I blink, and half my life is gone.
I do not want to die as I've lived.
Born and Buried in the same ten-meter plot.
- Addie Larue

Book Description :-
France, 1714: in a moment of despiration, a young woman makes a faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Addie Larue has learnt the hard way that deals with the Devil are tricky things. Immortal but eternally invisible and forgotten by people, Addie exists only as a muse for artists throughout history. The only person who remembers her is the Devil himself. Until one day, in a bookstore in New York, she meets a boy who remembers.

✨ THIS BOOK IS A MASTERPIECE !!!
I haven't read anything by V.E. Schhwab before, so I had no idea what to expect from this book. But, Oh My God !! This book was literally like coming up for fresh air !
The story is so unique and so beautifully written, that it makes you go through a series of countless emotions. I laughed, I smiled (like a fool might I add), I cried, and now I am waiting for my physical copy just to savour those moments once again (please don't judge me 🙈).
This book was a slow-paced book, but in a good way. It kept me hooked throughout the journey. The story takes place in two different timelines, but that's the beauty of this book. It just helps you connect more with Addie as you travel back and forth between the pages of her life.
This is a well-crafted book that you need to read atleast once in a lifetime.

I had high expectations for this book, I went into Addie as a fervent Schwab fan after having devoured her 'A Darker Shade of Magic' series, and while the two couldn't be more different, Addie LaRue wormed her way into my heart and soul. I don't think I've ever resonated with a character so much, someone easily forgotten, who lives on the outskirts of society passing every day without making an impact. Addie will always hold a special place in my heart and I know that this is a book that I will return to multiple times.

"When Adeline told the girl about her trip, Isabelle had only shrugged, and said, 'I like it here.' As if you couldn't like one place and want to see another."

Addie doesn't want the life planned out for her. She doesn't simply want to be a wife and mother, never leaving the little town of Villon she has spent all her life in. She knows there are creatures she can make bargains with, but non seem to be listening to her pleas. In an act of desperation, the day of her wedding Addie does the one thing she promised never to do, she wishes to the creatures of the night... and they answer. What follows is the story of a girl who has to learn to adjust to a new world. A world where women are seen as property, where a young girl travelling by herself gives off the wrong idea, and to a world where no one remembers you. Addie learns to traverse this new world, meandering through the years, decades, centuries never leaving so much as a fingerprint until one fateful day when she meets a young man... and her remembers her.

"I remember you.' Three words, large enough to tip the world. I remember you."

There are no words to describe how much I loved this book. It was beautiful, bittersweet and heart breaking. Addie's story resonated with me in a way I struggled to put into words, let alone comprehend. She is unbelievably strong willed, resilient, yet vulnerable and I wonder whether I would have had her strength of character if I were in the same position. She spends so long pondering over whether she should just give in, but she is stubborn to a fault and no matter how much life throws at her she refuses to give into Luc, unwilling to let him win. When she meets Henry and he remembers her my heart leapt with joy, and suspicion. Why now? Why could this one boy remember her when so many others hadn't? Henry is an enigma in of himself, he is a boy who lives every day as if it is his last, always moving, needing new experiences and simply wanting to spend time with his friends and loved ones. And finally we have Luc, the devil in Addie's story. I found myself strangely drawn to him, much like Addie herself. A part of me wanted him to be the redeemable 'bad boy', but another part realised the inevitability of their story. They are the two people in their lives that know the truth of the other, he is the only one who remembers Addie and he uses that weakness, endearing himself to her, making her yearn for the familiarity. He believes he loves Addie, when he really loves the knowledge that being the one person who can say her name will always give him the ability to hold a power over her. That is until Henry.

"But it is a lonely thing, to be forgotten. To remember when no one else does, I remember, whispers the darkness, almost kindly, as if he's not the one who cursed her."

Addie's story is shown to us through her present eye as well as flashbacks, some of which showed just how heart breaking her story is, and others showed her strength of will and reluctance to give into Luc's deal. Schwab also uses the flashbacks to give us little clues that hint at how Addie's story was going to end. We also get to see Henry's POV as well as flashbacks to the past year of his life before he met Addie. We as the reader don't realise how entwined their stories are until we hear Henry's truth. They are polar opposites in more way than one, but it is their similarities that draw them to each other. This is such a hard book to talk about without giving away major spoilers, but I will say that Henry's story and POV are pivotal to the ending of Addie's story.

