The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue book cover

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Hardcover – October 6, 2020

Price
$10.46
Format
Hardcover
Pages
448
Publisher
Tor Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0765387561
Dimensions
6.6 x 1.55 x 9.55 inches
Weight
1.45 pounds

Description

An Amazon Best Book of October 2020: In the 1700s, Addie LaRue makes a deal with the devil—she will live forever, although her immortality comes with the curse of being forgotten by everyone. Addie moves through time and across continents; she learns to survive and even leave her mark on the world. Then one day she meets a man in a bookstore who remembers her name, and suddenly everything changes. This deeply satisfying and cinematic novel rivals contemporary classic The Time Traveler’s Wife in concept and scope. —Sarah Gelman, Amazon Book Review Praise for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue : “For someone damned to be forgettable, Addie LaRue is a most delightfully unforgettable character, and her story is the most joyous evocation of unlikely immortality.”― Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and winner of multiple Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards "Completely absorbed me enough to make me forget the real world." ― Jodi Picoult, Washington Post “Victoria Schwab sends you whirling through a dizzying kaleidoscopic adventure through centuries filled with love, loss, art and war ― all the while dazzling your senses with hundreds of tiny magical moments along the way. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue will enchant readers as deeply as its heroine’s Faustian bargain; you will find yourself in quick turns both aching with heartbreak, and gleefully crowing at the truly delicious, wicked cleverness in store.” ― Naomi Novik, Nebula and Locus Award-winning author of Spinning Silver “ Addie Larue is a book perfectly suspended between darkness and light, myth and reality. [This novel] is―ironically―unforgettable.” ― Hugo Award winner Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is the kind of book you encounter only once in a lifetime. . . . A defiant, joyous rebellion against time, fate, and even death itself―and a powerful reminder that the only magic great enough to conquer all of it is love.”― Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M “Sweeping in its scope yet wonderfully intimate, it's dark and sexy yet romantic and heartbreaking.” ― Rebecca Roanhorse, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Black Sun “Rich and satisfying.” –Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review “A knockout.” –Publishers Weekly, Starred Review “Epic.” –Library Journal, Starred Review “Deeply romantic, impossibly detailed.” –Booklist, Starred Review “A delightful surprise and a balm in difficult times..” –BookPage, Starred Review “Schwab’s page-turner is an achingly poignant romantic fantasy about the desperate desire to make one’s mark on the world.” ― Oprah.com , Best LGBTQ Books of 2020 “A beautiful, meditative novel with an ending that hit me right in the heart.” ― Buzzfeed , Best Fall Fantasy 2020 "It's a bit cheeky to call The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Faust for romantic bisexual goths, but it's not wrong... I for one will most certainly remember her." ― NPR “Addie is unlike anything Schwab has written before―epic yet intimate, sweeping but not sprawling... If Addie shows anything, it’s that the impact of our actions and interactions can be vaster and longer-lasting than we can predict. Much like the seven freckles that sprinkle Addie’s face, we create our own constellations, and as we live through these darkened days, I feel brighter for having added Addie to mine.”― Slate “Schwab beautifully explores what it means to be alone for so long that it's jarring and terrifying once you are finally seen...Addie is an independent and fascinating character who manages to make her mark in spite of the odds.”― USA Today “Schwab’s writing is warm and intense, and the passages set in the past often make you feel as if you’re reading by candlelight...The book is an elegant comment on the erasure of women from recorded history, but not a pointed one; you never feel that Addie LaRue is a metaphor. She is a woman fighting literally to be seen while bearing witness to her own life, and I rooted for her throughout.”― New York Times Book Review “One of the most propulsive, compulsive and captivating novels in recent memory.”― Washington Post “There is no particular art to literary fiction that doesn’t exist in fiction of other genres, and V. E. Schwab’s new book The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue isn’t just an amazing book for its genre; it’s an amazing book, full stop.. . a gorgeous, immersive story...Schwab is an inclusive, ambitious, and exacting writer, and she doesn’t let either her characters or her readers off the hook...This book doesn’t blend genres, or even transcend genre.”