A review by kaladinstorms
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
3.0
3.5
i spent a long time debating what rating to give this book (as if it matters) because for 80% of the book i kept thinking that it could be so much better, that the concept had so much potential to explore more than it did. i enjoyed it, but i still felt like it was overrated. a story about a woman alive and forgotten for 300 years and all i got were repetitive musings about art and music, or repetitive romantic relationships that lasted a few hours, and the thought that there's so much else to explore kept nagging at me. i know she chose to write it that way to make a point, that the repetitiveness was intentional, the whole plot of the story is that she's someone who cannot be remembered and she uses repetition to get us to feel how addie feels. i understand the logic of it, but i still kept getting annoyed at turning the page to her waking up in another beautiful boy's bed. this is where my preference comes in, this bitch has been alive for 300 years, what makes you think i care about any of that? i get small mentions of major historical events, and various different countries, a whole world and eras that can make addie's life feel as long and as rich as v.e schwab wants me to believe. for a woman who has lived this long, her story feels so confined, because whenever we saw her she's in one of 3 places. and whenever she's outside of those places (in another european country of course), the descriptions are short, the immersion not there, i don't feel like she's actually in another place. i don't feel like she's been anywhere at all.
i wish more time had been spent on her actually seeing the world, on her changing and growing as her understanding of the world shifted with every new place she saw, and every new people she lived amongst, every new era she witnessed. i liked her relationship with henry, and even with the darkness, although looking back on it i do feel like it was unnecessary. like yes, of course i'm gonna enjoy her scenes where literal darkness (who happens to look like stan twitter's dream man, MY dream man) falls for her, i am a whore for that stuff, but if i'm being honest it feels a little silly now.
this review has been mostly criticism until now, but i did enjoy it. v.e schwab has good prose and the ending had an emotional impact on me despite all my criticisms (which is why i bumped up the rating to 3.5 and even considered giving it a 4 at one point).
i spent a long time debating what rating to give this book (as if it matters) because for 80% of the book i kept thinking that it could be so much better, that the concept had so much potential to explore more than it did. i enjoyed it, but i still felt like it was overrated. a story about a woman alive and forgotten for 300 years and all i got were repetitive musings about art and music, or repetitive romantic relationships that lasted a few hours, and the thought that there's so much else to explore kept nagging at me. i know she chose to write it that way to make a point, that the repetitiveness was intentional, the whole plot of the story is that she's someone who cannot be remembered and she uses repetition to get us to feel how addie feels. i understand the logic of it, but i still kept getting annoyed at turning the page to her waking up in another beautiful boy's bed. this is where my preference comes in, this bitch has been alive for 300 years, what makes you think i care about any of that? i get small mentions of major historical events, and various different countries, a whole world and eras that can make addie's life feel as long and as rich as v.e schwab wants me to believe. for a woman who has lived this long, her story feels so confined, because whenever we saw her she's in one of 3 places. and whenever she's outside of those places (in another european country of course), the descriptions are short, the immersion not there, i don't feel like she's actually in another place. i don't feel like she's been anywhere at all.
i wish more time had been spent on her actually seeing the world, on her changing and growing as her understanding of the world shifted with every new place she saw, and every new people she lived amongst, every new era she witnessed. i liked her relationship with henry, and even with the darkness, although looking back on it i do feel like it was unnecessary. like yes, of course i'm gonna enjoy her scenes where literal darkness (who happens to look like stan twitter's dream man, MY dream man) falls for her, i am a whore for that stuff, but if i'm being honest it feels a little silly now.
this review has been mostly criticism until now, but i did enjoy it. v.e schwab has good prose and the ending had an emotional impact on me despite all my criticisms (which is why i bumped up the rating to 3.5 and even considered giving it a 4 at one point).