Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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I read this book because my friend and colleague Natalie recommended it. I was not disappointed, although it was daunting when my Kindle indicated it would take more than nine hours to read the book. (Would I have picked up a hard copy book that big? I'm not sure.)

At any rate, Schwab is a wonderful story teller, and the author sucked me into this story of Adeline, a young woman from 18th century France, who wants to explore the world, who resents the expectations of her small village so much that she runs from the church and into the woods on her wedding day, praying desperately that god would deliver her from this marriage.

The only god who answers strikes a bargain with her, her freedom for her soul. She hesitates; she knows who this god is, but she is desperate, and so she attempts to bargain. For how long, the god asks, and she responds "until I don't want it anymore."

And so begins the invisible life of Addie Larue, who wanders the globe. She is free because she belongs to no one, no one has any expectations of her, she has no home, no obligations to anyone. And no one remembers her.

And just at the point when I think this is going to be a long book that goes nowhere, it suddenly goes somewhere, and I can't put it down. The ending is haunting and yet somehow satisfying.

The prose is beautiful, the descriptions, the foreshadowing, the character descriptions, they all sucked me in, and I found myself highlighting phrases that reminded me of the beauty of language.

Thanks, Natalie.

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