The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Summary from GoodReads
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.
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.
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REVIEW
I received an e-ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
THIS BOOK! THIS BOOK! IT WAS AMAZING! A bargain with an ancient force leads a young woman in an immortal journey through time and history as she lives through major events. Victoria Schwab's spectacular storytelling shines through this book, which is by far the best she has written! (not that the others aren't but this one is on the top!)
Addie LaRue wants to escape her life in her 18th-century french village so, in the day of her wedding, she makes a bargain with something that is between a demon and a nature god. But in her bargain, she gets an even more sinister outcome. She is not only immortal but also cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Meaning that when someone turns their eyes away from her she will be forgotten.
Fast forward to the 21st century when Addie meets Harry the first person, who doesn't forget her when they meet a few times. And from there the story goes back and forth as it explores Addie and her curse, her...growing attachment with Luc, the villain who gets a name and Harry.
The writing was amazing! Filled with emotion, poetic descriptions and a strong sense of vulnerability as Addie lives through History almost alone with her also growing as a character and also as a heroine.
My most favorite line of the books was:
"Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives, or to find strength in a very long one."
This actually encompasses everything I do love in reading and plus Addie did find a way to leave her mark through History. By making artists she met remembering the idea of her. You see in the book there are descriptions of art and the estimated amount of their worth. I do not know if there will be pictures in the final copies (as I read the ARC0 but if that happened it would be amazing!
The ending gutted me and also offered me a strange satisfaction, as I was not completely happy with it but at the same time satisfied with how the story ended. You will have to read it to understand this bipolar sense I got as I cried over my Kindle and also was left shocked.
Totally recommended!
About the author:
Victoria has stated that books published under V.E. Schwab are adult releases and those under Victoria Schwab are YA.
Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say "tom-ah-toes," "like," and "y'all."
She also tells stories.
She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.
She also tells stories.
She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.
