The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab

*Spoiler free*

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. 

I was lucky enough to be approved for an e-ARC of this book. I honestly couldn’t believe it and I’m still having a hard time believing it. I’ve been excited for this book since the deal announcement, which I know isn’t as long as some people, but I was still very, very excited! It sounded like something incredible and I knew Schwab would do something amazing with it. Trigger warnings: depression, anxiety, attempted suicide, uncomfortable sexual encounters 

Hi, it’s another review where I say it’s hard to find words to describe a book like this. But it’s true. How do you find the words to describe a book like this? It’s a book that seemed to be infused with the light of stars, with a soft glow that follows you even when you’ve finished the book. It’s a book that needs elaborate language to describe it, so a expect a lot of that here haha.

This book is made of moments, moments that trickle until they form something full. I think that was one of my favorite parts of the book, how it was a story made up of stories. I fell in love with the moments before I fell in love with the entire book. These moments are tied up with such a flourish. They are all tied together in a way that makes them even more than they were before. They become something different, but nothing less incredible.

Schwab really knows how to write. Like, really, really knows how to write. It’s like she knows the exact right words to put in the exact right positions. The writing is just spectacularly beautiful and I think it shows the full force of her talent.

The way this book implemented darkness was great. It becomes something alive, but nothing less dangerous. It’s cunning and it’s something to be scared of, but it’s also something you can’t help but be curious about. In a way, it makes you understand Addie more, to relate to what she’s going to. You can understand her actions because you can see and understand what she’s dealing with.

The characters were human. And that’s the biggest compliment that I can give them. They were messy, they hurt, they wanted to be enough, they felt, they wanted to dream, they wanted to live, and they wanted to be. They’re just people who sink into you and make you feel so much.

The ending surprised me, in the way that I wasn’t sure about it at first. It seems like it’s something open ended and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. But it ends on a promise. And that’s Addie. A promise to deliver, to endure, and to keep being stubborn. It’s such an amazing ending to this book and it fits so well.

This book brings out the flowy language in me, but that’s how this book is. It’s a book that is best described in metaphors and sayings that might be just a bit weird. This book was everything that I hoped it would and it was also nothing like I expected. It’s soft, but it’s powerful. Schwab seriously wrote something incredible.

The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue comes out October 6, 2020! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy in the meantime!

Thank you for reading!