addie immortal freedom but with a cost. No one she meets will ever remember her, in this way she is not bound to anyone and is in fact free, but it’s a lonely freedom. We see the narrative from 1700s where Addie struggles with this big change in her life. In a parallel narrative in 2014, we watch 300+ year old Addie falling in love with someone who finally remembers her.

It’s an impossible love story between star-crossed soul mates. It’s a coming-of-age story in a fantasy world. It’s a story of how humans are the only superior creatures capable of love. It’s a story with miraculous characters, timeless beauty of time itself, daunting emotions & so much in between. It’s a story of grit, determination, sentiments & above all time.

~~INSIGHTFUL QUESTIONS~~

“Do you ever feel like you’re running out of time?”

 

“Do you think a life has any value if one doesn’t leave some mark upon the world?”

 

“Would you rather feel nothing or everything?”

 

“But isn’t it wonderful,” she says, “to be an idea?”

“Choosing a class became choosing a discipline, and choosing a discipline became choosing a career, and choosing a career became choosing a life, and how was anyone supposed to do that, when you only had one?”

 

“Why would anyone trade a lifetime of talent for a few years of glory?”

 

“How could you give up so much for so little?”

 

“Were the instants of joy worth the stretches of sorrow?

Were the moments of beauty worth the years of pain?”

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

~~CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT~~

After recently reading ‘The Four Winds’ which had zero character development, I was ecstatic to read an incredible arc in all the characters in this novel. Starting with Addie LaRue, she changed from Adeline to a million different names to finally fit into herself as Addie. Because of dual story telling as per the years, this progression is all the more evident. In 1714, we see her struggling through her new invisible identity, but then 300 years later, she becomes competent at it. Throughout the novel, we can see the change in her, how she grew & then how intelligent she was in the ending. With this growth, she also kept visiting Villon Sur-Sarthe, her hometown, which even though is a minor detail, but also quite vital. I cannot state how much I loved this character. I would read everything that has Addie LaRue in it.

After the first chapter, we get to meet Henry Strauss, Addie’s great love. I think Henry was introduced at the perfect moment, which created an increased appeal towards him. All this time, I was fascinated by Addie, and then Henry came up like a breath of fresh hair. Reading about his life, his thoughts, his perception towards everything was something I found to be the most human element of the story. To read about his fears, hopes, regrets, anxieties & phobias! We have Addie to magically glamorise the story & then we have Henry who is simply the most relatable character. And this combination struck the perfect symphony for me.

Not forgetting our shadow devil of the story named Luc. While Addie had an amazing story arc & Henry had the human relatable touch, I think Luc brought his consistency to the story. He was a devil when he made a deal with Addie & he was a devil at the end when he took ownership of Addie. In between, there were times when he showed some feelings of lust & jealousy even. I’m glad it did not last, because after all he is not human. He was not able to sacrifice himself for his love, which was an integral part of the story.

I loved so many little things in the story & I am not going to shy away from them. I loved how characters are casually shown as bisexual & gay & lesbians. The way they naturally introduced it without making it a big deal was so eye-opening. So normal, as it should always be.

And the last thing about the characters ‘ I loved all of Henry’s friends! They are all artists & are worth something. Usually, the friends in novels are not worth anything & are almost always lame or too messed up. But here even the minor characters of Bea & Robbie are shown to be such creative geniuses, which fits perfectly with Addie’s-life-in-art angle.

~~WRITING STYLE~~

As I mentioned in the introduction, the narrative is split into two parts where the story goes in parallel. We have the 1714 onward years which finally catch up to the second narrative of the year 2014. What I enjoyed is how perfectly balanced the story was in both these eras. The older period is longer to form a foundation with the readers so that we understand exactly how Addie’s life worked & how she survived when no one remembered her. Once we got a gist of it, the later years are skipped with a gap of 30-40 years in between, which somehow works! And lastly, the 2014 era story is coupled with romance & drama & suspense, which was a great reading experience. The entire story is written amazingly well & the ending ties up perfectly too.

I cannot state how much I loved the art angle in the story. Art was the perfect way for Addie to prove her existence. Also, how each piece connected to the other with those 7 freckles on her nose ‘ incredible! Ideas are indeed wilder than memories! This aspect gave an extra edge to an already fascinating story.

The only problem I had was that the book could have been a bit shorter with less unnecessary details. Chapter 2 and 3 where there is not a lot happening, felt too long & also boring. If it were a bit shorter or had an additional element with the current number of pages, then it would have gotten 5 stars from me.

~~SENTIMENTAL QUOTIENT~~

For a powerful invisible ghost person, Addie LaRue sure knew how to express her emotions. Every time after meeting someone new, she had an iota of hope that maybe this person will remember her. That iota of hope is what made her so human, even though she was 300 years old. The times when she visited her hometown and allowed it to wreck her was something different to read in such a novel. The way she met her aged mother who didn’t recognise her. The way she planted a tree at Estelle’s grave. The way she felt such a tide of sorrow over the death of her closest people who could not remember her. All those emotional chapters were impossible to read, which shows how soaked a reader gets into this novel.

 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was everything that I hoped it would be. I definitely recommend it if you love reading about fantasy or magical realism & love a character-inspired plot. I gave rated it at 4/5 stars!

 

Until next time,