― Chicago Review of Books "This evocative and clever tale will leave you smiling, filled with love and longing for more magical moments in everyday life."― CNN , Best Books of October "Expansive and utterly heart-wrenching...both heartbreaking and hopeful. I read the last hundred pages well into the night, gasping and sobbing. It’s a beautiful read." ― Book Riot , 25 Must Read New Fantasy Books “A remarkable, genre-defying epic of a woman fighting to thrive in a world that denies her existence....stunning.”― Shelf Awareness for Readers "When I first finished Addie LaRue , I sat back with a deep sense of wonder. Schwab’s words had weaved their spell and left me starstruck... eloquent and beautiful... Addie LaRue sparks something internally as you read and what is the point of reading, if not to feel?"― The Nerd Daily “[An] enthralling romantic adventure.”― Business Insider "A career triumph...Her propulsive, lyric prose is here, her morally complex, entrancing characters, her unique shape of magic, all wrought within this entirely fresh premise that will no doubt become a long-lasting favorite...Addie defies genre, blending romance and history, fantasy and monstrosity, cresting through peaks of time, centered on a young (and also, technically very old) woman with both less and more agency than anyone alive...romantic, ambitious, and defiantly, deliberately hopeful. Epic and intimate at once, it asks what art is...Schwab is simply one of the most skilled writers working in her genre...The feat of this book is frankly awe-inspiring.”― Tor.com “[Schwab] flexes her beautiful prose and sets the stage for an unforgettable tale.”― SyFy Wire "Poetic and heartrending, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue is perfect for fans of time travel stories, historical fiction, and fantasy alike." ― The Register-Herald "This spellbinding story is destined to be a classic." ― Greatist "A beautiful tale of star-crossed love, magic, and a dark Faustian Bargain makes The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue the perfect book for the fantasy lover in your life!" ― The Mary Sue "A gender flip version of Faust, and also a haunting love story that will linger." ― New York Journal of Books "A masterpiece that has been so many years in the making, but the wait was truly worth every page...a book that will stay with you long after you finish reading the last word." ― Seventeen Magazine "Irresistibly contagious." ― Locus Magazine “One of the most haunting and bittersweetly beautiful novels I have ever read...a mature, introspective love story, and a thoughtful examination of what it means to have a life well lived.” ― Manhattan Mercury News (Kansas)"Schwab's brilliant epic novel blends fantasy and history, romance and art, as it moves back and forth through time. Addie, one of the author's most morally complex and riveting creations, embarks on adventures both grand and lowly, as she travels, ghostlike, through the centuries." ― Bookmarks Magazine “I was caught in the emotion, the demanded pound of flesh as I considered my own attachments and inherent sense of self, my notions of love and ache and need.” ― Historical Novel Society VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades universe, the Villains series, the City of Ghosts series, Gallant and the international bestseller The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue . Her work has received critical acclaim, been translated into over two dozen languages, and optioned for television and film. First Kill – a YA vampire series based on Schwab’s short story of the same name – is now a Netflix series. When not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • NEW YORK TIMES
  • BESTSELLER
  • USA TODAY
  • BESTSELLER
  • NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
  • THE WASHINGTON POST
  • BESTSELLER
  • Recommended by
  • Entertainment Weekly
  • ,
  • Real Simple
  • ,
  • NPR
  • ,
  • Slate
  • , and
  • Oprah Magazine
  • #1 Library Reads Pick
  • October 2020
  • #1 Indie Next Pick
  • October 2020
  • BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST
  • Book of The Month Club
  • A “Best Of” Book From:
  • Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * Bustle * PopSugar * BuzzFeed * Barnes & Noble * Kirkus Reviews * Lambda Literary * Nerdette * The Nerd Daily * Polygon * Library Reads * io9 * Smart Bitches Trashy Books * LiteraryHub * Medium * BookBub * The Mary Sue * Chicago Tribune * NY Daily News * SyFy Wire * Powells.com * Bookish * Book Riot *
  • Library Reads Voter Favorite *
  • 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. A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
  • 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.
  • Also by V. E. Schwab
  • Shades of Magic
  • A Darker Shade of Magic A Gathering of Shadows A Conjuring of Light
  • Villains
  • Vicious Vengeful