"Addie has woken up a hundred ways. To frost forming on her skin, and a sun so hot it should have burned. To empty places, and ones that should have been. To wars raging overhead, and the ocean rocking against the hull. To sirens, and city noise, and silence, and once, a snake coiled by her head. But Henry Strauss wakes her with kisses."

I have been a Schwab's writing style for a while now but Addie took it to a whole new level. The writing was delectable, lyrical and has the ability to completely drag you into the story. It takes a special kind of writer and story to not only put you into the book but to have you resonate with the characters that much that you not only feel what they feel, but you become that character. I became Addie when reading this book, I found myself detached from my surroundings, almost taking a step back from my life. And once I finished it took me a long while to get back to normal, to fully appreciate the strength in being known, in being able to make an imprint, however small, on someone's life, of someone knowing my name.

"Being forgotten, she thinks, is a bit like going mad. You begin to wonder what is real, if you are real. After all, how can a thing be real if it cannot be remembered? It's like that Zen Koan, the one about the tree falling in the woods. If no one heard it, did it happen? If a person cannot leave a mark, do they exist?"

Though the ending to Addie may have seemed inevitable, I still spent the whole book praying that it might end differently. Some people may say the ending was left a little open but I loved the ambiguity of it. The feeling that I could be walking down the street one day and see a girl with seven freckles on her face, a constellation, when I would mutter the worlds, I remember Addie.

"Do you know how you live three hundred years?' she says. and when he asks how, she smiles. 'The same way you live one. A second at a time."

Where do I even begin? This book left me with so many emotions and so many thoughts!

Addie is hands down the strongest character I have read this year!
Her refusal to be constrained by her circumstances awed me. She is not the kind of person who will quietly accept her fate, she will fight for what she wants with all she has.

This book was filled with metaphors. Addie's dream to venture outside her tiny village is similar to the dreams of every young girl, in any time period. For wanting something as basic as her own individual freedom, Addie is cursed by the Devil. This seemed uncomfortably similar to the struggles that women go through even today to live an independent life, to dare to dream, and how their dreams get smothered by circumstances. The Devil is quite literally a representation of everything and everyone that comes in the way of the success of many women.
The relationship between Addie and Devil correctly represents any abusive relationship, where the abuser; The Devil in this case; is at times kind and caring, giving an aura of gentleness, but turn to violence and cruelty at the barest hint of dissent.

Addie's spirit is unshakable. She goes through the lowest of low emotions, faces the most gruesome circumstances, is reduced to face unimaginable depravity, just for the sake of her survival. But never once does she give up. Even when she feels lonely enough to crave the company of the Devil, or when she is overwhelmed by the monotony and the temporary nature of her existence, even when she sees humanity at its worst, never once does she give up hope. She clings on to every beautiful thing she experienced. She marvels at the art, at nature, she still craves to experience everything that this world has to offer. By this, she shows unparalleled strength.

Where Addie is the spirit of the story, Henry is the glue that brings this story together. He brings in a gentleness that this story needs, that Addie needs. People have not been kind to Henry, he feels insufficient and unwanted. The world always fails to notice that it needs people like Henry, the calm and gentle souls, to ebb the eccentricities of those around them. Addie and Henry find their true selves while being with each other.

The ending was so beautiful! Though not exactly favorable, it was real, and it did full justice to Addie and Henry and their relationship. Both Addie and Henry show their true strength in the end.

There were things here that reduced my enjoyment of the book. The second person perspective and present tense were not easy to follow for me. The pacing was very slow. Henry's part, while good, was stretched too long. I found myself getting distracted and bored while reading that.

But Addie constantly kept luring me back to the story.
Read this book for all the Addies out there, who find themselves constantly put down by situations, yet never accept defeat and keep fighting!

Thank Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with this eARC. The above words reflect my honest opinion.

