Book Review: “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” by V.E. Schwab

What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?

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

LENGTH: 444 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tor Books

RELEASE DATE: 6 October 2020

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.

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.

My Review

It is sad, of course, to forget. But it is a lonely thing, to be forgotten. To remember when no one else does.

So, confession: I’ve never really had any intention of reading this book. I don’t really know why exactly – I guess I’ve just never thought it might be a book for me. But I absolutely adored A Darker Shade of Magic and loved the Shades of Magic trilogy as a whole, so when my mom wanted to buddy read it, I decided why the heck not?

And, spoiler alert, I loved it. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is just… so beautiful, but also heartbreaking. Aside from it being a more slower paced book, which are books that I sometimes annoying for me to get through, there was only one caveat I really had with this novel. But I’ll get into that in a bit. Let me sing its praises a little bit first.

My Praises

And the first thing I gotta gush about Addie LaRue is how much I love how the relationships are written. Not the romance, even though I liked that as well. But the relationships as a whole.

Every time someone forgot Addie, my heart cracked just the slightest bit, even though I knew it was coming. But when someone Addie loved so fiercely forgot her (ex: her father), my heart really started to break. This book made me cry twice, and one of the times was about Addie’s relationship with another character.

The second thing I really enjoyed were the characters. Though there is a little bit of a plot, I found the book to be primarily character driven.

“I remember you.” Three words, large enough to tip the world.

Addie is our MC of course, and even though a lot of her earlier decisions (as in, a lot of the choices that she made in the flashbacks), she did grow on me, and I really began to feel for her later on. (Though she did still annoy me at certain points.)

I also really liked Henry. I think it’s because he’s different compared to other male main characters that I usually come across while reading, and it was refreshing for me in a way. His and Addie’s budding friendship (and romance) was very sweet. And at first it might feel as if they’re moving too fast – but circumstances are revealed later on that recontextualize many earlier scenes.

Never pray to the gods that answer after dark.

And then there’s Luc. Ah, Luc. I have a lot of feelings about this demonic entity. He’s intentionally written as attractive and he has one of those kinds of personalities, but I still kind of hated him. I don’t really know what it was about him exactly, but I think part of it was that I found it a little hard to comprehend how a creature that existed from the beginning of the universe, could become so thirsty for a human girl. It just didn’t make sense to me. And yeah, I know part of it was because he wanted to run the deal, but he was still thirsty for Addie.

The Caveat

“Nothing is all good or all bad,” she says. “Life is so much messier than that.”

I really didn’t like the ending.

As I read through The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I fell in love with it more and more. Of course, I knew from almost the beginning that this was most likely going to be a four star read (because I cried), I thought that that would be it. (If a book makes me cry, I usually give it at least three and a half stars.)

But that ending, it was just so… neutral. Undetermined. It kind of almost felt like Schwab didn’t really know how to end the novel, honestly. But yeah, basically the end of the book disappointed me. It wasn’t necessarily bad, it just didn’t vibe with me.

In fact, I originally rated Addie LaRue four stars because the ending bothered me the way it did. But after some distance from finishing the book, and reflecting on the novel as a whole, I decided to alter my rating. Because it really was a good book, and I really did ultimately enjoy it a lot. (Even if what I considered to be the main conflict of the book was never resolved.)

Closing Thoughts

And there in the dark, he asks if it was really worth it.

Were the instants of joy worth the stretches of sorrow?

Were the moments of beauty worth the year of pain?

And she turns her head, and looks at him, and says “Always.”

Even though I thought the ending sucked, ultimately The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is a very good book. It’s one that I heavily recommend as well, particularly if you like character driven slow-burns with just a dash of fantastical romance.

Also, before I close it off, there’s one other thing I forgot to mention. The back-and-forth between the past and present was really well done. And I’m usually really iffy about this type of storytelling. It’s always either hit or miss – and I guess this was a hit for me.

As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Ghosts and Ghasts and Ghouls | A Review of City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

People think that ghosts only come out at night, or on Halloween, when the world is dark and the walls are thin. But the truth is, ghosts are everywhere.

Series: City of Ghosts

Length: 304 pages

Publication Date: August 28, 2018

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Book Description: Everyone has a ghost story. Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn’t like to think about it!) she can pull back the Veil that separates the living from the dead… and enter the world of spirits. Her best friend is even a ghost. So things are already pretty strange. But they’re about to get much stranger.

When Cass’s parents start hosting a TV show about the world’s most haunted places, the family heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Here, graveyards, castles, and secret passageways teem with restless phantoms. And when Cass meets a girl who shares her “gift,” she realizes how much she still has to learn about the Veil – and herself.

And she’ll have to learn fast. The city of ghosts is more dangerous than she ever imagined.

My Review

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 4.5 out of 5 stars!

This was a perfect October read! Especially just before Halloween. I haven’t read a ghost story in quite a while, and this kind of hit the spot. Sure, it’s technically in that awkward spot between middle-grade and YA, but who cares? Especially from an author I love.

