The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab tells the story of Addie LaRue, a French woman who gains immortality in 1714 after praying to the gods after dark. She soon learns that her immortality is cursed when everyone she meets forgets her and that she is unable to tell anyone her name. Since its publication in October 2020, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has been a hot topic in various book communities. It has shifted from a literary darling to a divisive standalone. When I purchased this book, I was influenced by the glowing reviews I saw all over TikTok and decided to give it a shot despite knowing nothing about it. Shortly after, I saw all the videos saying it was overhyped among other complaints which were admittedly discouraging. My neverending TBR list was what kept me from reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue until earlier this year.

So, where do I lie with a book that has the TikTok community in particular divided? I personally found it incredibly easy to fall in love with this book.

V.E. Schwab has a beautiful way with words throughout the book and stands as a new favorite author of mine. Normally, I would deem prose similar to hers to be purple prose; however, I think it was used effectively and was further immersive. When I’m in writer's workshop, I always try to grab my favorite lines and quotes, but I think it would be difficult to do this here. Partially because its been around two months since I read this book, and narrowing down my favorites is not an easy task.

When authors write in language that walks the line between being purple and not, its commonly associated with books and stories that have ‘no plot, just vibes.' So its common to see The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue lumped in with books like The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (more on that book in its own review), Normal People by Sally Rooney, and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. I agree that while the tone is the strongest quality and is well defined, but I don’t want to deem this book as plotless. To me, this book has a very simple plot, and its a slow burn. To put it simply, I think the tone or vibes of this book really stood as the most prominent element while also helping a deceptively simple plot blend in.

My favorite element in any story is the characters, and this one is chock-full of interesting ones. The main characters are Addie, Henry, and Luc. Overall I feel like the characters are very fleshed out, and no character feels flawless or too flawed. We also have some pretty solid LGBTQIA+ representation that I was shocked to see since it was never discussed before. You have Addie with different lovers, some being women, the most notable is a minor character named Sam. Its also refreshing to see a canonical queer immortal who has many lovers. In Addie’s case, I think (and hope) she's a step in the right direction for pansexual representation that doesn't feel tokenized or forced. I know that the fandom has widely accepted Addie as bisexual; however, V.E. Schwab confirmed that Addie is actually pansexual on Twitter. Then you have Henry who is a confirmed Pansexual in the novel and known to have dated his friend Robbie. I think showing the different relationships of Pansexuality is incredibly important and I feel like Pansexuality still struggles to get the representation it deserves (along with many other identities in LGBTQIA+). I thank V.E. Schwab for adding great layers of Queer representation in not only her major characters but her secondary characters (Robbie and Bea, both friends of Henry are the most notable additions with Sam). I wish I could say the same for characters of color. I can’t say I remember if there’s a character of color in this story that is stated explicitly. When one half of the novel has different locations in Europe with wars occurring and the other half of the story is set in New York, it's unacceptable to not have a more diverse cast. Its really a shame and I wish there were more major POC characters in the central cast.

However, I feel like I can’t discuss the three major characters in detail without diving into the plot, so this is where I put a [SPOILER TERITORY] warning. So if you don’t want to see this or you haven’t read the book yet, skip to where you see [SPOILER END].

[SPOILER TERITORY]

Addie is our heroine who has achieved immortality with unconventional strings. Her personal story and special situation are refreshing as someone who takes in a lot of media with immortal characters (one could argue its my ultimate favorite character type). In my out-of-context book quotes on Twitter, I alluded to her scenario being reminiscent of ones that might be seen in The Twilight Zone, and its a statement I still stand by. Now, I find it refreshing to see how Addie gained her immortality, grapple with the struggles, inspect how things could be different, overcome the painful aspects of her immortality, and then blend into society almost seamlessly without malice towards humans. Usually, when I think of immortal characters, I see characters like the ones in the movie Death Becomes Her and the villains of Fullmetal Alchemist. They have a progressive loss of humanity that comes with their immortality with a dash of being self-absorbed. With Addie, she lacks the typical immortality cynism (even though it would be easy to include that), and she argues that she’s still a human despite her immortality. Where I struggle with her character is that there’s missing potential, especially with major historical events. She leaves her print in the art world as many artists she sleeps with end up painting or drawing with her seven freckles that are like a constellation set up as the main focus. While it is an interesting and real-life element to her character, I wanted more of her presence in history. She’s seen in the French Revolution and World War II but is quickly yanked out of it by Luc for his own reasons, “I want to be the one who breaks you." To me, it felt like it robbed potential for her immortality narrative or felt like a way to avoid heavier research on these events. Although I could argue that this is because this is not the point of the story itself and that there was more of a focus on art; or that robbing her from making a mark in historical events was the point. I’m not sure what the answer is here, but I would like to see more of a presence of these events. An opinion on it at the very least.

