Primary Genre(s): Fantasy, Fiction, Magical Realism
Published: 6 Oct 2020 by Tor Books
Page count: 448 (print length)
My Format: eBook via Overdrive/Libby
Cover: Simple
Pacing: Varies
Ending: Great
Do I Recommend: Yes
Commission Link (U.S.): Buy The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
My rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis
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.
My Thoughts
I have always wanted to read a V. E. Schwab book, so when this book came out and it started getting a lot of buzz, I figured I might as well start with it. Here are my pros and cons for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue:
Pros
- Great title!
- Exceptional concept!
- This book features a clever, strong female lead! Addie was an amazing character.
- I learned the word “palimpsests”. I love learning new words from books!
- I found this book to be tragic, emotional, endearing, lonely, and hopeful all at once.
- I loved when Henry appeared in the story. I enjoyed the dynamic between him and Addie. I particularly liked how much Addie changed mentally and emotionally when she realized someone finally remembered her.
- I absolutely loved the ending. It was complete, but also ambiguous, and I thought it was brilliant.
- While reading, I found myself thinking about how we impact the lives of the people around us. Whether in small, inconsequential ways or grand, world-stage ways, we all impact those we encounter somehow. Oddly, that made me feel insignificant and powerful all at the same time.
Cons
- I found it to be quite slow throughout the first half of the book. I was interested in her backstory and her initial struggles in dealing with her situation, but I felt like the book emphasized it for too long. Which also means it got a bit repetitive. The first half of the book was lacking the emotional depth of the second half of the book.
- I figured out the truth about Henry way too early and it did slightly impact my overall enjoyment of the book.
- There was a tendency to venture into purple prose.
Summary
This is the ultimate “be careful what you wish for” story. I can’t even imagine living an invisible life like Addie’s. The logistics alone are unfathomable!
Even with my Cons, I would still recommend this book to anyone. A little patience at the beginning results in a rewarding story.
If you would like to read this book and form your own opinion, please consider purchasing through this link: Buy The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Thanks!
Click here for a description of my rating scale.
(image from Goodreads)
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I just finished this book for my book club last month !!! ❤️ I loved it. I agree with your review for sure .. I was gonna say some spoilers but I see you didn’t in your review, so I will refrain. But You are right, be careful what you wish for… there is more importance to a name and a memory than we think. I also, kind of figured out Henry’s secret early, I was a bit sad about the ending, but I do like that we get to imagine the possibilities.
I also love the way you set up the book review, I may have to take some inspiration from you, because I want to start doing book reviews since I started book club lol… but I’m a bit intimidated on how to format a book review. Love the way you did it. 💋
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I was just thinking about magical realism and how I’ve only read a few titles from that genre, but that I enjoyed them. Thanks for sharing your review of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I must be really out of it, but I’d not heard of purple prose. What a great term – just looked it up.
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Addie is such a heartfelt book, I really enjoyed it. Great review! After this one, I would recommend Vicious by Victoria Schwab. It’s definitely her best one!
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I adored this book. It was a really special read that wasn’t like anything I’d ever read before!
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It was definitely unique. The concept was amazing.
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I’ll bump that up my TBR right now!
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Now that you know what purple prose is, you will see it a lot!
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Thank you! I started using the the pros and cons format to summarize my thoughts before I’d write a review… and then I had an epiphany! Why not just write out my pros and cons list as my actual review!! It works really great for me and I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback on the format. To me it is much easier to read than paragraphs of commentary.
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