Absolutely amazing, in all the possible ways.
There's always a fear, when I've been anticipating a book for so long, that the reality of the book won't live up to what I had made it out to be in my mind.
Those fears were completely unfounded with Addie.
I was slightly wary of this ending up being just another girl meets boy romance dressed up in some really nice, dark low fantasy clothes. Instead, as always, Schwab delivered in spades on every aspect of the story. The world is so lush, and Addie is an absolutely delightful narrator. While we spend the first 80 or so percent of the book getting acquainted with Addie, her life, her dreams - and her curse - the last 20% are an absolute whirlwind that kept me on the very edge of my seat. I won't say more to avoid spoilers, but it felt so satisfying to all but see the cogs turning in the mind of this woman I had spent centuries learning about (felt like, in the best way possible!)

Once again, a fantastic book by V. E. Schwab that I'll be thinking about for years to come.

That's bloody good.

Starting in 1714 Adeline LaRue is a normal young girl growing up in a small town in France. As she grows older she doesn't want to marry, instead she wants to live a life and keep dreaming. She was warned not to ask things of gods and devils in the dark but that's exactly what she does - make a deal. Freedom in exchange for her soul. Complete freedom is for no-one to remember her though so Addie suddenly finds herself cast out and literally out of sight out if mind. Addie spends 300 years roaming the world and learning the loopholes in her deal, refusing her demon's temptations to take her soul ... Until she meets someone different. Someone who remembers her.

Absolutely bloody brilliant.

*warning: insane bookish declarations of love will follow…*
Reading this book put me into a bookish hangover that lasted almost two weeks – I just couldn’t bring myself to read anything else as I was so sad the book had finished – and the way it finished had me crying into my pillow at stupid AM 😂 And even though that sounds like a terrible thing to say about a book – this is the kind of book that I’m living for –
I want to have those lasting impressions
I want to feel that ‘this’ is a story I just cannot live without
I need to have my heart a little broken by the characters and it needs to inspire such a reaction in me that it leaves a bit of an imprint on my soul… *I did warn you it’d be a little bit mushy!*

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has completely encapsulated and bewitched my heart! I absolutely love a gimmick, or a motif/symbol/talisman which contributes to a wider plot (especially when they’re birds). In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the artworks at the start of each section did this perfectly – so perfectly in fact that I was looking all over the internet just to see if they actually existed in real life. These additions reiterate the importance of artwork, creativity and the kind of need humans have to leave some sort of impression or legacy of themselves behind, just to let others know of their existence. It was a wonderful way to bind the whole plot of the novel together whilst also driving it forward both through chronological time and the story’s plotline.

The timing in the novel is not always linear and sometimes it does jump a little backwards and forwards. I didn’t mind this at all as it added to the mystery of trying to work out where the story was going, but also allowed for me as a reader to be led through the story at Addie’s pace.

I absolutely adore every single character: Henry, Luc, Estele, Bea – they all have their individual quirks and personalities, but I especially love Adeline. Her rawness and vulnerability are perfectly balanced with her fierceness and determination. I felt like I was going through her rollercoaster of emotions in my own head. Her character goes through such a turning point towards the end of the story and that kind of growth and sacrifice was satisfying to read. I picture her almost like a love-child between Blake Lively in The Age of Adaline and Drew Barrymore in Fifty First Dates.

The whole tone of the book is romantic – and I don’t mean romantic in the kind of ‘romance genre’ sense; I mean it in the pre-Raphaelite painting style sense. The whole book is just beautiful - I can’t describe it in any other way. From the way it has been written, to the way the settings are meticulously crafted and contribute to the plot, to Addie’s personality and her supporting characters, to the structuring of the artwork – it is so clear to see how much this story means to its writer, to feel the heart and soul poured into every part of Addie’s story. It is beautiful, exquisite, beguiling and tons more adjectives that I can’t even get out of my brain.

In short, there isn’t a single thing that I don’t love about this book, except the fact that it ended! And the greatest part of all, particularly considering the fate of our main character, that after closing the final page and putting the book down… I still remember Addie.

Review to be posted on my blog on Wednesday 7th October.

"They teach you growing up that you are only one thing at a time - angry, lonely, content - but he's never found that to be true. He is a dozen things at once. He is lost and scared and grateful, he is sorry and happy and afraid...

...But he is not alone."

Many thanks to Netgalley and Titan Books for this ARC!

