FRANCE, 1714. A desperate woman makes a desperate deal in the dark – a bargain to live forever but be remembered by none.
So begins the invisible life of Addie LaRue, shadow muse to artists throughout history, forgotten friend, confidante and lover, slipping away with the morning light. Addie passes through lives. desperate only to leave a trace herself. Until the day she walks into a small bookshop in Manhattan and meets Henry, who remembers her.
After 300 years Addie’s life is restarting, but the devil never plays fair. As Henry and Addie’s lives start to intertwine, they must face the consequence of the decisions they’ve made and the prices to be paid.
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab is a historical/fantasy fiction novel. The edition I have was published under Titan Books in October 2020. ISBN:9781785652509. Addie LaRue jumps between France and New York and transverses the years 1714 to 2014. Addie is a dreamer, and when her parents try to force her to marriage in a desperate plea to live the life she wants for herself she makes a deal with the dark to live and be free. But the dark makes promises that aren’t always what it seems. Addie becomes unable to be remembered, unable to leave a mark until she meets Henry.
I was quite nervous going into reading this book, to be honest. It’s one of those that was absolutely plastered on every single bookstagram account and book blog that I follow, or have happened to come across. Many reviews sang its praises as being one of the best books ever, others said that it was over-hyped and not worth all of the fuss. With books like that, I always feel slightly apprehensive to read them. Mostly, because I’m so anxious to find out which side I’ll fall on. The popular opinion or the unpopular.
The first thing that I noticed about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, was the writing style. The way the whole books is written is insanely beautiful. The sentence structure, the way everything is described and just constructed in general is so magical and lovely to read. I honestly cannot fault the writing style and quality as it is just a pleasure to read. It genuinely made me so happy, from the moment I read the first page I knew the writing wasn’t going to be an issue to love at all.
When it comes to the actual story, I enjoyed it but it didn’t fully pull me in. I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed by that, but I think the bookstagram hype was to blame for that. The reason being, that a lot of people said they completely lost themselves in the book and it was absolutely amazing. I will say though, I thought the plot was incredibly unique and very well thought out. It stayed interesting all the way through, and I found myself wanting the stereotypical happy ending for Addie and all the love-y dove-y happy stuff you get at then end of all good love stories. So I did get somewhat invested in the story and the outcome of the characters, just not as much as I was led to believe I would be by other reviews.
All in all, I did really enjoy The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I thought the characters, writing and plot were lovely and so individual to anything I’ve ever read before. But I was left feeling a tiny bit underwhelmed which I am going to blame on all the super-hyped up reviews on instagram that I had seen prior to reading it. I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of fantasy and romance. I feel like they’d find this one a lovely addition to their shelf and an easy one to love.
Star Rating /5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
FRANCE, 1714. A desperate woman makes a desperate deal in the dark – a bargain to live forever but be remembered by none.
So begins the invisible life of Addie LaRue, shadow muse to artists throughout history, forgotten friend, confidante and lover, slipping away with the morning light. Addie passes through lives. desperate only to leave a trace herself. Until the day she walks into a small bookshop in Manhattan and meets Henry, who remembers her.
After 300 years Addie’s life is restarting, but the devil never plays fair. As Henry and Addie’s lives start to intertwine, they must face the consequence of the decisions they’ve made and the prices to be paid.
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab is a historical/fantasy fiction novel. The edition I have was published under Titan Books in October 2020. ISBN:9781785652509. Addie LaRue jumps between France and New York and transverses the years 1714 to 2014. Addie is a dreamer, and when her parents try to force her to marriage in a desperate plea to live the life she wants for herself she makes a deal with the dark to live and be free. But the dark makes promises that aren’t always what it seems. Addie becomes unable to be remembered, unable to leave a mark until she meets Henry.
I was quite nervous going into reading this book, to be honest. It’s one of those that was absolutely plastered on every single bookstagram account and book blog that I follow, or have happened to come across. Many reviews sang its praises as being one of the best books ever, others said that it was over-hyped and not worth all of the fuss. With books like that, I always feel slightly apprehensive to read them. Mostly, because I’m so anxious to find out which side I’ll fall on. The popular opinion or the unpopular.
The first thing that I noticed about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, was the writing style. The way the whole books is written is insanely beautiful. The sentence structure, the way everything is described and just constructed in general is so magical and lovely to read. I honestly cannot fault the writing style and quality as it is just a pleasure to read. It genuinely made me so happy, from the moment I read the first page I knew the writing wasn’t going to be an issue to love at all.
When it comes to the actual story, I enjoyed it but it didn’t fully pull me in. I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed by that, but I think the bookstagram hype was to blame for that. The reason being, that a lot of people said they completely lost themselves in the book and it was absolutely amazing. I will say though, I thought the plot was incredibly unique and very well thought out. It stayed interesting all the way through, and I found myself wanting the stereotypical happy ending for Addie and all the love-y dove-y happy stuff you get at then end of all good love stories. So I did get somewhat invested in the story and the outcome of the characters, just not as much as I was led to believe I would be by other reviews.
All in all, I did really enjoy The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I thought the characters, writing and plot were lovely and so individual to anything I’ve ever read before. But I was left feeling a tiny bit underwhelmed which I am going to blame on all the super-hyped up reviews on instagram that I had seen prior to reading it. I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of fantasy and romance. I feel like they’d find this one a lovely addition to their shelf and an easy one to love.
Star Rating /5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️