Invisible Life of Addie Larue Export Edition

As the owner of our beloved book club, I couldn’t be more thrilled to share my thoughts on The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This book is nothing short of a masterpiece—a story that lingers in your heart long after you’ve turned the final page. From the very beginning, Addie’s tale gripped me. The premise is as enchanting as it is haunting: a young woman makes a Faustian bargain for freedom and immortality, only to be cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Schwab’s writing is lyrical, almost poetic, and she masterfully weaves between centuries and perspectives, painting vivid pictures of both 18th-century France and modern-day New York. What struck me most was Addie herself—her resilience, her yearning, and the way she finds beauty and meaning in fleeting moments. Her connection with Henry, the first person to remember her in over 300 years, adds a poignant layer to the story. Their shared struggles with identity and purpose made me reflect deeply on what it means to truly leave a mark on the world. Schwab’s exploration of love, art, memory, and the human desire to matter is profound. Each chapter felt like a gift, and I found myself savoring the prose while simultaneously racing to uncover the next twist. This is a book for anyone who’s ever felt invisible, anyone who’s dreamed of something bigger, and anyone who loves a story that’s both heart-wrenching and uplifting. Our book club discussions about this one will be endless—there’s so much to unpack! If you haven’t read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue yet, I cannot recommend it enough. Prepare to be swept away by a story that feels like a timeless classic yet utterly unique. This is a novel I will treasure and revisit, and I’m certain it will remain a favorite for years to come. Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I have been reduced to a puddle of my own tears and when I say tears I mean silent hiccup sobbing, wake the hubby at 3 a.m. from sniffling too hard tears. It was: the anguish of hopelessness--> the possibility of something good and true---> impossible fruition---> joy the likes of which are nearly incomprehensible---> loss so profound you might never recover---> ?? Mrs. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is one of her best works to date and that's saying a lot since Shade of Magic happens to be really high up on my top 10 favorite series of all time. Addie Larue was enticing and gripping right out of the gate. It was engaging and never once did I wish it would hurry up or stop focusing on one aspect in favor of another. The pacing was excellent, never a lull or rough spot. And the writing was poignant and meaningful just as we have come to expect in a Victoria Schwab book. The world developement was detailed. I was transported around the world and I felt the character's pain, lived their challenges, right there alongside them. The backdrops were so vivid I could smell the putrid stench of Life centuries ago. I felt the defeated, unjust terror of being a lone woman in a man's world, having to make heartbreaking decisions just to keep on living. As usual, we were blessed with morally ambiguous characters, just like she normally writes them... just like I like to read them... this time from 2 vastly different POVs. We were led on a journey through centuries of (oft times) hard living all the way up to modern day with First World problems. Our 2 MCs were almost polar opposites who were floundering in their lives and just about had enough. They were lost (in the most dire meaning of the word) and ready to do WHATEVER was necessary to drastically change their lot in life. They mostly struggled with the choice(s) they made, choices that led to consequences more akin to curses rather than blessings. And just when you think their solo stories have reached rock bottom... they somehow find one another. These opposing magnets find themselves flipped about, hopelessly addicted and uncontrollably attracted to one another as only 2 strong magnets can be. The characters were elegantly, subtly, brilliantly built up, so much so that I hardly noticed their depths until I was fully engrossed and completely invested. Their troubles were tangible and the characters so robust, I actually (emotionally) felt them, heard them, was them. AND then there's the antagonist: is he a God, the devil, a dark spirit, an enemy, a lover?? Dive in, you know you want answers. Overall: This was an emotional rollercoaster ride and oh so worth the hurt! I loved every moment and I can't recommend it highly enough. ~ Enjoy

I bought this book because it was the book of the month for our book club. I also bought itused stated that it was lightly used. There was no damage to the book. No pages were missing. It was like a brand new book. There was a receipt inside the book which I thought was cute. I actually used it as my bookmark whenever I read the book. The book was really good. The ending definitely got me thinking. Was not typically my type of book, but it definitely held my interest.

