Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

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

34 reviews

caitlinjadams's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

On some level, this just isn't my book.

I'm not really interested in the entire "deal with a devil" side of the story and desperation and the deals people would be willing to make is a major major theme of this book. But it's also a book about what people do with time when it's short and when it's long and that I found compelling, but underdeveloped. Also underdeveloped but inherently more interesting to me than anything devilish--how a woman survives over time. In the end, I think I want this to have been two parallel stories--Addie's and Henry's side by side as foils by chance--with more on how the two people lived their circumstances rather than how they lived in spite of or because of the devil. Can't say I recommend it. Can't say the hours reading it were a waste.

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odeiu's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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fragrant_stars's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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jasmijn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

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spazio_per_storie's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

Che dire. Sono 15 minuti che cerco di fermare le lacrime con scarso successo. La vita invisibile di Addie Larue è riuscito a sconvolgermi, e non poco. La storia, che richiama la tradizione faustiana del "stringo un patto col diavolo per non invecchiare", è riuscito a sorprendermi capitolo dopo capitolo. Per quanto alcuni eventi mi possano sembrare prevedibili, la maggior parte di essi (tra cui il finale) per me non lo è stata.
Il personaggio meglio riuscito è indubbiamente Henry, mentre Addie risulta un po' piatta all'inizio ma è quella che subisce la più forte trasformazione nel corso della storia. E quella di Addie è una storia proprio lunga, tra secoli e continenti, e guerre e persone. E per quanto la narrazione sia tendenzialmente lenta, ho divorato questo libro nel giro di qualche ora (incluse tre o quattro pause lacrime).
Un altro grande punto di forza del libro è la scrittura. La prosa di V. E. Schwab si riconferma come estremamente piacevole, scorrevole ma ricercata. Insomma, questo libro è consigliatissimo, ma magari non leggetelo durante la sessione di esami come il sottoscritto.

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purple_adora's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

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stwriter92's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book broke my heart in such an amazing way. I have adored everything I have ready by V.E. Schwab and this was no exception. She has such a fantastic way with words and has a knack for always finding the exact right one. I don't know how she does it, but there it is!

The book itself centers on the eponymous Addie (Adeline) LaRue. Her story begins in eighteenth century France, where she lives in the small village of Villon with her parents. She grows up wild, unruly, and untamable. While this is seen as tolerable when she is a child, it quickly becomes less so when she grows into a young woman. To escape what she sees as a horrible fate of being forced into marriage and then buried in the same ten meter plot as the rest of her village, she turns to the heathen gods, begging for an escape. However, she forgets that one must never pray to the gods that listen at night. One swoops down and gleefully grants her freedom in return for her soul. However, there is a caveat. Addie LaRue will be forgotten by everyone, thus severing any and all bonds that might tie her down to one particular place. She will leave no mark and will not even be able to say her own name. That privilege will remain with the god that granted her her cursed freedom. However, three hundred years later, she stumbles upon a young man, Henry, who can remember her. Thus, the game between her and the devil grows new and terrible dimensions as she fights to keep her love and regain true freedom.

The story itself is so unique. I don't think I've ever really heard of a story like this one before. Of course there have been stories told about deals made with devils and trickster gods and monkey's paws for centuries. This was one iteration of that old story that I have not heard before, which was incredibly refreshing. I felt completely immersed throughout the entire story and found myself physically reacting to the events of the book. This story gave me hope for humanity, which is incredibly hard to come by. In all her years of loneliness, Addie never once gave up hope. She came to love humans, while Luc only saw them as playthings to be tossed at a whim. She saw that human beings are messy but redeemable. In her three hundred years, she did not become jaded. She learned, yes. She went through hardships and saw wars begin and end, empires rise and fall, kings come to power and die in rags. Instead of seeing humanity as a transient thing, to be watched from a distance in a bored manner, she sees something worth saving and loving. When Luc asks her what she sees in Henry and humanity in general and she responds, "You see only flaws and faults, weaknesses to be exploited. But humans are messy, Luc. That is the wonder of them. They live and love and make mistakes, and they feel so much. And maybe--maybe I am no longer one of them" (Part 6 Chapter 13, p. 407). In all her years, she has not grown bitter and hateful.

Even the ending,

while heartbreaking, still kept a kernel of hope alive. While she might never be able to see Henry again, she still has a plan to get out from under Luc's thumb. I think that was what I loved so much about her. There is not a single moment in which she loses all hope and gives into Luc and his demands. The book ends on an open note and we are left to wonder whether or not she will finally get out from under Luc's control and power. This ends much in the same way that Henry's novel under the same name ends. It's not a true ending because we will never truly know. I think that's how I ended the book. A goodbye, but a goodbye as described in the book. "Not a period, but an ellipsis, a statement trailing off, until someone is there to pick it up. It is a door left open. It is drifting off to sleep" (Part 6 Chapter 16, p. 419).

Some Quotes I Loved:

"What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?" (Part 1 Chapter 1, p. 15)
"March is such a fickle month. It is the seam between winter and spring--though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stitches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens. You don't know what you'll find, until you step outside" (Part 1 Chapter 2, p. 20).
"Stories are a way to preserve one's self. to be remembered. And to forget. Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books. Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives--or to find strength in a very long one" (Part 1 Chapter 7, p. 35).
"Day breaks like an egg yolk, spilling yellow light across the field" (Part 1 Chapter 8, p. 40).
"The day passes like a sentence. The sun falls like a scythe" (Part 1 Chapter 8, p. 41).
"Every day is amber, and she is the fly trapped inside. No way to think in days or weeks when she lives in moments. Time begins to lose its meaning--and yet, she has not lost track of time" (Part 2 Chapter 4, p. 114)
"But this is how you walk tot he end of the world. This is how you live forever. Here is one day, and here is the next, and you take what you can, savor every stolen second, cling to every moment until it's gone" (Part 3 Chapter 8, p. 202)
"Belief is a bit like gravity. Enough people believe a thing, and it becomes as solid and real as the ground beneath your feet. But when you're the only one holding on to an idea, a memory, a girl, it's hard to keep it from floating away" (Part 7 Chapter 2, p. 437)

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nat29's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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madmilliner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to like this story, especially because the writing is so beautiful. The words, and scenes are a cross between poetry and art.

It is the ultimate manic pixie dream girl vs depressive demon nightmare boy, I felt it was trying too hard and was somehow ¿oversaturated?

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spookynerd00's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I’m not sure “dazzling adventure” is the right description of this book. There is an overall plot, yes, but not a lot happens, and it’s emotional and well put together, but that’s not the bright spot of this book.

The writing is beautiful, and it’s a very interesting character study. What would you do if you couldn’t leave a mark anywhere? What would you do if you felt you were never enough? What happens when you put a desperate woman, a lonely man, and the night itself altogether? The characters are vivid and relatable in different aspects.

It’s a very slow read, but the writing does pull you in. It’s one of those books that I can only read a few chapters at a time before losing interest, but that’s not a bad thing always. I think of books like these as an atmospheric read: not a lot of action, but very pretty words that draw you in and make you feel like you’re part of that world.

I will say, I did not cry. But there was a stretch of chapters that I could feel a sense of despair rising in my chest. I think if I were in a different mood I could have cried though.

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