This was an absolutely fantastic book that hooked me on page one. The flashbacks to Addie's childhood were well-detailed and I enjoyed gradually learning the reason behind her immortality.

I didn't know how to feel once I finished reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, so I sat on this review for a bit until I could properly organize my thoughts. They still aren't entirely in order, but I think what I feel about this book is mostly that it's just okay. There was too much hype! My main thoughts are that the book was entirely too long and that the main characters are too self absorbed and not a little #basic. Addie came off very manic pixie dream girl and Henry was whiny. I didn't particularly buy their grand love story and the only truly interesting character was Luc.
I don't know, I would recommend it to a patron but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to.

This was a fantastic book, that covers what it means to live, and how we choose to face situations truly define who we are.

I liked how Addie is given narrative space to explore her identity as she goes through the ages.

I really enjoyed this book, and will definitely recommend.

This book! I have been telling everyone I know that they should read "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue". It is such a wonderful, beautifully written book. I was so happy to see it was nominated in the 'Best Fantasy' category on the Goodreads Choice Awards. This is one of my favorite books of the year.

Addie is such a complex, fully-realized character that it is easy to imagine her out in the world. I loved reading about her journey through the decades and centuries as she continued to fight to be seen and remembered.

This is a book about belonging, relationships, love, power, finding your place and purpose in the world, and what it means to be human. This is a book for anyone who has felt unsure of their place in the world, unsure of their path, unsure of themselves. It is sad and lonely and lovely and hopeful.

I will definitely be buying this book for our library and look forward to sharing it with everyone.

This one started off pretty slow for me but I'm glad I stuck with it. Addie LaRue is afraid of being trapped in a life of marriage, kids, and wasting away in her small village without ever experiencing what the world has to offer. When her parents force her to marry, she runs away on her wedding day and begs to whatever God will listen to stop the marriage. Unfortunately, her request is answered by a dark force and so starts Addie's tale of floating through life for over 300 years without a soul remembering her. Then she finally meets someone who does. This is my first book by V.E. Schwab and she has a mesmerizing way of writing. I felt I was a bout 1/3 of the way through the book before it really got going but Addie's story is fascinating and I loved the ending. Definitely will recommend to my patrons.

This book absolutely ruined me. The writing was incredible, the story was incredible, the characters...oh gosh I fell in love over and over again. This was incredibly beautiful.

Imaginative and interesting conceit. I didn't find the love interest nearly as compelling as the "villain" though, but I enjoyed the concept of the book. The prose at times felt like it was trying a bit too hard -- but it was an easy read and I think many would enjoy this book.

Every year, there is at least one book that I am so eager to read that I often catch myself preordering it twice, setting up Google alerts for news about it, and rapidly refreshing the author’s social media in search of any new snippets I can find. In 2020, that book is THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LaRUE. Best known for her Shades of Magic and Villains series, V.E. Schwab is beloved by teen and adult fans alike for her ability to unite magic and darkness in fresh and original ways, and her latest is no different.

Born in 17th-century France, Adeline LaRue is a woman at odds with her time. Unlike the rest of the women in her small village of Villon-sur-Sarthe, Adeline dreams of independence, not marriage, and loves accompanying her father to the city to sell his woodworking wares, rather than staying home to do chores and moon over boys she has known since birth. As the years draw on, her once-precocious nature becomes irritating to her family, and when a local father loses his wife to childbirth, she is offered up as his bride. Having befriended a local loner woman who continues to commune with the old gods, Adeline becomes obsessed with leaving offerings for the gods who might come to save her. In a moment of desperation, however, she forgets the cardinal rule: Never pray to the gods who answer after dark. Of course, it is one of these gods who hears her call.

