NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine #1 Library Reads Pick–October 2020 #1 Indie Next Pick–October 2020 BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST–Book of The Month Club A “Best Of” Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * … 2020
BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST—Book of The Month Club
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In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.
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.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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For someone damned to be forgettable, Addie LaRue is a most delightfully unforgettable character, and her story is the most joyous evocation of unlikely immortality.
This book. This glorious, amazing book. I read the first chapter, set the book down gently in my lap, and tried to wrap my head around the perfection of it. Then I texted a friend who was also reading it and said I might as well quit writing. It’s one of THOSE…
Many congratulations to my friend V.E. Schwab on the triumph that is Addie LaRue. Brava, lady. Brava.
Simply exquisite! I haven’t been this invested in a fantasy since the Night Circus.
I don’t possess the words to adequately describe this book and how it made me feel. Schwab says that over the nearly ten years she worked on it, she put her heart and soul, teeth and blood and bones into this one. And it shows. It’s a magnificent work of art.
Imagine if you were forgotten by everyone you meet. In your presence, they know and recognize you, but the second they leave the room or wake up beside you, you’re a stranger. Because of this, you can’t hold a job – no employer would know who you were. With no way to earn money, you have no home. No closet full of clothes, no belongings, no friends. No loved ones who remember you. It’s an incredibly lonely life, but over the three hundred year span of this story, Addie really lives and experiences all the world has to offer – beauty, pain, love, hate, heartbreak, suffering – everything you can imagine.
It’s difficult to review this without spoilers, but trust me when I say this book offers a profound and thought-provoking examination of life and what it means to live. A blend of survival story, love story, historical fiction, and magical realism, you’ll experience a wide spectrum of emotions. I actually teared up at one point, and trust me – that’s quite a feat.
With beautiful writing, quotes you’ll make a note of, and extraordinary character development, I can’t recommend this book enough. If I could give it more than five stars, I absolutely would. It will linger in your mind long after finishing the last page.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Fantastic! It’s hard to get truly lost in a story these days with so much going on, but this was one I was able to fully sink into. It’s worth the book hangover.
Wow, what an amazing book! I loved everything about it! A woman who is doomed to be forgotten by someone finally meets someone who remembers her after 300 years. Are they destined to be together or is there something more sinister at work? Read it!
This book was magnificent. The premise was fascinating, and the story was absolutely beautiful.
This was my favorite book of the year. Period. Addie RaRue doesn’t want a boring, ordinary life—she wants more. So she (naturally) makes a deal the devil, who grants her immortality with this twist: no one remembers her. Ever. It’s the cruelest of punishments, especially for our self-obsessed age: Her legacy is gone. She’s instantly forgotten by everyone she encounters. Indeed, for 300 years, no remembers Addie. Until, one day, someone does. It’s a bottle-rocket of a moment, but what makes it even better is, well…I’m not ruining it for you. So let me just say this: So often, books with high concept plots are light on character, while books with rich characters have them so busy navel-gazing, they forget about the plot. V.E. Schwab is a master of both. She, like her character, is an artist. Watch how much she gets out of the devil, and Addie’s seven freckles, and, well…again…I’m not ruining it. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue will have you thinking about your own deals with the devil—especially the ones you make every day.
What happens when a young woman makes a deal with the devil to escape an unwanted marriage, only to find out the devil cheats? You get a cleverly well-written and satisfying read, where the determined, feisty heroine grows into her own woman and ultimately bests the devil at his own game. Expect a heartrending love story but not a romance.
Wow! This book. I’m not even sure where to begin with this review. I have never read anything like Addie LaRue. The best word I can think to describe this tale is haunting. Every word, every sentence of this book was captivating. I listened to it and I absolutely recommend “reading” it this way. I had no idea how it could possibly end in a satisfying way, but it did. Highly recommend.
Such an incredible concept — Would you make a deal to live forever if it meant no one would ever remember you? That’s the premise behind Addie LaRue, as unpredictable as it is romantic and intriguing. Get a friend to read this one with you at the same time because this is one you will want to discuss late into the night!
Wow! This is an original, entertaining, well-written novel about immortality, life and love. I listened to the audiobook version of this novel and Ms. Whelan has a lovely voice and does an excellent job of depicting the characters and their personalities.
Loved this story! Wonderful characters and lessons to learn about life. Beautifully written and wraps you wholly in the world and predicament of Addie. Definitely worth reading!
I don’t actually know how to describe how I loved this story. The premise was intriguing enough, the writing elevated it my favorite kind of drown-in-the-pages read.
What would you be willing to trade for freedom? And imagine that freedom wasn’t exactly what you were expecting?