V.E. Schwab’s *The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue* is a poignant and haunting exploration of immortality, identity, and the need to be remembered. This intricately woven narrative transports readers across centuries and continents, following the life of Adeline “Addie” LaRue, a young woman who makes a fateful deal with a dark God. With breathtaking prose and a story that lingers long after the final page, Schwab delivers a masterpiece that is as heartfelt as it is heart-wrenching. Set in 18th century France, Addie LaRue is a dreamer trapped in a world that offers little freedom for women. In a moment of desperation, faced with a marriage of convenience that threatens to snuff out her spirit, she prays to the gods for escape. But as warned by her mentor, Estele, one must never pray to the gods after dark. Ignoring this advice, Addie strikes a deal with a shadowy figure, granting her immortality but cursing her to a life where no one remembers her. She leaves no mark on the world—no written words, no artistic creations, no lasting connections. She is forgotten the moment she slips from a person’s sight. What follows is a journey of resilience and determination as Addie navigates the centuries, finding ways to leave an imprint on the world despite her curse. Her story takes an intriguing turn when, after 300 years of anonymity, she meets Henry Strauss, a man who, to her astonishment, remembers her. Their connection becomes a cornerstone of the novel, unraveling layers of emotion, mystery, and existential inquiry. The enigmatic antagonist, referred to as Luc or “the darkness,” is both Addie’s tormentor and her reluctant companion. He grants her wish with a sardonic cruelty, reveling in her struggles as he waits for her to surrender. Yet, there is a strange intimacy between the two. Luc is not a one-dimensional villain; he is charming, seductive, and occasionally vulnerable. He challenges Addie, pushing her to confront her fears and desires, making their dynamic one of the most compelling aspects of the novel. Henry is a character whose presence turns Addie’s world upside down. The first person to remember her in centuries, Henry carries his own burdens and secrets. His story interweaves with Addie’s, delving into themes of self-worth and the longing to be loved. Their relationship is tender and bittersweet, offering moments of solace and heartbreak as they navigate the complexities of their intertwined fates. The story is told in a multiple timeline narrative alternating between Addie and Henry’s pasts and the present. Schwab’s prose is lyrical and evocative, capturing the nuances of emotion and the passage of time with elegance. The descriptions of Addie’s experiences, from the bustling streets of 18th century Paris to the modern-day cafes of New York, are immersive and atmospheric. Schwab has a gift for crafting sentences that resonate, lingering in the reader’s mind long after the book is closed. This is a novel that will stay with you, its echoes reverberating in your thoughts long after the final page. It is heartfelt, heart-wrenching, and, above all, unforgettable. Schwab has crafted a story that is as timeless as Addie herself, a testament to the enduring power of love, art, and the human desire to be seen. "I remember you" Addie LaRue.

It's an interesting story with an even more interesting premise. That said...yeah, it did miss on its execution. The ending was pretty much a freight train coming down the track with its bright light shining on you and horn blowing. Some of the flashbacks do take some of the steam out of the sails of what's happening in the current timeline. It's still a good story, and I'll recommend it to anyone interested in a whimsical journey through time with a character who has an interesting problem, but it will leave you smacking your forehead a bit and going, "Addie, Addie, Addie, why?"

This may go down as my new favorite book. Such an intense and riviting story. I just did not want to put it down. Addie is such a fantastic protagonist. From her humble beginnings in rural France to her more than 300 years later in NYC. From her stubborn battle with Luc to her finding Henry. This is just such a great story.

