A review by wildflowerx
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

My charity shop find of the year. Yes, 2023 is not over yet, but that's it, I know that.

I purposely took some time before writing this review because I wanted to see if I would still think about it after finishing it. 24 hours later, I have my answer, and the answer is YES, I've been thinking about it all day. Some books leave a mark, and they just make me happy to be alive and to be able to read and live, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is one of them.

Summary
Adeline LaRue is a young woman living in a small village in France in the 18th century who dreams a life of freedom and adventures. As she's about to get married to a man she doesn't love, she begs the Gods to help her. Darkness answers her prayers. He agrees to letting her live forever, granting her an immortal life of pure freedom in exchange of her soul. But the deal is a curse, and Addie is condemned to never be remembered by anyone, ever. Until 300 years later, when in a New York bookstore she meets Henry.

Plot
The book is definitely character driven. If this is something you aren't into and would rather read a book with a clear plot, then I don't think it's going to be for you. To me, TILOAL felt almost like a diary, alternating moments from Addie's long - and mostly heartbreaking - past, narrated in chronological order, and events from a nearer time. The title is pretty explicative: you are going to be reading her whole life, including how it comes to an "end".

Writing
The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and makes me want to read more work from Schwab. The lexicon is not complex, yet it is poetic and evocative. I felt so much while reading this book, and it doesn't happen often. I could feel all the anxiety and dread and panic as Addie was feeling trapped in a life she didn't want.

What Schwab does beautifully too is using art as an active part of her storytelling. I loved how art is used as a device to discover more about Addie's life, but the most beautiful aspect of it is that it symbolised how although she was destined to be forgotten, she left such a mark on people that she was always remembered in a way.

Main characters & relationships
Addie is the protagonist, and I love her just because of how ordinary she is at first. A girl who dreams of escaping the reality she's trapped in, who is ready to get outside of her comfort zone. And that continues after the curse, and perhaps her desire to Live is even stronger. Ultimately, it's what keeps her going and fighting Luc, it's what pushes her to take what she can from a curse who took her dreams and desires to the extremes and twisted them into her nightmares. Yes, she lives, but she's always alone, and lonely, and hungry. Yes, she's free, nobody (but Luc) can control her. But nobody remembers her. She can't work, she can only steal and sell her body. She has nobody who loves her. She has no home.
I could empathise so much with her desire to run away and explore, and then with her loneliness. I felt like crying a lot throughout the book, especially as we explored her first year after the curse. I wanted to hug her so badly. I felt she changed over the course of the centuries, but she still remained herself in a way. I love, love, love her. I also loved how her story is a big metaphor for all the forgotten women in history. Had it not been for art and books, what would be left of them?

And now the two men of the story. Luc (the Darkness/Devil) and Henry, and Addie's relationship with them, play an essential role in her story. 
On the one hand we have Luc, the darkness, the cause of her suffering, but also the reason why she got to live this long, experience this much. Luc, the shadows, who takes the shape of the man of her dreams, who every year on their "anniversary", the 29th of July, tried to persuade her to give up on the life she sold her soul for, and which he made his best to make miserable. Luc, who does his best to ruin every small bit of happiness she manages to conquer, and who wants to be the reason she breaks.
As the story progresses, Luc develops a morbid obsession for Addie, an obsession which he calls "love", but which could never be real love. Luc who is her abuser, but also the only person who remembers her for 300 years. I would be lying if I said their relationship and the toxic power dynamic wasn't interesting to read. In fact, it was definitely one of the most exciting parts. But I can't see him as a love interest, he wasn't.

And on the other hand we have sweet and kind Henry, who is a bit lost, and doesn't feel like he really belongs and like he found his way. I'm his age as I read this, and I couldn't emphasise with him more. What a weird decade, your 20s. 
He and Addie helped each others in ways nobody else could, and were there for each other in ways nobody else could have. I so feel like "right person wrong time" fits their relationship perfectly. He's perhaps not as an interesting character as Luc, but he was exactly what Addie needed, and vice versa. I really loved him. 

Ending
It's been 24 hours since I finished the book, and I still don't know how to feel about the ending. I'm definitely a bit broken.
A bit broken for Henry, who really loved her, and despite being heartbroken after she left, made sure that everyone knew about her by writing her story, and made sure everyone knew that it was HER story. He was just his pen when she couldn't be one. A bit (a lot) broken for Addie, too, because after centuries she had finally found some normalcy, and happiness, and love with someone kind, and caring, and smart who adored her. And she had to give up on it and go with Luc because of the deal Henry stroke with Luc. And because of Luc's unwillingness to let her go, and to let her and Henry go.

I had no clue of how it was going to end, but overall, I think it's a satisfying one, though I'm not normally a fan of open endings. I really hope she makes Luc pay. Such a shame we'll never see how she manages to get her revenge.

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