“Do you know how to live three hundred years?” she says. And when he asks how, she smiles. “The same way you live one. A second at a time.”
First of all, a warning. If you’re reading The invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, works like Vicious or A Darker Shade of Magic, prepare for something completely different.
You are about to embark on a journey that borders the field of what it means to be Human and what one does to keep that humanity.
It’s still a well-grounded work and with the trappings of a fantasy book but in the way that Goethe’s Faust is a work of fantasy. At least that was what this book was to me.
“Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget.”
The story that we are told, that of a young woman that makes a deal in the forest to escape a life she didn’t want, and it doesn’t turn out quite as she expected it to, is laid out before us in a way that keeps you wondering what the next pages will bring.
Addie’s life is shown to us moving between the present (well, 2014 present), and the last three hundred years she lived after that night in the woods.
You see, the deal she makes to be free has a very specific caveat: no one can remember her, which supposedly gives her absolute freedom.
So we follow her story as she meets people and people forget her and she doesn’t seem to be able to make a mark in the world.
Along the road, she finds a way to somehow get around this – she may be forgotten, but she can inspire, so that’s what she does.
Through all this time her only companion is the one she made the deal with and that visits her on the anniversary of their contract. And he’s the only one that can remember her.
At least until she enters a particular bookstore in New York and someone else seems to not have forgotten their previous encounter.
“Three words, large enough to tip the world. I remember you.”
The thing that I liked the most about this book was the way the story is structured and the cadence of the writing that seems to pick up as you keep reading.
It hypnotizes us in a way and makes it very hard to put the book down. I found myself wondering if it was all worthwhile.
You may find tears streaming down your face or a chill running through your bones in some parts of the book and that’s completely normal in a book like this.
“Being forgotten, she thinks, is a bit like going mad. You begin to wonder what is real, if you are real. After all, how can a thing be real if it cannot be remembered?”
All in all, what you must know is this: Addie may be cursed to be forgotten, but her story, and this book, will not.
This book took. my. breath. away.
The entire novel made me rethink the way I live my life and the time I spend and how precious it all is, because unlike Addie, we have only one lifetime so we must make it count no matter what. If I could read this book for the first time all over again I would. the writing is beautiful and poetic, you will find yourself wanting to mark dozens of pages and paragraphs that knock the wind from your chest and make reality set in.
amazing amazing amazing – in my top 5.
The Invisible Life… I came to this book wary – because on the base of premise I was uneasy that a book could have so many elements of other books I had read and loved, and hope to still bring it’s own unique character to the game.
V.E.Schwab managed just that, however. This is a delightful book, made so by Ms.Schwab’s voice, which is confident, poetic and insightful. The practice of beginning chapters with stand-alone sentences is not unique or groundbreaking, but is nevertheless well used here, giving the reader much needed pauses to contemplate – the story itself is a ride that does not stop, sets it’s own pace and dizzies the reader along with it, our delight in the fairy tale willing us ever onward, wanting the MC to overcome her curse.
It’s just wonderful escapism. Schwab has populated her modern world with detailed believable human characters, filled with modern-day values and mannerisms, and it is rewarding for it. She does not care at the nature of love between people, of whatever sex they have, it is not important, it is irrelevant to their stories, their lives. And rightly so.
At it’s base, this is a faustian re-invention. It takes elements from books such as Clare North’s “The sudden appearance of hope”, or Marcus Sakey’s wonderful “Brilliance” trilogy, with a character that fades from memory. Same principle, new clothing. And the outfit works. Unlike those other books, this book grounds itself in mythos, in fairy tales, in magic, offering little clarification as to the nature of the devil presented – God, trickster, devil – it is not the story. The story is the bind – the deal set in stone, and the many permutations that deal allows. The prison is set, and the reader allowed to watch as the prisoner tests the bars of that confinement. And done in as poetic a voice as I have read in recent memory.
It’s spellbinding. Sometimes I think it makes the same point too many times. The same scene is repeated, with variations, once too many times. But this is forgiven. The end is inevitable but solid.
I’m pleased I picked this up and will be reading more from Ms Schwab. I believe she will only get more prevalent. Deservedly so.
Thank you for a couple of days, lost in a competent, well-written world.
I just loved this book.
I’ve long enjoyed Schwab’s work but I think this is her very best by far. Simply sublime!
This book is an absolute marvel. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything quite like it, and I wish I had the pleasure of reading it for the first time all over again. It is beautiful and searing and slow-burning in a way that begs to be savored. It is a rare, perfect read that I might have believed someone custom ordered for me – I can’t recommend it strongly enough. It reads with the same magic as The Night Circus and has the timelessness of The Age of Adaline, but it is uniquely it’s own. It’s already hurtled it’s way onto my favorites list.