This book is the kernel of a fantastic idea that seems still unfinished, with the plot needing more editing. I gave it 4 stars because I still highly enjoyed the read, but at the end, I couldn't help feeling that it could have been so much more. The book starts with Addie, a young woman who in 1719 makes a deal with the devil to break free of her provincial life and live for as long as she wants. But then, once life gets hard, she rails against the deal she made, and how unfair it is, despite the fact that if she simply ran away from home, her life probably would have been much harder. The story of her early life presents the book with its first missed opportunity: focusing on the plight of women throughout the last three centuries, and how dramatically it has changed. Addie comments about how hard it is to be an independent woman in the world she was born in, but the book never goes back to that line of thought, never completes it, never demonstrates how much easier it is three centuries later, or perhaps how much harder it is in other ways. Due to the fact that no one can remember Addie, a small inconvenience gets introduced to the plot: it is very difficult to build other main characters that touch her life and move the story forward. That leaves us with two characters: Henry, and the devil. The more we encounter the devil in the book, the less believable he seems (and yes, even in a completely imaginary fantasy world, all characters need to be believable to the reader). He seems to take on a more and more human shape, with magical powers to boot. While he is a thrilling and well-written character, the plot would have been better off without him. Addie's plight, without encountering the devil again at all after that first night, would have been that much more terrible and oppressive, and the meeting of Henry, the one who remembers, that much more important and dramatic. The author clearly loves art, and has been a student of Western history. But she seems to me to have grabbed a bit too much to chew, and so instead of thoroughly developing a plot that stays in a time and a place, she throws photographs at us: Addie now, Addie 50 years later, Addie 150 years later. Yet, Addie herself says that history is not photographs. One cannot put a girl in the 17th century and then just whisk her away to Florence when the revolution is just getting started! What I really wanted to see in this book is something a bit more like Daniel Defoe's writing, in the spirit of Moll Flanders. Addie seems to be a bit too perfect for her own good: she is always a victim, always a heroine, and has no faults. On top of that, she also casually picks up 8+ languages, piano study, and Western art appreciation. She sometimes seems to me to be the conjured up image of a perfect girl someone else always wanted to be, as opposed to a fully formed character that is complex and mesmerizing. Also missing is any mention of travels outside of Europe: has Addie gone anywhere else, or is she stuck in the Western Canon? The world is bigger than that, and has many more colors. I would have been ok with Addie staying in Europe, if the author didn't place Addie in the middle of such a broad historical sweep. Although Addie has seen world wars and revolutions, if she's never been to Asia - to Africa - to the Middle East - she has still seen very little, and knows very little. The parts that touched me most about the book are the parts that described her early childhood, and her early years of escape. Her repeated returns to Villon and the pain that accompanies them ring true, and raw, and representative of the experience of many who've been uprooted from their homes, whether by choice or not. The passage of time, and what it does to a place and to the memory of a place, touched me deeply. The book seems like it's in the middle of being written. It needs to lose a few major plot points, and stay focused, instead of pan out so much. I would have loved it so much more if it became a series of books that took us to the 21st century much, much later than it did.

• This is a fantastic book that I highly enjoyed, despite the author’s love affair with commas. So many commas. Seriously. (If you're missing a comma, it's probably in this book.) Unless the author was getting paid by the comma, she could remove many of the unnecessary ones (e.g., the ones mid-clause) and no one would notice. But that’s about the only bad thing I can say about this book (and yes, I recognize it’s petty). It is a great read the first time through, and I suspect it will be even better on subsequent reads. • The rhythm of the author’s prose might take a little while to get into, but I found it hypnotic and suggestive of a time long past. Although it’s not written in first person, this hypnotic style of repeated phrases, long sentences with lots of parallelism, and just spot-on descriptions made it FEEL like Addie LaRue was talking to me directly about her incredible life. The prose is so well written that it's almost poetry. • The story puts a unique twist on the old theme of a Faustian bargain. Reminiscent of the phrase “Be careful what you ask for,” Addie is forced to deal with the aftershocks of an agreement made in haste. Her anguish is palpable, her decline gut-wrenching, her desire to be remembered, insatiable. You will ACHE and FEEL so much for this character by the time the story is over. The tension between Addie and the antagonist (Luc) is so exquisite, that you’ll find yourself holding your breath when he shows up, wondering what torture is in store for our heroine. Luc’s barbs are sharp, but the retorts and sarcasm Addie throws back at him eventually become just as keen and cutting. You will plead for her to get back up off the mat, and cheer for her successes, the limited few she scores. I can’t say enough good things about the plot and the author’s captivating writing style. • Some reviews have complained about the scenes being too brief. I respectfully disagree and found that plot device necessary to move through the many years of Addie’s life. Otherwise, the book would have been 1000 pages long. The author gives us just enough color and substance to fill out the scene, makes her point (which is typically about the conflict between Addie and Luc), and then moves on. At times, it was a breathless read for me, the style allowing me to devour many chapters before I looked up and realized I was late for an appointment! • From a historical aspect, I also enjoyed the book very much. I personally enjoy historical novels, alternative history dramas, and time travel stories. This book was a little light on the historical details for my tastes, but what the author provided makes perfect sense when you think about it. After all, would you necessarily KNOW a person would become famous or which art piece would become worth millions of dollars if you were living as a CONTEMPORARY with that person or artist? No, you would not. Thus, it is so for Addie LaRue. • This is not a time-travel story with knowledge brought into the present from some time in the future. Instead, it is a wonderful story that explores the psychological weight of living much longer than others around you, and in Addie’s particular curse, how she maneuvers through many societies that will only ever interact with her on a purely superficial level. Like the classical character Sisyphus, Addie LaRue bears the weight of trying again and again, only to fail repeatedly… until she doesn’t. • Since my reading time is limited, there are very few books I would go back and re-read. This is one such book.