Three hundred years later, Adeline --- now Addie --- is still alive, haunting the streets of New York City, bound by a Faustian curse. She will live forever, never running out of time to grasp her independence or experience the world, but never belonging to anyone, either. It sounds simple enough at first blush, but not belonging to someone goes farther than escaping marriage or friendships. Addie cannot be remembered by anyone, leave a mark on the world or create anything of her own. Though she has affairs with gorgeous men and women alike, they all forget her by morning, even when she has not left their bed.

Alternating between France, 1714, and New York City, 2014, Schwab highlights a lifetime of dualities: independence and alienation, freedom and restraint, knowledge and fear. In the early days of her curse, Addie struggles with securing food, housing and clothing for herself, especially as a woman living alone off the grid. Three hundred years later, she has learned sleight of hand and how to live as a hidden homeless person, but she still longs for one real connection, someone who can remember her for more than a night, a companion who can repeat her own name back to her. Through it all, she grapples with her attraction and contempt for the devil who cursed her, Luc, a shadowy figure of a man crafted from her dreams. The two meet once a year, roughly, and each time Luc teases her with dangerous power plays, heady seductions, and the constant, threatening reminder that one day he will take her soul when she is done with it.

Accustomed to her life of theft and sneakiness, Addie is thrilled when she discovers a hidden bookstore in the crooked streets of New York. Poised to pilfer a book, she is shocked when the manager, Henry, chases her into the street to demand payment. Unlike everyone else she has ever stolen from, he not only remembered seeing her leave with the book, but caught her in her practiced act. Though she is able to make a quick escape, when she returns to exchange the book the next day, Henry remembers her, and her life is flipped upside down.

Schwab tracks Addie and Henry’s friendship with the compassion of a romance writer, offering a brief bit of light and levity to a complicated and devastating plot. But after a life filled with yearning, Addie cannot help but question her changed luck...and soon learns there’s a dark, messy reason that Henry can remember her. He, too, is hiding a cursed secret.

With Addie torn between the promise of a new chance at life and her hopeless, toxic connection to the demon who cursed her, the novel takes on a new urgency, with decades, centuries of yearning galvanizing into action and revolution. As viscerally stunning as it is emotionally daunting, this is V.E. Schwab at her absolute finest, and I feel as though I cannot say enough about this gorgeous heartache of a book. The mechanics of the worldbuilding are so clever, so fully conceptualized that you often will find yourself wondering How did she do that? Addie is an unforgettable, completely unique character, and I feel certain that readers of all ages and walks of life will find something relatable within her.

Even in her most wild and fantastical moments, Schwab infuses Addie with a very human and raw sense of yearning and desire, not only for love and remembrance, but for art, beauty, knowledge and so much more. On top of that, she includes queer and POC representation, never once using sexual, cultural or racial identity as a plot twist or an act of tokenism. Every last one of her characters is fully realized and explored, and each of them leaps off the page, regardless of the time period.

In addition to its magnificent cast of characters, THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LaRUE carries a lot of emotional weight. The idea of immortality is alluring at first, but Schwab is careful to highlight its boundaries and dangers, and the dreadful feelings that come with it. In her writing of Henry, she never once holds back when describing his battle with depression, and the way that his lifelong feeling of emptiness is mirrored in Addie’s life of fullness is simply poetic. But their shared feelings of loneliness come with a surprising dark side, too, as displayed by their willingness to consort with the devil.

This, for me, was the absolute highlight of the book. Addie and Luc’s 300-year-long relationship is toxic and intoxicating, and Schwab is careful to make Luc as seductive to the reader as he clearly is to Addie. Yet she maintains a sense of tension in every scene, reminding you that he is an abuser, an owner, and not a friend or partner. Though their bond is always clearly unhealthy, it ebbs and flows, and Schwab chronicles every change with tenderness and emotional acuity that speaks volumes to her wisdom and brilliance.

Equal parts magical, romantic and inventive, THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LaRUE will no doubt earn countless comparisons to books like THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and LIFE AFTER LIFE, but I feel certain that anyone who reads it will be completely blown away by its originality, breadth of emotion and absolutely unforgettable characters. Schwab has always known how to make magic and bend the bounds of our world, but here she is at her height, with her endless cleverness and beautiful writing on full display.