I have mixed feelings about this book but my issues with it mostly come down to personal preference over writing style. The plot is magical and sad, bittersweet and epic, but the gloominess of the narrative crosses into the dialogue and long paragraphs of people walking around and talking. Sometimes, it works REALLY well, and other times i found it made me very distant from the book. Which I understand is likely very deliberate, with very open themes of depression, loneliness and history being woven into the story.

Positives:

• Casual lgbt+ rep; it's always lovely to see openly queer characters existing in complex narratives not centered around their sexualities.
• Engaging timescapes; i love books that take you through different time periods and engage with certain moments and births of science, culture, etc.
• Quietly romantic. I really enjoyed the normlacy in the way most of the romantic dynamics were written. This isn't a book about romance but rather about love and why people want it so badly.

Criticisms:

• For a book containing so much depth, history and emotions, there wasn't much heart in it. I wasn't drawn to any of the characters as much as I wanted to be.
• Although the mental health rep and discussions are fantastic, i can't help but feel as though it affected the pacing and actual writing too much; a story about lonely characters doesn't allow for pages of dull writing and descriptions. You still need to engage the reader, not just have someone walk around for ages and feel sad.
• Just...I really didn't feel STRONG emotions towards the book in general. Which is sad, because I adore Schwab's writing and this book has so much potential to be really emotional and special.

In a desperate moment Addie LaRue makes a pact with the devil, being left with a curse, she can live forever, but everyone will forget her and no one can pronounce her name anymore. However, 300 years later she meets a person who remembers her and can say her name, this is how things change a bit for Addie.

This book is one of my most anticipated books of the year and it met my expectations. I quite liked the development of the plot, it's told from two different perspectives, one from Addie and the other from Henry, also jumping between present and past, telling us about the past of both characters. What I liked the most was the melancholic and sad atmosphere that the book has, it's a different kind of story, I may say it was a book out of the comfort zone of Victoria Schwab and I loved it.

The characters are everything in this book, we have Addie, an ordinary person until one night, when she makes a pact with the devil, becoming immortal, but carrying the weight of a curse, that everyone has to forget her. Reading everything that happens to Addie was very sad and distressing, I cried for her, I just wanted her to be happy. The character isn't annoying, she's someone with whom you love and I feel that the author made her almost "perfect" in order to make us understand that, despite her qualities and beauty, everyone at the end forgets her, and yes, she turns out to be invisible.

Another character who stole my heart was Henry, it was a surprise for me, I wondered why he can remember Addie? Well, he hides a secret that I can't tell you much about because of spoilers, so you have to read it to know that. I just want to tell you that the character is beautiful and I became very fond of him.

The book also introduces us to another character, Luc, who by his name you will know who he is. I found this character quite intriguing and complex because he is supposed to be the "bad guy in the book." I would like to know a little more about him and if Schwab writes a book about Luc, I will gladly read it.

Another thing that was great was the ending, it gave an interesting closing to the story so much so that it made me cry, also made me reflect on life, time, and, above all, the decisions we make in desperate moments.

I am glad I was able to read this book and I can say that it was a pleasure meeting Addie LaRue. Give this book a try and I hope you like it because I do feel that it leaves a mark and makes you reflect on life.

Despite having high expectations for this book, V.E. Schwab somehow exceeded them in every way. Exploring what it means to be human through the connections we forge in life and the legacy we leave the world, Addie LaRue is a phenomenal work of art and one I'm already looking forward to re-reading.

4.5 stars

<I>What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?</I>

If you’ve been following my reading updates as I made my way through this book, you’ll know that right from the get-go, I’ve had nothing but absolute praise for this novel right from the moment I powered up my Kindle.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was magic come to life on paper. V E Schwab is an expert craftswoman, selecting and moulding each word into its appropriate place, such that when you look at the finished product, you’re not just reading words — instead you’re transported to a different world; a different life. I was standing by the river in Villon-sur-Sarthe in the 1700s. I was on that rooftop in New York in 2014. You can feel the crispness of the air, the warmth of the sun, the biting wind that makes you clutch your jacket tighter — you can feel it all.