(If you didn’t know, “Victoria Schwab” is actually another name that V.E. Schwab uses for some of her books. She uses “V.E.” for her adult novels, and “Victoria” for her YA stuff.)

City of Ghosts centers around Cassidy Blake, a girl who gains the ability to see spirits after (nearly) drowning, as well as a new ghostly best friend named Jacob.

He looks up at the word ghost and clears his throat. “I prefer the phrase ‘corporeally challenged.'”

Jacob was a wonderful character. Funny, smart, and protective of his best friend. He brought some levity and personality to the story that Cass’s narration lacked.

Not that Cassidy was a boring narrator. Not at all. Schwab wrote the preteen-girl-with-a-secret trope very well. The problem is just that though – average preteen girls aren’t usually the most interesting of people. I can say this confidently from previous, personal experience. Being an average, preteen girl, that is. But because Schwab encapsulates Cass’s identity as a preteen girl who sees ghosts in a great way, I think she wrote a pretty relatable character for middle and high school aged kids.

(I have to stop typing “average, preteen girl,” or else I’m going to scream.)

Addressing the other characters… Cass’s parents were fun. Her dad was the no-nonsense, nerdy, history professor type, and her mom was the dreamer, who believed in spirits and such. Their family dynamic was great, and it was nice to see some actually nice to see some actual parenting in a YA book for once. Like, they actually noticed that their daughter would run off and disappear, and they grounded her for it. Thank you!

Lara Jane Chowdhury was also a welcome surprise. Like Cassidy, she can also see spirits and cross the Veil and back. Unlike Cass, she actually knows what she’s doing. Lara is crucial in that she finally gives Cass an actual character motivation, instead of just floundering around with her spirit powers.

I also loved how Lara took everything seriously and was super no-nonsense, a foil to the more creative Cass, as well as the more easygoing Jacob. She was the straight man of the trio, for sure.

I really adored the friendships here, too. Jacob and Cassidy’s was so, so perfect. You could tell that they were really important to one another. Adding Lara to the dynamic was fantastic as well. I love how much she grew to care about Cass, and how far she was willing to go for the newbie.

And there was no romance! (Spoilers?) It feels like there’s romance in everything nowadays, even middle-grade fiction, so it was a welcome surprise for me, as someone who’s growing tired of it a little. Like, why can’t they just be friends? Not that I’m against it or anything – I actually really like it most of the time! I just enjoy reading books every once in a while that focus on other types of relationships, other than romance.

Nothing happens until it happens, and then it’s already happening.

I love love LOVED Schwab’s descriptions of Edinburgh. They all felt so life-like and real. You can tell she did a ton of research, and that she’d travelled there before. I know she’s been to a bunch of places in Europe, and that she actually lived in the UK for some time, and it shows. I almost felt like I was there, walking around Scotland with Cass and Jacob.

If I had to pick one thing that I didn’t like, though, it would have to be the antagonist. I felt like they were kind of a weak villain. Their motivation checked out, I just wasn’t really into them. I guess you can look at them as someone whose empathy has eroded away over many years, and who has been acting out of desperation. It felt a little forced, to me. But, they did work as intended, so I guess I’ll give them that.

All in all, I really liked the book and recommend it to anyone, regardless of age. If this book sounds like your thing, then I hope you pick it up and enjoy it!

Thanks for tuning in, and have a wonderful day/night!

World Building in Color | A Review of A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Kell wore a very peculiar coat. It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible.

Series: Shades of Magic

Length: 416 pages

Publication Date: January 19, 2016

Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint Edition

Book Description: Kell is one of the last Antari – magicians with the rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes – Red London – and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

My Review

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5 stars!)

This book really did it for me. I can’t get enough of historical fantasies set in London (when they’re done right), and Schwab met that need with gusto – she went and added three more Londons!

Her writing, though I found it wordy, vividly described all of the different worlds so colorfully. From the vibrant and lush descriptors for the richly magical Red London, to the drab and rainy details of Grey London, Schwab really managed to make all of the settings feel distinct from one another.

Kell was a great protagonist, one that I felt I constantly wanted to know more about as the book went on. His coat was an excellent supporting character – and it does deserve to be included as one, believe me! – and it was just as interesting as Kell himself.

I thought Lila Bard was a fine second protagonist. I’ve seen her getting a lot of hate in other reviews, but I honestly liked her a fair amount during my journey through A Darker Shade of Magic. We’ll see if that changes going forward into the sequels. (She has a rather obvious “secret” that I’m quite annoyed is being teased.)

The plot was also fun to get into once the book picked up. I really liked all the machinations going on behind the scenes and the subtle plot threads that were laid out at the beginning. They all culminated nicely at the end, and the novel didn’t really leave on a cliffhanger, which was nice, even if there were still a few unanswered questions (like Lila’s “secret”😤🙄). I won’t spoil it more than that, though!

Anyway, I highly recommend this book! To everyone mostly, cuz I liked it just that much! But especially so if you like fantasy, or historical fiction, or historical fantasy fiction. This book tells its story well, and I can’t wait to read the sequels!