Over the years of doing the podcast I’ve discovered authors and read books that I never would’ve before. I’m so glad that happens because otherwise I might have missed out on V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. If you like the way TJ Klune or Gregory Ashe spin sprawling, epic tales full of twists and turns that surprise, shock, delight and give you all the feels, this book is for you.
There’s a lot happening in this book, which spans 300 years and I’m going to dodge all the spoilers. What I can tell you is essentially what you’ll hear directly from Victoria in our interview. There are two timelines in play here. Addie’s past, where we meet her as a child in 1698 France. She loves her family, especially her father, and grows up in a small village. When she gets to marrying age though, she doesn’t want any part of it. When she’s forced to marry a widower with children, she does a deal with the devil. The devil can have her soul when she’s done with it. The devil thinks he can force her into this sooner than later by making it where everyone forgets her. She can’t be remembered, she can’t leave a mark. Nothing. She’s stubborn though. She plans to live, live and live some more and the story covers various points along her history.
The other timeline is 2014. Addie’s present, if you will. She’s in New York City and has adapted to life well. She knows how to deal with, and even take advantage of, the fact she’s not remembered. Her world is turned upside down though when one day she crosses paths with a guy who can remember her.
Now before you say, but, Jeff you just spoiled it. Remember what I said that the author herself will tell you this in a moment and it’s also mentioned in the blurb.
There is so much that I fell in love with here. First, the richness of the writing and storytelling. Addie is a strong, independent woman–it’s why she made the deal she did after all. It’s incredible watching her adapt to her situation as well as the changing times happening around her. It’s an incredible mix of happy, sad, frustrating and exhilarating. Victoria picked amazing moments of history, and historic people, for Addie to witness while also showing what it was like to be a woman in those days and trying to maintain agency over oneself.
Along with Addie on the journey through the decades is the devil, who is quite frustrated with her that she won’t give her soul up. She’d been deliberate with her words around keeping it until she was done, but she couldn’t stop the turn he’d made on everyone forgetting her. Addie and the devil are strange companions through time. Sometimes he ignores her, sometimes he annoys her, sometimes they’re more friend the foe. It’s a fascinating and ever changing dynamic.
The representation of bisexuality in this book is also outstanding. Addie is bi–and why wouldn’t she have loved many people across the centuries. The guy that remembers her, Henry, is also bi and in fact one of the fun parts of the book is the jealous streak Henry’s ex, Robbie, has over Addie every time they meet. It’s great to see characters where the bisexulity just is. It’s not a big deal, it’s just part of who they are and the relationships they’ve had. To find that in a mainstream, best-selling book is fantastic.
Time and place are practically characters in Addie LaRue. Victoria has a way of infusing so much into the time that Addie’s in–from the social customs to clothes to how people get around that it becomes almost physical. Many places also show up as Addie travels to Paris, New Orleans, New York and other places. Each pops to life with a mix of real places and fictional ones. But don’t worry about getting lost in time. Victoria alternates between the times and places fluidly, while also making sure we know where we are.
I’m so delighted with this book, especially because I couldn’t figure any of it out. At every turn I was amazed with where the story went. I highly recommend V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and I definitely need to check out more of Victoria’s stories.

Addie LaRue wants to be free. She wants to travel and explore and experience new and exciting art. Unfortunately, Addie LaRue was born in a very small village in late 17th century France. So, when the day of her unwanted marriage arrives, Addie becomes desperate and prays to the old gods. This is how she comes to make a deal with the night itself. She is given freedom and time but is ultimately cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. This is the case for 300 years until she meets a boy who inexplicably remembers her.