I can and should end my review here because Schwab deserves all the stars in the world (maybe seven to match the constellation of freckles on Addie’s face?) for simply forging this work of art into existence, but if you’re not convinced yet as to why you would enjoy this book, do read on.

We’ve covered the writing — it’s eloquent, it’s beautiful, it’s magical and it’s enchanting, as is Schwab’s writing. But let’s move ahead to the plot, hmm?

Schwab once said <I>The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue</I> is the closest she’ll ever come to writing a love story, and it is true — this is absolutely a love story, but it is so much more as well — it’s the story of a young girl in a small village in France, making a bargain with a devil of the night to escape a life of marriage and motherhood in the 1700s; it’s the story of the dance that starts that night between her and the devil which spans centuries; it’s the story of the curse that binds her to him and how she lives a complete life despite his various attempts to derail her plans; it’s the story of how she finds love repeatedly, only to never be remembered the next day; it’s the story of how she finds herself in a dingy bookstore in New York one afternoon, and finds a boy who can remember her.

After centuries of being forgotten, a part of her Faustian bargain with the devil — her curse/deal quite literally goes, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ — Addie runs into Henry, who miraculously seems to remember her face and her name. After years of being a ghost, there’s someone who remembers her, and for Addie, it breathes new life into her.

Through a non-linear narration from both Addie and Henry’s POV, we get to put the pieces of this brilliant story together, all along wondering whether this is a ploy of the devil — in the barest sense, I would even say this could be a love triangle, because there’s no other way for me to define the relationship Addie has with the devil.

Some of the plot elements that Schwab has used to tie up the various threads — they’re clever and they’re wonderful, and it reminded me a lot of how the same quality of brilliance can be in Schwab’s other works such as <I>A Darker Shade Of Magic</I>.

I cannot elaborate on this section further, since even the slightest discussion would be a spoiler, and I feel part of the magic of this book is seeing all these various elements come together one by on, until you see the big picture — much like a jigsaw puzzle.

The last portion I will cover in this review is about the characters. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a fan of Delilah Bard in ADSOM; I find her brash and annoying, and naturally, I was worried that I might dislike one of the three protagonists in this story. I needn’t have worried though, because I loved all the characters in this book, despite their flaws and shortcomings. Nobody is perfect, not the forgettable but immortal Addie, the mysterious shopkeeper Henry, and definitely not our handsome and taunting devil, Luc (as Addie nicknames him). I loved all of them in different ways, and the side characters made an impression as well.

The characters were well fleshed out, their personalities laid exposed through Schwab’s insightful writing (which follows the ideal mantra of showing, rather than telling). As I mentioned earlier, I could feel Addie’s pain at being forgotten every time she made a connection with another human being; I could feel Henry’s desperation as he lived a meaningless life; everything they felt and thought was palpable and tangible. I really felt it.

<I>Being forgotten, she thinks, is a bit like going mad. You begin to wonder what is real, if you are real. After all, how can a thing be real if it cannot be remembered? It’s like that Zen koan, the one about the tree falling in the woods.

If no one heard it, did it happen?

If a person cannot leave a mark, do they exist?</I>

I appreciated the rep as well. Both Addie and Henry are bi, and I genuinely felt good seeing it done perfectly. (It also helped that I didn’t expect bi rep, and I was pleasantly surprised.) Henry is also Jewish (the faith he was born into, though atheist/agnostic by choice), and we have other queer supporting characters as well, and I loved how the representation was so seamlessly stitched into this novel where representation is not the main focus. This is how society really looks — it’s not as homogenous as it seems in some works of fiction — and I’m really happy that Schwab went ahead with portraying things the way she did. She’s an expert craftswoman, as I’ve noted in my review already.

My only issue with the book, if you could call it that, is that the ending came upon us too quickly. I know 560 pages is a pretty large book, but I wanted more. I needed more because that ending had me crying, and I feel I deserved a little more time for that closure to sink in than what we were given. I needed a few more pages to grieve over, and mull over, before proceeding to the end. The ending was perfect, don’t get me wrong — I just want around 10 more pages of this wonderful story.

Thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I truly feel blessed.

TW: suicide ideation, depression, prostitution

I don’t even know where to start with this review. This book is such a journey. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was one of my most anticipated releases for this year but I didn’t really have many expectations because if there’s one thing I know about this author is that she’s always unpredictable and brilliant, and this book, in that sense, did not disappoint.

