This story is not going to be for everyone. I think it is going to be a love it or hate it with little in between for most. I found it fascinating with the beautiful prose and interesting way that Addie came to see her life. I for the most part enjoyed this tale of a girl trapped at twenty-three with no way to leave a mark on the world and forgotten by anyone who meets her in the blink of an eye.
***“...it is sad, of course, to forget.
But it is a lonely thing, to be forgotten.
To remember when no one else does.”***
Adeline longed for adventure as a child. She begged her father to travel with him and see the other cities and was allowed to until she reached an age when she should be thinking of other things like being a wife and mother. But Addie wanted so much more than that. On the day of a wedding she never wanted Addie makes a deal with one of the gods after dark. The gods of the night are not kind and the one she made a deal with wants her soul.
***“I am stronger than your god and older than your devil. I am the darkness between stars, and the roots beneath the earth. I am promise, and potential, and when it comes to playing games, I divine the rules, I set the pieces, and I choose when to play.”***
With a deal struck Addie will not age, she will feel pain but it will not stick, hunger but she will not waste away. Still the cruelty of it is that she cannot draw or write or do anything that might leave a mark on the word herself. She is forgotten by everyone around her and it will be just like that for three hundred years, until she meets a boy who says three words…I remember you.
This is much a character study more than anything else. We follow Addie in her life past and present to learn the full scope of her story. How she went from the child begging in the woods to the woman no one remembers. But Addie has found a way to leave her mark in songs, stories, drawings and paintings. She is the muse that is not remembered, not really but hinted at and almost captured in moments.
***“The first mark she left upon the world, long before she knew the truth, that ideas are so much wilder than memories, that they long and look for ways of taking root”***
The Dark has been her fickle companion through the years popping in to see if she is done with this life and ready to surrender her soul to him. Addie never falters, she never gives but he is the only one that remembers her and in her years alone she finds they are much the same. Let’s just say their relationship is complicated and full of history.
Henry, ah how I love our broken Henry. He is the first person in three-hundred years to see Addie and remember her. The only person that she can say her name to. Addie sees the real Henry too and it is something he hasn’t had for a while. I do love how broken yet sweet our Henry is.
***“I see someone who cares,” she says slowly. “Perhaps too much. Who feels too much. I see someone lost, and hungry. The kind of person who feels like they’re wasting away in a world full of food, because they can’t decide what they want.”***
Their love affair is sweet and doomed but all the best ones are.
Will this book be for you? That is a good question. I think the answer to that is if you are a more patient reader that loves to get lost in some great prose, interesting characters and don’t mind waiting for a story to slowly unfold, then certainly this could be for you. But if you are look for more things happening during the story then possibly not.
I have one and only one complaint for this and it is that I did want a little more time with Addie and the Dark together bantering and fighting throughout the years. Also, the ending may not sit well with everyone, but I thought it fitting. I think that it is how Addie feels at that moment but I remember the Dark is patient and will most likely change her mind down the road. Time for them is still vastly different.
***“What she needs are stories.
Stories are a way to preserve one's self. To be remembered. And to forget.
Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books.
Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.”***
I really enjoyed my read of this book. It has a lot of things that really work for me in stories. The ending while not perfect, fit well the situation and made me think. I think the Dark is going to surprise Addie once again.
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Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.Highlighted by 13,324 Kindle readers- Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget.Highlighted by 10,091 Kindle readers
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No art was included.Writing this review about the product received and not the book itself. Note my husband recommended this book (he listened to it as an audiobook, so we didnt have a physical copy of it) and does say its a great story so definitely purchase this somehow.I believe this book is supposed to come with 6 art prints. In the description it list that it should, as I purchased the special edition.Product description reads:'A gorgeous new collector’s edition of V. E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, including:- Six new pieces of art from Addie’s story never-before-seen to North America readers- Designed alternate debossed stamp under the cover- Ribbon bookmark-An exclusive note from the author'I received absolutely no art prints that should have came with this book. And no art is contained within the book, so that is how I determined it should have been prints.The book seems to have been around a small amount of moisture. No big deal, but makes me wonder if this caused the art prints to be horribly damaged and that is why they were not received. Or they could have been a limited offering as this edition has been out for almost a year? I have no clue. But if thats the case, the listing needs to be updated.I would have purchased this book even without the art, but was kind of bummed about it. Other than that, its beautiful. Just maybe purchase it in store if you want the art prints?
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Great concept, needs more descriptions of environment
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on January 1, 2021