V. E. Schwab's latest novel is not only a beautiful rendered fantasy tale; it is also a love letter to humanity in all of its messy existence. It is a testament to the power of art and ideas, and it is an intimate portrait of the longing so many humans have for more in their life whether that be more time or more love or even just more direction. "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" is a long novel that will pass by surprisingly quickly, much like Addie's life. Fans of V. E. Schwab's former work, of well-rendered urban fantasy, and of time-slip novels will love "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue."

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a story that moves between centuries. Addie was a girl who sold her soul, but did not realize that in exchange she would live forever. As we read her story, we time travel from the past to the present, living Addie's 300 year life with her. As part of her curse, Addie is forgotten the moment she is no longer in someone's view. She begins every moment anew as if she never lived her last. That is, until she meets Henry, and for once, someone remembers her. This story seemed drawn out at times, but I truly enjoyed Addie's and Henry's adventure.

In a village in 1714 France, on the eve of her unwanted wedding, Addie LaRue prays to the old gods to set her free. Dusk turns to night, and her prayers are answered by the darkness, who grants Addie freedom and immortality for the eventual exchange of her soul. There is a price for everything, however, and Addie is also cursed to a nameless, rootless existence, in which she is destined to be immediately forgotten by everyone she meets. She can't write, can't create, can't leave a mark, say her own name, or form lasting connections. Until after nearly 300 years, Addie meets a boy and he remembers her. There are strong themes of humanity and art throughout.

V.E. Schwab's writing is lyrical and beautiful. The audiobook is lovely (I listened to it as well), as narrated by Julia Whelan. I grew to care deeply about the well-developed characters, who seemed all the more real for their flaws, and enjoyed the alternating timelines/perspectives. There are parts of the book in which the pace slows, but I didn't mind the leisurely listen. This is the first book by Schwab that I've read, but won't be the last!

Addie is cursed to walk the earth alone, with stipulations set by the dark god she struck a deal with. She finally finds love, but will it work out? I found this book a little too close to the trope, “be careful what you wish for,” which I’m not a huge fan of. Some of the story was a bit predictable, but I do admit, it tugged at my heartstrings a bit.

This book you guys has to be one of the best books of 2020.
Y’all this book....❤️✨❤️

I never give five stars—like every, but this book blew me away and @veschwab earned this!

5/5 ⭐️s

We will be chatting about this tonight Y 8:30 EST with #wordsandwinebookclub
Please come join if you’ve read. The Zoom link is in the FB group.

What made this book amazing was 3 fold.

•An exceptional plot line—a smart and cunning woman makes a deal with a Devil to live her life freely. Of course the terms of the deal aren’t what she expects and everyone she meets forgets her as soon as she goes out of sight.

•A timeless romance—300 years into her curse Addie meets Henry. A man who remembers her. But how? Turns out he made a deal too.

•An unforgettable ending—I didn’t know how the story could end without breaking my heart. I’ll just say again, @veschwab is a genius.

Don’t walk, run to go get this book and read this month. It’s the perfect fall book.
ical and I fell in love with Addie LaRue.

I’ve struggled with writing this review not because of the nature of the book, but because of the nature of reviews. Reviews are, ultimately, a single person’s opinion. An educated opinion, we hope, and one based on objective factors as well as subjective ones. But the subjectivity is there. And sometimes it’s better to just foreground it, especially when I had such a subjective reaction to what is, objectively, still a good book.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading Addie LaRue. It’s a well-written, well-plotted book with a deep emotional core and a thoughtful take on some really big questions. It’s ambitious and assured in a way that showcases Schwab’s many intrinsic talents as well as her artistic development. But I have never more enjoyed a book with which I disagree so profoundly on nearly every point.

Let’s start with the locations: though Schwab has said that this is an ode in part to travel the narrative takes place almost exclusively in New York and Paris. Of all the places I have been, these are two cities I like the least. There are grand romantic illusions about these cities in popular imagination, and to her credit, Schwab doesn’t rely on them—her Paris is as wretched as it is lovely. She only loves these places, marvels at them constantly. And through no fault of her own, her wonderment leaves me shrugging. I have spent enough time in New York especially to be firm in my feelings about it, no matter how many fun art exhibits there might be.