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(47.7K)
★★★★
25%
(19.9K)
★★★
15%
(11.9K)
★★
7%
(5.6K)
-7%
(-5566)

Most Helpful Reviews

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This is a story for everyone, and it's one for the ages

It's hard to put into words the emotions this book has made me feel, and this is coming 4 months after having read it. I still think about this story daily, the raw emotion that was poured into this book is absolutely astounding. Addie LaRue may be a girl that everyone is destined to forget, but she's not someone I will ever forget.

I can't even express how this book has affected me. It was beautifully and eloquently written, to the point where I couldn't put it down because the words on the page were so perfect together. Every word, every paragraph, every chapter was flawless. There is not part of this story that I do not love with my entire soul.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is the perfect story for everyone. This is a book you can truly find yourself in, and learn how to explore yourself and your surroundings from it. It deals with love and loss, heartbreak and betrayal, but also hope and happiness and every single emotion in between. It's not often that a book makes me cry but this was one of them, and I won't forget that.
238 people found this helpful
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Read all reviews first

I would like to begin by saying that all of the reviews are correct. Yes all of them. Both positive and the negative. I just wish I would’ve spent more on the negative reviews. I gave this book one star because zero stars isn’t a thing. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. I felt like this book was just a 300 year spoiler alert on every page correct. But also a huge waste of time. I absolutely could not get through this book fast enough. And not out of excitement but out of like oh I have to finish this book now. It’s covid and I have nothing to do. The best way I can describe this book isIt is a book that you would find in the library under young adult reader that is sectioned off for the high school kids. That is exactly how it Read. I don’t know much about this author as this was the first book I ever read from her but I will never pick up another book from her because of this one. And I know that I should give another book a chance, but I am not wasting more time on her. there are way too many authors and way too many books to be had. This book was boring, I was uninterested in what would happen to her at the end every page was a foreshadowing and and spoiler alerts! you didn’t even need to read the book to know it wasGoing to happen at the end. I also believe that it was intentional, to keep the option open for a book 2. It’s almost like it ended purposefully for that reason. This was poorly edited and quite frankly wasn’t good. I had a better time reading the reviews on this Amazon section.
216 people found this helpful
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Rambling and over-descriptive; lots of words with zero substance

I'd love to rate the story itself, but even after powering through 70+ pages of excessive prose that waxed on about every useless detail of every environment, the story still hadn't begun. The protagonist basically spends those 70 pages wandering around spending the day doing nothing, while time skips backward attempt to link her past to the boring, dry events of the current day.

I'm sure the actual plot is probably fairly good, but I had to give up when I realized I was almost a fifth through the book and had been treated to nothing but a current-day protagonist with no discernible personality and only the barest backstory.

If you like stories that pull you in immediately, this one isn't for you. It uses five pages where one will do, and once you put it down it's hard to pick up again. It sort of gives the vibe that it's trying to be deep and make some kind of statement, but it doesn't really accomplish either goal. There's not much color or vibrancy to the writing, Addie is nothing more than a flavorless vehicle to push a disjointed story, and there's no build-up or urgency to keep the reader intrigued. Even my usually undying need to finish every book I start couldn't power me through this, and I'm sorry I paid full price for it.
64 people found this helpful
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Definitely made me think

I don't read a lot of fantasy. It is not because I don't like fantasy, it is because editors and agents in the adult fantasy world often do a terrible job of copy editing, and I end up finding small errors which takes me out of the story.

