Book Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
Reviewing The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab is not going to be an easy task. There are so many different threads to cover and so much that this book did that I want to talk about. I’m hoping that I can convince you as to just how much I really enjoyed this book. If you’ve seen the movie Age of Adaline and loved it, you’ll love this book, too.
Book Information
Addie LaRue is a dreamer. At least, that’s what everyone calls her in 1714 in her small town in France. She’s a dreamer, at least, until she makes a deal with the darkness. Now, told in the centuries that follow, Addie is stuck with an eternity of doing whatever she pleases, but having no one remember her the second they take their eyes off her. What is a life if it is not remembered? That is, until she meets a man who does remember her, and her life is suddenly thrust into a happiness that she has never known. But she knows that it will not last. The darkness always finds her. He always comes back.
Review | Heidi Dischler
So, I’m going to preface this by saying that I finished the whole book in less than two days. Is my head still swimming event though it’s been a while since I finished it? Absolutely. Was this story worth all that time? Absolutely times one million.
To start with the basics, the plot is absolute gold. I love the characters. I love the villain. I love how they all tie together in this centuries-old loop. Everything was plotted out perfectly and there was nothing that made me think, hmm this doesn’t seem right. The writing was engaging the whole time even though this was one of the bigger books that I’ve read in a while (this book has been sitting on my shelf for a while because of how daunting the size was). It’s not that I don’t read big books. It’s just that life moves so fast and there’s always something going on that I can never find the time to commit to a book that may take longer than a day. Luckily for me, an 18-hour road trip made reading this book possible.
Now, one thing that I do want to mention is that I didn’t find Addie to be a very likeable character. Not because she was written poorly, but because she was so well-written. The reason I say that is because she had to do many questionable things just to live. Stealing being the main thing. I found that a lot of the actions she had to do in order to survive made her very unlikeable. It wasn’t her personality or anything like that, it was just those actions that the darkness forced her to commit that made me not like her as much as I should. I did admire her for her resilience and stubborn will to live. I loved that about her.
Spoilers ahead.
So, the only thing that I really want to talk about in the spoilers is the ending and a little bit leading up to that. Did I guess that the darkness intentionally put Addie and Henry together? Absolutely. That was a no-brainer. Did I completely and utterly adore the ending? Yes. Yes, I did. The reason being is I can’t imagine another way for this novel to have ended. Addie tricked the darkness. She saved Henry. She is an absolute force to be reckoned with. Is she the epitome of a strong female character? I would say so. The ending just proves that more. Even though she didn’t get her happily ever after, she finally won against the darkness, and I think that was enough for her. Not to mention, HER STORY WAS FINALLY TOLD. In love with this ending is an understatement.
Overall, I’m so happy that I finally found the time to start and finish this book. It was well worth it as I knew it would be based off of all the raving reviews. Addie will probably stay with me as one of those stories that you just can’t forget even though she was always supposed to be invisible. If you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor and pick up the book, get the audiobook, open your ebook, anything you need to in order to devour this story like I did!
Source: Personal Copy
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