'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.'
The first time I heard of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was at a book signing event in 2019, where Victoria was talking about the re-release of her first novel, The Near Witch, as well as several of her other books. There were a number of questions about the upcoming book during this talk, and despite talking passionately about all of her books there was something different whenever she spoke about Addie LaRue. There was a passion there that showed this was a project that meant a lot to her, and during the talk she mentioned that this was a book that she had been working on for the better part of a decade.
Jumping forward in time, it was announced that it would be coming out in 2020, and so many people in the publishing community, especially readers and reviewers, were getting very excited for the release. With all of the hype that was being built up around the book, I have to admit I became really nervous going into it. What if the excitement wasn't justified? What if I'd hyped myself up for something amazing that could never meet those expectations? I was worried that I'd built this monolith in my mind that the finished novel could never actually compete with. Luckily for me, I was worried for nothing, and Victoria Schwab has proven once again that she is a masterful storyteller.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue begins in the summer of 1714, where our protagonist Adeline is running away from her problems, quite literally. We get little context for what's happeneing, except for how desperate the young woman is. From here events jump forward three hundred years, where Adeline, who now calls herself Addie, is in New York City, in the bed of a man who doesn't remember bringing her home the night before. We learn that this isn't because of drink or drugs, he can't remember her because no one can. As soon as anyone stops looking at Addie she erases from their memories.
Over the course of the next several chapters we skip between modern day and three hundred years before, where we get to see both lives that Addie is living. In one she's a young woman living in rural France, fighting against her parents expectations to go off and get married, and in the other she's a ghost, walking through the world without anyone realising she even exists. Through her past we learn that in her desperation to escape her upcoming wedding she prayed to the old gods of the woods, made them offerings to help her, but none would. When she accidentally prays too long, offering up her prayers after darkness falls, she gets a response from something she should have never asked for help from.
This entity offers Addie a deal, a way to escape from the life everyone has planned for her and to be free for as long as she likes, in exchange for her soul. Desperate and out of options, Addie agrees, little realising just what she's agreeing to. Addie is given freedom, she can go anywhere, but the cost is that everyone has forgotten her. Alone in the world, the young woman begins to drift, a journey that will last centuries.
In modern day New York Addie is simply going about her usual routine, taking what she wants, going wherever she feels, and trying to enjoy her bizarre existence. However, when she's caught stealing a book from a used bookstore she thinks nothing of returning the next day, after all, the owner isn't going to remember her is he? Except he does. After three hundred years alone, three hundred years able to observe the world but leave no mark of her own she hears the three words she thought she would never hear again, 'I remember you'.
The narrative of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue makes great use of having a character exist for centuries, jumping backwards and forwards through Addie's life in order to tell her story. Schwab uses it to good effect, not only setting up hints at things to come in each narrative, but teasing out reveals. Some of these are moments that you feel you know are coming, things that are hinted at in the future fairly early on in the book, but that you have to wait hundreds of pages to get to in order to finally learn these secrets. I would say that it's a great way to keep a reader interested, but honestly, I found the narrative engaging enough that these little mysteries weren't what kept me hooked at all. If anything, I found them a little frustrating because I wanted answers straight away; but this was frustrating in a good way.
It wasn't the mysteries of Addie LaRue that kept me reading, but the character herself. Fictional characters, just like real people, are shaped by their experiences; where they go, what they do, and who they interact with. Whilst you could go through your entire life never interacting with someone I'm sure there are very few people who have. Everyone needs to talk to someone some of the time. When that option is taken away, what kind of person would you be? This is what made Addie herself so fascinating, as I think she's one of the few literary characters who is so completely alone for so long, even whilst surrounded by people.
I'm sure there are some people who are waiting for the chance to jump in now and say 'but Amy, she can talk to people, she's forgettable, not invisible', and you're right, she can interact with people, but this is in very limited ways. If you cannot form any lasting relationships with people how can you have any real, meaningful conversations? If people forget you as soon as they're not looking at you, how can you have any conversations that are anything other than a first meeting? And how long until you just get so tired of having a first meeting over and over again?
Addie is very different in 2014 to her time in the 1700's, and this isn't just because she's grown older and wiser over time, but because you can see the effect of bring has had on her. She doesn't look at people the same way that you and I do. She doesn't treat people the way we would. This goes beyond simple things like having to steal to survive, to at times not even really seeing people as people all the time. Everyone else is so removed from her world that she at times doesn't even consider herself one of us anymore.
This is explored in great detail with the introduction of Henry, a young man working in a bookstore who can somehow remember Addie. The reasons for this do get explored during the book, and add to the mystery that plays out over the novel; but much like Addie I think it's him as a person that's more interesting than his mystery. He, much like Addie, has detached himself from the world around him. He's had troubles in love and doesn't seem capable of letting anyone else in again. But when he meets Addie things change, for both of them. We get to see not only how she improves his life, but how he humanises her. Sometimes it's simple things, like her having to confront the morality of stealing from people in order to make her way through the world, but other times it's smaller, more personal things like her being able to wake up beside someone and see recognition in her eyes, and the peace that that brings her.
I sometimes have trouble getting into books that have romance be a central component, and can find some love stories to be overly dramatic and draining, but the story that plays out between these two is genuinely beautiful and fascinating.
I don't want to talk too much about the story though, as there's so much that's best learnt as the narrative unfolds. There are reasons why Schwab chose to keep certain things back until certains points in the book, and I know talking about them in a review will ruin that experience for you. All I can say is, this isn't just a book about love, it's not just a story about a woman living through centuries. There's so much here that you don't realise at first. It's big and expansive, with layers, and it's so damn beautifully written.
I've enjoyed everything I've read of Schwab's so far, and have made a point to but all of her books because she's an author I know I'm going to get something good from, but if I wasn't already a fan this is the book that would make me one. It's a book that will take you on an unexpected and shocking journey, a book that you'll be thinking about days and weeks after, that you'll want to recommend to all of your friends. I can understand now why Victoria was so excited when she spoke about this book, I can understand why it meant so much to her. This is the kind of book that comes along very rarely, and you'll definitely regret missing out on it if you don't grab a copy.
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