Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

57 reviews

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

addie larue was okay—honestly just okay.
i like schwab's writing style a lot; i think her ideas are smart, and so are many lines in the book.
however, the book still failed to captivate me in many ways.

the characters were nice and had their fair share of depth... like, objectively, they were good characters, but i still found myself unable to 1) fall in love with them, and 2) relate to them in any way or form. i still don't feel any special attachment to any of these characters, and that, of course, took away most of the impact of the story (since it is a very character-driven one).

the plot didn't especially excite me either, except for the few end-of-chapter cliffhangers and plot-twists. the rest was all just a little meh, you know.

my verdict: a highly readable, low-fantasy book you're surely going to enjoy if you like character-driven books and a slight 'no plot, just vibes' kinda feeling.
sadly, wasn't entirely for me, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

daenesea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Minor: Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

saturnpersonified's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and War

jg34's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

One of the easiest 5 star ratings. I might need to lower all other book ratings now bc this is the new standard

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

TLDR; 4.5 rating rounded up, I love monkey’s paw wishes, I love queer women, and I’m not gonna lie this book almost had me crying.


Full review to come. :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Rape, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

sebnia_05's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

kaziaroo's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I liked the beginning, and the very end, but the middle not so much. While it's not my usual kind of book, and I have no patience for this kind of "lyrical prose" and over-romanticisation of everything, I was intrigued by Addie's situation and the bitter sadness of her not being remembered by everything. I struggled with some of the plausibility of it; that she would really be so desperate to avoid a quiet, comfortable marriage that she would make a deal with a strange eldritch being, and that she would never stray beyond Western Europe and the USA in her 300 years. Her relationship with the demon that cursed her was interesting, and so were the ways in which she learned to cope with and manoeuvre within her curse. I did find it tedious reading about her endless one-sided one-night stands, but I was willing to push through that. 

But then Henry appeared. I honestly think I would have enjoyed the book more if I'd just skipped Henry's chapters. The story would have mostly made sense without them and I would have those hours of my life back. Although I related to some of his struggles with choosing his career path and specialism, and his situation is also sad, Henry's chapters were just boring. He mopes around all day and whenever he feels a little worse he just downs a mixture of drugs with gay abandon and no consequences the next day. His and Addie's "love" was totally unconvincing; compared to the other lovers we see her meet, Henry is by far the most dull and she only likes him so much because he remembers her. She becomes the only interesting thing about him.

I wish the book had either explored the world and history a bit more or been a couple of hundred pages shorter. I had no interest in watching Addie and Henry having nice days out and going to endless bars and clubs, or sleeping with everyone they meet. The flowery writing desperately tried to make me fall in love with the characters and settings, but it was all style over substance. My overall feeling about this book is disappointment after the hype.

I would recommend this to fans of Matt Haig's "How to Stop Time" and who want nice, deep-sounding quotes to put in their Instagram captions.

TL;DR: it was well executed for what it was but the writing was flowery, the male lead boring, the female lead unadventurous, and there was too much sex, drugs and rock & roll for my tastes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Sexism, Sexual assault, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a book that I kept seeing good things about so I was really happy when I found a copy.
I have found it really hard to sit down and write a review about it. I really enjoyed the book. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes curses, prophesies, the movie Labyrinth, pansexual characters, book shops, art and music, and croissants. (if that's you, don't read the review, just go and get the book)

Addie La Rue is a semi-mortal person who has been gifted and cursed by an old god, to have all the time she wants, but never be remembered by anyone longer than she is in contact with them. This includes writing anything down, breaking things, or appearing on cameras, but does not include people drawing her or writing down things about her. It's a really cool premise for a story and provides a lot of scope for her interactions over the centuries. The story is not told in fully chronological order, but you don't get lost.
How would you react if you ordered a coffee but couldn't get it unless it was delivered to your table number, rather than you personally, because you are literally "out of sight, out of mind"?

Addie develops a perverse relationship of sorts with the one entity who can remember her; the one who cursed her in the first place. This creature of Darkness who she names Luc, has a definite Goblin King vibe and much of the feel of their relationship, and the crap he pulls, could easily have been straight from the movie Labyrinth.. the parallels are not lost on me.

Running into someone who can remember her is incredibly emotional and goes against all the things Addie has learned in her last centuries of life. They spend time figuring out the limits of her curse, and why it is that it doesn't work on him.

Honestly, the story, the growth, the recurrent nature of having to go through first-time meetings (over and over again) is a captivating puzzle. My son who is interested in SCP found himself spending time pondering about the limits of such magical restraints, what she can or cannot do, and what might happen if she encountered someone else with different powers or limits.

I really love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

esme_may's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cancer and Child death

mary_stormageddon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I think this story could have benefited from a few chapters being cut, as it did drag on from time to time. But, in the end, it broke my heart, ensuring that I'll never forget Addie LaRue.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail