Member Review

The first thing that is immediately evident about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is that V. E. Schwab has raised the bar on her writing. I am a huge fan of Schwab's books and I've read the majority of the 800 books she has published; some of them more than once and some I've attempted to read in different languages despite only being able to read English fluently. I have always enjoyed her writing style especially in her more speculative works like the Villains series and Monsters of Verity series. Schwab is a conceptual creative, in that I imagine a lot of her stories start out with her sitting down with a notebook and asking a 'what if?' question and then building characters and plot around that concept. This is probably the reason that some reviewers often say that they enjoy her ideas more than the execution of those ideas; the idea might be enough to draw a reader in but it's not going to carry them through the story if they don't get along with her writing style. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is very clearly a Schwab book, but elevated in all aspects.

The premise of Addie LaRue is grand in scale, we're following 300 years of a person's life and the blurb promises a 'dazzling adventure' whereas what we actually get is a lot of quiet and slow introspection about the nature of time and legacy. The reason I call out the blurb is because for the first third of this book I was a little bit bored. I was expecting a 'dazzling adventure' and I absolutely did not feel like I was getting that at all. Unless 'dazzling adventure' was supposed to be referring to the significant moments in Addie's long life being defined by the people that she had sexual relationships with (more on this later) or having the same conversation over and over with the "devil" that cursed her? If so, dazzled I was not. For the first third of this book I was hovering between 2 and 3 stars, and I was quite disappointed because this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. It was not until the second third that I felt my preconceived expectations start to dissolve and I began to adapt to the story I was actually getting. Addie's life was monotonous and repetitive for a big chunk of the book because she is experiencing the ennui of living forever, being forgotten by everyone she meets and being unable to leave her mark on the world... until she meets bookseller Henry and he says the words 'I remember you.'

From there the pacing does pick up, but it is unlikely that anyone will ever describe this as a fast paced book. It is still extremely slow paced even after the main plot kicks in, yet it is the intrigue of Addie's curse and her relationship with both Henry and the "devil" that keep you reading. In addition to that, Schwab's prose, as she unpacked the concepts of time and legacy, were particularly engaging; so much so that I was very eager to get to the 'conclusion' of her 'hypothesis.'

This book is not for the cynics. If you tend to sneer at character led stories where the focus is upon emotion, you will not enjoy this book. You'll likely view Addie and Henry's relationship as a montage of manic-pixie-dream-people doing random hipster cool things in New York whilst woeing-is-me their life choices. And, I say that as someone who thought this more than once because I can be a bit cynical but I also enjoy character led stories based upon emotion, what a dilemma! Despite the fact that I did have these thoughts, I also think it's a an unfair critique; it completely disregards the nuance of the story and misinterprets what the manic-pixie-dream archetype actually is. I had to forcibly disregard the cynical part of my brain whilst reading, which got easier as the story went on.

There were also many occasions where I felt like I was being overly analytical, especially when it came to the mechanics of the curse itself. I loved that we were slowly given more details about how the curse worked throughout the course of the story. Schwab is excellent at world building as if there are actual building blocks; you don't get the full picture until you reach the end. However, there were times when I found myself asking things like 'does she follow them to the bathroom so they don't forget her whilst they pee?' and 'what happens if they step through a threshold just before she steps through?' and 'do they only interact with her because they can see her? What if someone is visually impaired?' and 'what happens if someone looks away from her for a period of time does proximity cancel out sight?' and the list goes on. Some of the questions that I had were answered but oftentimes these answers raised more questions, or the questions themselves were throwing me out of the story. So I got to the point where I just decided that it didn't matter and went with it and I'm so glad I did because I got so much more enjoyment out of the story that way.

The final third of this book most resembles the story that I was expecting to get before I started reading. The atmosphere becomes more fraught and heady, the tension becomes more acute, and the stakes become unstoppable. By this point I had thrown out all of my earlier criticisms and I was fully invested. Where prior to the final act I would have said it was a bit of a slog to get there I now look at it like a journey. The desperation of the situation was palpable and thrilling. I cried a lot. Would I have preferred this kind of intensity throughout the whole book? Maybe. But, I think that would detract away from the impact of the final act and also force the book to be something that it is not.

One thing that I'll be thinking about a lot when it comes to this book is the exploration of sexuality, both sexual fluidity and the act of sex itself. Schwab's representation of cis allo bisexuality was really well done. I think there is sometimes a bit of trepidation with showing bisexual people having a lot of sex with multiple different people through fear of playing into the bisexual greed stereotype, but Schwab is extremely respectful and truthful about bisexuality, whilst also not shying away from how sometimes sex can just be sex or it can be a transaction where one party consents to the act in order to receive something in return or it can be about emotion and love. Addie uses her sexuality in various ways throughout the book, to the point where you could probably write a full dissertation about it - especially when it comes to the way in which sexual experiences have defined certain parts of her life.

This seems like a really negative five star review but I'm hoping it will be helpful to people who might be tempted to DNF this book early on. My advice is to try and rid yourself of any expectations relating to 'dazzling adventures' or 'a girl in love with the devil that cursed her.' Read this book when you're feeling a bit decadent, read this book when you're feeling like you want to get lost in the woods and think about life, read this book when you're panicking about getting older, read this book when you need creative motivation. Whatever you do, read this book to the end.