Luc proved to be the most dynamic and interesting for me in the novel during my first read. Luc is commonly referred to as the devil in a lot of synopses I see and is most definitely an antagonistic figure for Addie. Where Addie lacks the cynism that is commonly associated with immortality, Luc personifies it. He sees humans as inferior and argues Addie is no longer human (thus superior), he’s selfish and focuses on the horrors of the world more than the beauty. This may also be in part to his god-like status, but I digress. His relationship with Addie is part of what makes him memorable. He starts off by visiting her every year asking if she will surrender her soul to him, then progressing into popping by to get her out of wars and foiling her plans to enjoy the finer things in life, only to take her to things he knows she'll enjoy, and then becoming her lover. His interactions with Addie become progressively harder to read for not only Addie herself but for readers especially as we get closer to them becoming lovers. We already think of Luc as cruel and monstrous, but the switch feels gradual which I love. So when they start being romantic, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise to me. Part of me was egging it on… Please don’t ask about my love life... Their love affair comes to a fiery end when its revealed that this is all ploy to get Addie to surrender her soul to Luc. (Do I like Addie with Henry more? Yes. Was I heartbroken? Also yes. Time for me to go back to therapy.) I think this reveal was expertly done and I give major props to Schwab. It was effective for me because of its calculative build-up. Being aware that Luc is a terrible person, the stellar format of the novel (jumping between the past and the present, I may be biased in why I like it), and Addie’s current relationship with Henry (cluing readers in on how short-lived her and Luc is). During the build-up of all of these facts, he stopped bringing up their deal and there was a gradual change in his interactions. So when Luc told Addie to surrender her soul after building this foundation for years it made this betrayal land. This moment also answered a lingering question about the commonly referred to fire in New Orleans. What makes this moment strange for me after reading is when they reunite and Luc reveals that he actually no longer wants Addie’s soul, but instead wants to keep her all to himself because he loves her. While I absolutely love that shows how selfish he is and adds to the neverending list of his red flags, I fear it may have cheapened the betrayal.

Now for Henry, who is a character, I related to the most. I confess it took me a while to warm up to Henry as a character. With Addie’s interesting scenario and Luc’s dynamic character beats, I wasn’t sure if Henry was only going to be a love interest with Addie because he remembers her. I will say that it was a great moment that we didn’t get to until after the 100-page mark, and I don’t think it’s an entirely unrealistic response considering Addie’s life up to this point. I don’t think it was until Henry was revealed to have made a deal with Luc that his character really began to stick with me. His deal is that he would live a life loved for a year, only to face infatuation from literally everyone he comes across. Then learning about the ramifications of his deal, the flood of attention he gets, and his various admirers not only changed how I viewed his character for the rest of the novel but even as I reflect back on the beginning. When I pick up this book for a reread, I could picture myself deeming Henry the most interesting character instead of Luc. I also aligned with Henry’s motives behind making a deal with Luc more than Addie’s. As someone still working on a massive failure complex and having a perplexing relationship with family I relate to him wanting to feel loved. Granted these feelings began to spiral and felt unbearable after his proposal to his now ex-girlfriend, Tabitha failed. Much like Addie, he quickly discovers the cons to his wishes to live only a year of being loved. The obvious one being he has a year left to live, and the other is that every act of affection he gets feels fake. I ultimately enjoy the feelings of angst associated with Henry’s deal far more than Addie’s, but I can still respect the mastery behind hers. I think the only thing I can say is that his chapters were difficult to read or listen to at points.

[SPOILER END]

This review is looking pretty long so I’m gonna wrap it up. Save it for an analysis video, an essay about the Faustian Bargain, or something. There were many things that I adored about this book, but definitely things that I wish were present or thought about. You could say that about any book, but I don’t think a lot of the points I commented on really took me out too dramatically, with the expectation of the lack of historical presence and the lack of POC. Regardless of things I was missing or had questions about, I think this was an excellent read that oozed beautiful language that made me openly sob when I finished it up. I’m not even kidding, my personal writing style in my novel hasn’t felt the same since I finished this book. V.E. Schwab has skyrocketed as a favorite author of mine, and I for one cannot wait to read more of what she has. Perhaps next I'll tackle her Shades of Magic series or her short story that birthed the gone too soon series First Kill.

I’m giving The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue a very solid four out of five stars. Also if the movie for this book gets ruined, it’s on sight.