Addie’s story is unique, unpredictable, so incredibly sad, nostalgic, and marvelous but it was quite an emotional ride for me. This is the type of story that is best savored slowly. I realized I could profoundly relate to Addie, Henry, and even Luc. They were so real and yet so otherworldly and most of all such incredibly morally grey characters. I understand how they have become who they are, why they made those choices, but that does not mean those actions and consequences are inherently good, bad, or that I support them. I will not go into detail about any of the characters, though, it’s best to leave it as a surprise.

The prose was just beautiful. I can’t say this enough, V. E. Schwab is such an amazing writer and in terms of writing style alone, she might be my absolute favorite. This book is an experience. I wanted to quote every sentence I kid you not. (But it’s an arc so I don’t think I should/can? Will definitely buy a physical copy and highlight and annotate the hell out of it, mark my words.)

And the ending. I have mixed feelings about it. The last two parts of this book were my favorite moments, I’d give this 5 stars just for those chapters – and the actual ending is satisfying, you don’t finish this book wanting more (well, maybe a little). It’s probably the best we could hope for considering this story, but it’s a bit of a bittersweet ending and I wish it had ended on a slightly different note.

Overall, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is an incredible book, a nostalgic, real, and unique read and I enjoyed it reading it slowly. In all honesty, it’s not my favorite book by this author, probably because of the tone but I’m glad I read it!

꧁Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ꧂
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐑𝐮𝐞 𝐁𝐲 𝐕.𝐄. 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐰𝐚𝐛

•
•
““The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, "is that it makes us weak.”
•
•
𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲

Addie La Rue has learnt the hard way that deals with the devil are tricky things. Immortal but eternally invisible and forgotten by people, Addie exists only as a muse for artists throughout history. The only person who remembers her is the devil, who visits every year on the anniversary of their deal.

•
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𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
Where do I even start? And what do I even say? No amount of words I can say will do this book justice.

I laughed, I cried, I couldn’t stop turning the pages. This book is a beautiful piece of art. Perfectly written to keep you guessing and to keep you wanting more.

I fell in love with Addie from the start and I enjoyed how her character grew and changed as the story unfolded. Her innocence turning into something fierce and strong as the centuries went on.

V.E. Schwab has done a brilliant job at creating such stunning and diverse characters that just work within the book and marry with what is going on.

I loved how we got to see Addie’s life across the years. How she reacts to new wars and new wonders. Who she meets and what impact she has on them.
The world that was created around this book is just wonderful and intriguing.

I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to give any spoilers. So I urge you to go and get this book! You won’t be disappointed.

My new favourite read of the year.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ wish I could give it more.

Addie LaRue, a girl with seven freckles, one for every love she will ever have. A girl who wants a life of her own. A girl who made a deal with the gods who you definitely should never, ever pray to after dark.

A girl who is unable to leave her mark on the world. A girl who everyone forgets.

Then one day she meets a young man who remembers.

Books are like meals. Sometimes you fancy a light snack, quick to eat on the go. Other times you want something more substantial, like a burger and fries. Warm and filling, and you enjoy it at the time, but like Addie, one you don’t remember.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is like a meal from a Michelin starred restaurant. Layer upon layer, expertly combined. A hint of something you can’t quite put your finger on, but which gives it that certain… je ne sais quoi that will linger in the memory for long afterwards.

It is… wonderful.

It’s an exploration of love and life, of the price we pay to make our mark on the world. It’s a love story told in the here and now, but also in the three hundred years of Addie LaRue’s life. A glimpse into the inbetween places of life, those liminal spaces which are merely glimpsed at.

And there’s a bookshop, with a cat. What more could you ask for?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is just the most splendid, beautiful book. One to curl up on the sofa and lose yourself in for a century or three, in the company of a girl with seven freckles.

One of my books of the year.

This book was of my most antecipated 2020's release and let me tell you, it was worth it! OMG, I loved this book so much. It was my first Schwab's book and it was a lovely experience. Her writing style is on point. It's a slow burn type of book but somehow it speaks to your soul and it gets you to the edge of the sit. I has a few plot twists that makes total sense to the story. And that ending, I can't even... Please, read. I now the hype is huge, but you won't regret it.

