The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: Book Review

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: Plot Summary

Addie LaRue makes a desperate deal with the devil. She wants freedom, and more time, and receives them both, but at a heavy price. Nobody will remember her. And not even just in the long run; Addie can be forgotten in the time it takes to fetch something from another room. Travelling the world, unable to leave a mark, Addie tries to find her own meaning in experiences and art while resigning herself to the loneliness of her curse. Until a young man in a bookshop remembers her, and changes everything.

My thoughts on The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

I absolutely loved the premise for this book. It just begs you to consider what you would do with an infinite lifespan, particularly one with such a strange condition attached. The book cuts between present-day (2014 in the book) and Addie’s past. You see her growing up in rural France, the moment she made the deal, and snapshots of her life in the years beyond that. You also get chapters from Henry’s point of view, starting from before the two of them meet.

In essence, Addie is cursed to be forgotten. Nobody can remember her after she leaves their sight, and she can’t make a mark on the world around her. Literally. Anything she writes fades away, anything she picks up gets lost.

I enjoyed the characters in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Addie made for an interesting protagonist. I enjoyed watching her grapple with the limits of her condition. Even more than that, it was fascinating following her as she tried to figure out how to find meaning in a life that can’t make an impression on the world. I would have liked a little more character growth over 300 years, potentially! But she did seem to become more calculating and strategic, and I definitely enjoyed her stubbornness.

Henry’s sweet, and ironically kind of forgettable. The strongest impression he made was how lost he was. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life when he enters the story, and he’s struggling with that.

Luc, the character who cursed Addie in the first place, is referred to by various terms throughout the book. The darkness. The devil. A god.

The way their relationship developed across Addie’s life was great. She both enjoys seeing him because he’s the only person who knows who she is, and hates seeing him because he’s only there to try and get her to give up. But there’s another side to it as well, because for him this is an unusual kind of deal – he normally offers a set period of time and then shows up to collect, there isn’t typically this kind of back and forth. He’s found a strange sort of company in Addie, just as he’s the only consistent company she’s left with, and that creates a fun dynamic.

There were also a whole host of characters Addie tried to forge some kind of relationship with, even though they forgot her constantly. Some of these were great, and major highlights of the story, despite not being central to it.

The themes in the book are compelling

One of the themes the book seems to grapple with what a life is worth if you can’t have any impact on the world.

If nothing you do matters, arguably the only thing that means anything is your personal experience. How much you enjoy what you’re doing. It was interesting seeing the moments that made Addie consider giving up, and the things that kept her wanting to carry on, and it does leave you wondering where you would find joy if all of the usual ways of making meaning from your life were ruled out for you.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue also really highlights the importance of art, and the necessity of creativity, in a way that I particularly enjoyed as a writer and firm believer in the arts!

Addie herself seems weirdly uninterested in the rest of the world

Given that she’s been exploring the world for 300 years, she doesn’t seem to have got to that much. Europe and America, I’m pretty sure that was it. She also seems to have a weirdly blinkered view of the world, for somebody whose main motivation for living forever was wanting to see it all.

She lives through some pretty dramatic periods of history, and we hear nothing about them; for instance, she’s in Europe during the first and second world wars. She’s in America during the civil rights movement. We get next to nothing on her thoughts on these major events. She does have some brief involvement at one point, which I liked! Although when I say brief it was over in a few sentences – I wish we could have seen her do more of that.

I get that this isn’t meant to be historical fiction, and the focus is on Addie herself, but it serves to create an impression that even after hundreds of years Addie’s main focus is also herself.

There’s some beautiful writing in this book

I’ve read some complaints that the first part of the book is repetitive, which I can understand. I think this serves a purpose, helping to get the reader into Addie’s frame of mind. Also, the writing is lovely – V. E. Schwab has a wonderful way with prose – so I enjoyed it all the same.

It also serves to create more of a contrast when finally, for the first time in Addie’s last 300 years, something different happens and somebody remembers her.

I kind of wish it was easier to go into this book not knowing that was going to happen. It’s in the blurb, and I guess it’s partly mentioned so that you know you’re waiting for something to change. I assume it also helps deter people from giving up before they get to that point. But it would be so cool to be able to experience that shock with Addie.

To sum up…

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is beautifully written, atmospheric and immersive. I enjoyed the characters, although feel like there was some wasted potential there. Whether in those side characters, who were here and then gone, or in Henry, who I think could have been more fleshed-out.

There’s not much of a plot when you really boil the whole thing down! But for me the premise and the way that was explored, plus the characters and the way they related to each other and had to deal with their various issues, made it enjoyable.

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