One of the best books I've read in recent memory! Every page is a poem, with language that is breathtaking without being overwrought. You really feel like you're right there with the characters, smelling what they smell, feeling what they feel. The descriptions are beyond engaging, and the storyline is expertly crafted. I was so worried that the ending would let me down but it was pitch perfect. I highly recommend this beautiful book that makes you think about life, love, living in the moment, and what it means to leave your mark on the world (not to mention the old adage, be careful what you wish for!).

Très différent, rafraîchissant, le style n'est pas incroyable mais l'histoire est prenante, j'ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à le lire.

Victoria Schwab é uma escritora de fantasia Americana. Ela tem uma série de livros de sucesso, e mais recente um dos livros mais falados dos anos de 2020 e 2021, A Vida Invisível de Addie LaRue. Conhecemos Addie, uma jovem francesa que vive no início do século XVIII, e logo entendemos sua ânsia por liberdade, por fugir da vida que lhe era imposta. Em um momento de crise, ela foge para a floresta a fim de oferecer qualquer coisa por liberdade. Só que é o Deus da escuridão que responde, e ela acaba por cometer um erro grave. A escuridão concede sua liberdade, mas em troca receberá sua alma. Addie passa a ser esquecida por todos que já conhecia, e a cada pessoa nova que cruza o caminho. Basta fechar uma porta, virar a esquina, ou dormir, para que ela se torne uma desconhecida. “Como você caminha até o fim do mundo? Um passo de cada vez.” Além do esquecimento, Addie também ganha a imortalidade, sem nunca envelhecer. E assim, atravessamos 300 anos de história, entre guerras e amores, decepções e arte. Addie atravessa continentes, e aprende a falar muitas línguas, mas não por mais que algumas horas ela é lembrada. Teria ela deixado algum legado? Tudo o que ela escrevia sumia, nem seu nome verdadeiro podia ser pronunciado, mas havia uma possibilidade de não ser completamente apagada: através da arte. “Não consigo segurar uma caneta. Não consigo contar uma história. Não consigo segurar uma arma, nem fazer alguém se lembrar. Mas arte, ela diz com um sorriso mais calmo, arte é sobre ideias. memórias. Eles são como ervas daninhas, sempre encontrando seu caminho para cima" A narrativa é em terceira pessoa, e se alterna entre os flashbacks dos 300 anos, e o momento atual (2014). Poucas vezes na vida eu vi uma escrita tão bem-feita, a autora soube deixar claro todas as suas intenções, e tudo fez muito sentido. É um livro impecável e sem falhas. Nos dias atuais, Addie conhece Henry. Seria mais uma paixão de um dia (para ele) e talvez alguns meses (para ela), até quando ela se cansasse de vê-lo esquecê-la a cada noite. Só que Henry lembra. Para ele, ela não era invisível. Por que? Este livro é uma obra de arte. É um livro perfeito para fazer jus ao seu plot: suas ideias nunca serão esquecidas. Addie LaRue toca nosso coração, toca em assuntos tão reais quanto ignorados. “O que é uma pessoa, senão as marcas que ela deixa no mundo?” Este é um livro obrigatório. Não viva esta vida sem conhecê-lo.

The product is a scam, it is a cheap copy of the original book in paperback

MÜKEMMELL