I loved this book so so much. Honestly, I have to say the beginning was a bit slow, though I was feeling a bit slumpy this month so that contributed to me taking a long time to finish this book. I loved reading Addie's story and I loved when we got Henry's perspective as well. This story just flows perfectly in my opinion, even with the flashbacks interwoven through. I don't know if this is my favourite Schwab book, but it is definitely one of my favourites that I've read this year overall!

I have read and loved this authors previous works and the premise of this new work was intriguing yet different from her previous writing. In short - this book is amazing, I was engrossed with Addie and her story from the outset - go find and read!
Addie or Adeline LaRue is a 23 year old woman born in 18th Century rural France and wants more from her life than can be found in her village.. For years she has avoided marriage through gifts to the natural gods however the gifts cease to work and so on her wedding day she flees to the forest and there makes a deal with a dark god which changes her life forever.
Moving between 18th C France and 21st C New York we uncover with Addie the nature of her deal - she wants to live freely and she is able to because no one she meets can ever remember her. The only being who does is the devil she made her pact with and who is the one constant in her 300 years of living.
How do you live with never being remembered, never being able to leave your mark....Addie finds a way. Then one day in a dusty New York bookshop she meets Henry, the only person in three centuries who says the words "I remember you"...
Thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for access to this ARC - a joy to read!

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V E Schwab

This is it. I've found the one.
Oh Addie LaRue, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
I want to marry this book and raise a family of little books with it.

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

How does one critique perfection?
I don't know, honestly, I probably won't even try. This is just going to be a lovesick ramble all about how much I loved this book and V E Schwab in general. So, you know, be warned.

I've followed V E Schwab for a couple of years now, so Addie LaRue is a name that I've been hearing on and off for a while and you know what? It was well worth the wait. Now I've met Addie my life will never be the same, I have a new favourite book.

When I first heard about this book, I wasn't sure how exactly V E Schwab was going to pull this off, the concept just sounded so wild and how does one write about someone who can't be remembered? I shouldn't have doubted, if anyone could do it, she can and good God, did she.

I am still very book hungover from this and I am in no way articulate enough to adequately talk about all my feels. So for now, this book is incredible, believe the hype, all the stars.

3,5 stars

I'm sad to announce that I didn't totally like this book. Usually, Schwab's books are so fucking awesome but this one struggled to hold my attention sometimes.

I have to say, though, that I totally adore Addie, she's an incredible character and I would absolutely love to read more about her, her stories form the past. 'Cause the flashbacks were always my favourite. Once we came into contact with Henry... meh. He is kind of a boring character, I never managed to bond with him and I did not enjoy the chapters from his point of view. In additon, I never fully bought into the love between Henry and Addie, I did not feel the chemistry at all.

As I said, I would love to read more about Addie's life in the past and her relationship with Luc in the past but also now in the 'afterlife'. Also, how does his magic work and is he actually the devil? Maybe I've missed something.

Schwab is an artistic and poetic writer who
cleverly plots - moving between timelines and giving well thought out, plausible explanations of how Addie’s Faustian deal actually works.

She beautifully captures how exhilaration can turn to exhaustion when your life is constantly something new and different each day, you inevitably yearn for monotony, sameness normality.

We really feel Addie’s melancholy and her leaden, heavy regret for not appreciating the priceless value of simple family life which could all have been hers.

This book asks the fundamental question: what is the meaning of life, or what gives life meaning - our interactions with others - the mark we leave on the world? If no one remembers us will we have existed at all?

I thoroughly recommend this book, but can’t write anymore without giving spoilers. You must read it.

This book was absolutely excellent, which came as no surprise to me, already being a huge fan of the author's previous works. Weaving together history, dark magic and romance, this book is an exciting page turner, as well as being an exploration of what it means to be human, to make make connections and ways to leave mark on the world. Addie is a great character, clever and headstrong and resilient, and Luc is an excellent dreamboat bad boy, but the real standout character for me was Henry Strauss, who weathered depression and heartache and lack of direction for too long and ended up making a terrible bargain. The ending was both a cheat and a delight at the same time. Loved it.