Addie is a bit manic-pixie in these places, eager to scream herself hoarse at experimental art installations and lead her lover Henry to secret raves in abandoned subway stations. That the book is partly from her perspective alleviates some of the worst aspects of this trope, makes the whimsy feel earned. Addie has fought the weight of poverty, anonymity, and centuries in order to savor her momentary delights. Defiance is the core of her joy, a furious I am to the indifference of the world.

While I admire her endless moxie, Addie’s life is in many ways my worst nightmare. This book would have worked very well for me as a horror novel: no human connection, no lasting physical refuges, and no ability to express creativity in a physical form. I might have lasted a year, but probably not. Addie is horrified when she sees an old woman accept the end of her bargain and the end of her life, but if I had made such a bargain, I would have been grateful to see it ended, and grateful to the god who Addie calls Luc.

Luc, the god of promise, the god of who answers after dark, is charmingly wicked. Like me, Addie is intrigued by him. Though he can be appealing and even helpful, he terrifies and repels Addie with his darkness and his hunger. This doesn’t produce the same fear in me. Death frightens me, yes, but if I can’t accept it, then at least I want to.

Addie LaRue doesn’t want to make peace with death, which leads to a kind of stark dualism that I don’t find appealing. It’s not a moral duality. Schwab doesn’t treat Luc as evil, but he is set apart. Death bad; life good. Night bad; day good. Addie is meant to be sensual but is at times didactic, reminding us forcefully that sunrises make life worth the struggle (342).

I have no doubt that a person can love a sunrise with such furious abandon that it balances away grief and doubt, that its momentary glory is sufficient to render past and future meaningless. I salute those people. I envy them, even. I am not one of them.

What it comes down to, I think, is in the book but crystalized for me at an author event. Schwab has said at a release party that, given the choice between the bright and brief career of an artist or the long and anonymous life of Addie, she would take Addie’s bargain. I would not. I would take the artist’s bargain.

Not to be remembered. That’s another place where I differ with the book: Addie wants just one person to remember her. I have very little use for that, personally or philosophically. If being remembered is what matters, then most lives are failures—there are so many of us, and history is so fickle. No: creation itself is the end that I find most worth pursuing.

Schwab puts forth experience as an end unto itself, perhaps the most precious end. I won’t quarrel with it; it’s worthy and lovely. I just have no ultimate interest in it. Experience is fine, but it’s something we accumulate whether we want to or not. For me, the most precious act is creation, the struggle to take experience and filter it, meld it, enhance or change or trample on it. Mostly I’m talking about artistic creation, but I also think of it much more broadly: to forge bonds, to instill learning, to make new knowledge, those are acts of creation, too.

Only you can experience the world as you. And by the same token, only you can create the art that you will create. It may sound circular, and perhaps it is. Both are ultimately beliefs as well as facts: in this vast universe, it could all be totally meaningless and pointless to experience things to their utmost, or to create new things. To choose to experience, then, and to choose to create are both the choice to find meaning.

These philosophies aren’t mutually exclusive, either. It’s the terms of Addie LaRue that make them so, and make the darkness an antagonist. We will die. History will forget us. Schwab meets this fact with fury. This rage lives in me too, but I would like to imagine beyond the terror and anger that there is a Death and Night waiting who is more than petty, more than a maw. That maybe we can meet death like we would in The Sandman comics, or in most Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett books.

But this philosophical differences I have here are interesting ones. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue made me articulate things to myself, made me think deeply. That alone is enough, and it even goes beyond that. Addie LaRue also thinks deeply, and pursues its ideas about memory, art, and experience to many of their natural consequences. It does not flinch. I disagree with it, but I respect it as a complete and thorough work. I admire its sweep, its verve, and its brilliance. And yes, I will remember Addie LaRue.