One could argue that in this world of deep fiction there is no error, but in fact continuity is key to keeping up the rouse. Also, if you level of abstraction is such that your fantasy is taking place in a real place or a real time, or both, there are certain elements that need to reflect that. 
This was a great story, and it was not until halfway through the novel that there were the continuity errors. One being Henry's brother should be working at Mt. Sinai, not just Sinai. Two, so Luc's various last names mean "the Woods" but the German translation of duBois is ImWald, Holz, Von der Wald... Also the sexual fluidity of the two main character, does not need to be explained, but seems to fall relatively flat. It seems like it was just thrown into the book to seem relevant. I think if you're going to do modern fantasy with representative sexualities, in a story that spans 300 years, a little chit chat about the evolving nature of sexuality in the last 300 years might help... I mean I really got taken out of the story with some of these plot and continuity holes...

Same goes for the very Eurocentric nature of the novel, and the lack of review on race or disenfranchisement. It doesn't need to be a political novel with like deep dive discussions, just a contextual mention that race in the US in the 1950's is different than in France in the 1700s, and maybe this main character benefits greatly in her little spell because she is in essence a cis white women.And I am a cis white women.

Other than that, it is a nice little story, but I am kind of put off by her weird sexual attraction to the amorphous creature that Luc really is.  I think the point of the novel was to extrapolate on patience in love, but just, I don't think I have it in me to fall for a sinister g-dlike creature that is clearly not human, but maybe because I am human?? I just didn't find his "smoldering" nature attractive, I found it abusive.  But this novel really did make me think, and I looked forward to seeing what happened next in the four nights it took me to read it. So there you go...
51 people found this helpful
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Redundant, boring, and a waste of money.

I’m a high school English teacher, and I wouldn’t let my students be as repetitive as this author is. I could go the rest of my life without hearing the words “fae” and “palimpsest” ever again. This novel was 2/3 longer than it needed to be, or at least that 2/3 could have been filled with AUTHENTIC descriptions of the places Addie lived, rather than the vague ones that plague the entire novel. Add the unnecessary POV switch to a different character, and there’s nothing left to salvage this disaster.
45 people found this helpful
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Slow, but enchanting read

I’m so glad that I heard it was a slow book before I went into it. That helped a lot! If I had gone in expecting something fast paced, I probably would have been disappointed the whole time. However, knowing it was going to be slow, I was happy to listen to it languidly (audio book) and just enjoy the rich language as it went.

Things I liked:
*The line level language was beautiful. She is a VERY talented writer. I wanted to highlight nearly every line as it was so poetic and perfectly done. The language alone is one of the reasons I liked it.

*I liked a lot of the ideas presented and the characters. I also enjoyed the relationships.

*I listened to the audio book and whenever I put it on, it immediately transported my mind to a contemplative, melancholy state that was sort of like a trance. It was sort of soothing.

Things I didn’t like:

*I struggled with the bouncing around timeline. This was not a linear book. It hoped forward and backward and all around with no discernible rhyme or reason. It felt jarring and took a long time to get used to. Honestly, I sort of want to reread it but in chronological order some day. I didn’t find too many moments that felt like they had to go back to back. The only reason I can think of for the bouncing around was to help us FEEL how long and frustrated Adddie probably felt. But still, I would have preferred it in order.

*As some people have already said, this book feels like it wants to be a big important book. It does feel at times like it tries too hard to be something grand. I still really liked it though.

*I was surprised by how mundane her life was. She lived a long time and didn’t really seem to do as much with her time as I’d hoped. I was expecting a bit more of a grand adventure. Instead it was a simple, mundane life. I’m not opposed to that, I just expected something else.

*I didn’t love the ending. I won’t spoil it, but I was not satisfied. I wanted a more definitive ending instead of one that “trails off.”

*She also says she doesn’t want to be “tied to anyone” and that ends up not being true. I won’t explain how, but that disappointed me that she didn’t see the error in her “deal.”
26 people found this helpful
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Lessons from Addie LaRue

Do you ever have high expectations for a novel? Read all the reviews that say how amazing the story is? Decide that you are going to take the plunge and read something out of your comfort zone? This. I did all of this and felt let down when reading "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue." It was lacking something for me, maybe I needed more romance, less fantasy, or more suspense.