“... he assures you that you’ll find your calling, but that’s the whole problem, you’ve never felt called to any one thing. There is no violent push in one direction, but a softer nudge a hundred different ways, and now all of them feel out of reach. Blink and you’re twenty-eight, and everyone else is now a mile down the road, and you’re still trying to find it, and the irony is hardly lost on you that in wanting to live, to learn, to find yourself, you’ve gotten lost.”

I sobbed rivers.

There’s literally nothing—nothing—I can say that hasn’t already been positively exclaimed about this book by literally everyone who’s finished it so far. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is worth all the hype, and believe me, so much more.

I felt absolutely compelled to read this the first time I came across its synopsis. As my introduction to Victoria’s writing, I was absolutely blown away by how immediately I fell in love with her beautiful prose. My highlighting of quotes and passages was non-stop.

And the characters, my God. This is such a character-driven story. They’re so well-written, realistic, and hauntingly relatable. I commend Victoria entirely for creating characters literally anyone can identify with, even if it’s just a little.

I can go on and on about how much I loved Addie and how devastating it was to watch her cursed cycle repeat over the span of 300 years, but... Henry.

Sweet Henry’s storyline came along, and right hand to God, it literally felt as if with each word my rib cage cracked open more and more until my heart was laid completely bare. I have never, for as long as I can remember, read a book where I felt so seen that my heart literally a c h e d. I shit you not. Every fear that I’ve ever had about my life, yet never voiced, was all here tucked away inside a lost boy with too many feelings standing on the precipice trying to outrun a storm.

If it’s not already clear, you should be picking this up as soon as you can. Really. And my only other piece of advice is to not rush through it, savor it and sit with it for a while. I’m planning to do the same, because despite the ruinous mess Addie, Henry, and Luc left me, I’m counting down the days before I pick this back up and start the heartbreaking cycle all over again.

A huge thanks to @torbooks via @netgalley for the opportunity to obtain an eARC of this masterpiece in exchange for an honest review.

"Nothing is all good or bad," she says. "Life is so much messier than that."

This is a modern fairy tale that touches on so many life lessons, it's pretty impressive. It's got a younger, world-weary heroine that is certainly easy to identify with when she's younger and when she's learning big lessons. It's fast-paced enough that you can read it all at once, but its pacing is also such that you can put it down to reflect and pick it back up with no problems.

The characters in this book were fun and life-life. Everyone had their own thoughts and dreams-a particularly important theme. I couldn't figure out the ending before I got there, but I can say it was satisfying and had me pondering it days after I was done.

Read it. Loved it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This perfectly bingeable saga was dark and romantic and thought-provoking and exactly what I needed. I haven’t seen anyone say anything negative about this book and all I’m here to say is: BELIEVE THE HYPE!

🎧 I switched between physical and audio on this one and I can (and always will) recommend any #audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan, which includes this one.

I just wish this had been longer; I really wouldn’t mind getting lost in the centuries with Addie Larue for hundreds of more pages.

V.E. Schwab is often a hit or miss with me and this book was a hit. I loved it. The relationship with Henry was fantastic, the relationship with Luc was great. I had a few issues, such as pacing; I felt it was slow to get started, but I still wanted to finish and see how Addie's story ended. There were also other aspects of the narrative that didn't sit well with me. I know Schwab intends for this to be a standalone, but I need more. Especially with how she ended this book.

I really liked this story and am not sure why it took me a month and a half to read it (other than not having / making enough time to read and it being harder to concentrate on full length novels given the state of things in 2020). This is definitely a bit different from Schwab's Shades of Magic or Villains series in that there's not as much action and the story is revealed more slowly and in pieces, in alternating timelines over 300 years from 1714 to 2014. If you're looking for great characters and exploring what a Faustian bargain will do to someone cursed never to be remembered by anyone she meets, you'll enjoy Schwab's beautiful writing in this story!