In 18th century France, Adeline makes a perilous deal with a stranger, she names Luc. This deal makes her live forever, but prevents people from remembering her. Luc visits Addie every year, asking if she is ready to give up her soul. Addie lives hundreds of years, of being forgotten, until she meets Henry. They fall in love and spend much of their time together. Henry changes everything for her and he holds a secret past as well.

A theme that resonated in this novel for me is being present and appreciating the life that you have. We see this idea scattered carefully throughout the text. The first time the theme truly spoke to me was when Addie relished in hearing Henry say and remember her name, "she is holding to the sound of her name, her real name, on someone else's tongue, and it is enough, it is enough, it is enough." How lonely a life Addie must live to now enjoy hearing someone remember her name. How lonely a life she must lead to find the joy in someone remembering her.

Addie quickly learns that almost every person she comes across will not know who she is at a later time. She often finds herself waking up to awkward encounters with men that she meets the night before. Addie meets Matteo while she is in Venice and she wakes to him sketching her, "she has impressed herself upon Matteo, and he has impressed her upon the page." Addie understands that no one will remember her, but this act of her being created as art, a simple drawing, is a way of etching herself into history, and making her exist in some way.

I would give this book 3/5 stars. One of the main reasons that I did not enjoy this novel was because it is a mix of genres that I tend to not read often- historical fiction, fantasy fiction, and historical fantasy. The story wasn't realistic enough for me, making a deal with a devil-like person to live forever, and meeting people that will forever forget you, just doesn't make sense to me. I typically do not read historical fiction, and if I do, the novel focuses on one time period, rather than moving through so many different historical moments. The book started out slow for me too and a lot of reviewers indicated that as well. The book never picked up pace and I felt that the story could have been shortened by at least 100 pages. Although this book was far from one of my favorites, I believe the theme of being present and appreciating the life that you have is important idea to communicate to readers especially during the times that we are living in now.
22 people found this helpful
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Boring and Cliche

This book seems to just be a vehicle for the author to show us how purple she can make her prose. It is so overwritten I skipped pages and missed nothing. Boring, tensionless, cliched, this was a slog to get through.
20 people found this helpful
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A brilliant story with everlasting characters

Wow! What an amazing story by writer V.E. Schwab. Thank you for this wonderfully intricate, clever and entertaining story. I was introduced to this book by my 17 year old daughter who says it's her favorite book (this is a girl who read 86 novels last year!). I was a bit skeptical as I wasn't sure that what appealed to her would to me, but truthfully I am so glad that I took her advice. I brought this book on my holiday and loved every minute I invested in it. The story is so carefully and cleverly woven and the characters so beautifully developed. It's a magical story that will take the reader on a ride of highs and lows as they follow the story of Addie LaRue - a fiercely independent young woman who refuses to be owned and defined by anything or anyone, and who wants to know what it's like to be truly loved. She has to make difficult choices and struggles immensely, but learns how to survive under harsh conditions and how to make the best of her situation. She not only endures, she lives - freely, if not always honestly. The love story that plays out is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. I encourage you to read this story of love, compassion, hardship, cunning deception and heart. I loved the villain that threads through the narrative as much as Addie herself. I honestly can't rave enough about it and it is now one of my all time favorites as well.
16 people found this helpful
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One star for intriguing premise

I did think the premise had great promise. However, the book did not fulfill that promise. The lead character has 300+ years to grow up, yet not only stubbornly refuses to evolve, she arguably ends the book by acting like a garbage human. Her very whiny boyfriend is not much help to the plot. I almost stopped reading the book numerous times, but, led on by the insanely great reviews, kept reading until the bitter end, and was thoroughly disappointed. I thought the writing was puerile, the flashbacks distracting, and all the characters were pretty boring and/or disappointing.
14 people found this helpful