“Life is the minutes you want, minus one.”
A very different book than anything I’ve read before. A story told in memories and present moments Intertwined timelines and three characters. We experience the same moment through the characters’ eyes and share their feelings. I found the plot really intriguing. The story about a life that can’t be remembered. A heroine who can’t leave a physical mark on the world and yet finds her own way. Because the “ideas” that are planted in people’s minds are also a trace.
Book Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- Author: Victoria Shuab
- 448 pages, Hardcover
- First published October 6, 2020
Addie LaRue
I really enjoyed the portrayal of Addie and her struggle for freedom, both as a character and as a constructed figure. And by that I don’t just mean her attempts to free herself from the curse, but also her quest to be a different person and break the shackles of her time. Addie wants to live and escape the stereotypes imposed on her by the community in which she lives. Hopelessness drives her to make a deal that will give her centuries in exchange for loneliness. Addie is cursed to leave no trace.
Her footprints in the snow disappear, the words written by her hand are erased, even her name is taken from her. Addie LaRue is a ghost wandering the world. And yet she does not give up. She does not surrender to darkness, and she does not give up on life. For 300 years she has played the game of “devil” and learned how to defeat it. She tests the limits of her curse and finds her own way to leave a mark. For the demon makes a mistake.
Luc – The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Maybe I’m not good, but stories about ancient gods and demons, children of darkness, really impress me. I love dark lore and mysterious characters. Luc is an image I will keep in my mind. This dark villain has a certain appeal. He steals souls. He fulfills their deepest desires, he makes their dreams come true and gives them time to realize them. He is evil, arrogant, and yet there is something very human about him. Even gods are lonely. There are many truths in his words to Addie. The portrayal of Luc I can’t call him the villain of the story. Yes, he is heartless and uncompromising, but a deal is a deal and a price must be paid.
Henry
Henry, on the other hand, longs to be loved. He is the complete opposite of Luc, the self-assured lord of darkness. The salesman from the small antique store feels like a big disappointment. Henry sees the disapproval in the eyes of his parents, brother and sister. Their opinion that he has wasted his life weighs on him. Even his instructor at college considers him ‘unfit” Something is always missing. Henry is not ‘enough’ the way he is. Until he meets the girl he will remember for a lifetime. The two find a way to give each other what they long for and save each other from loneliness.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The story of Luc and Addie is an age-old struggle, a battle between two characters. Like the two poles of a magnet. Between them there is hate and love. Their relationship is a complex tangle. Luc is the only constant in Addie’s life. He always comes back and remembers her. He is the only certain thing in her ghostly existence. She is his and he is hers. Until the boy from the bookstore shows up and remembers her. Until Addie finds a reason to oppose her patron even more vehemently. Until she makes a new deal to save the only one who will remember her.
I have no experience with Schwab’s writing style. I read many reviews before starting The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and came across opinions that the story was too chaotic and this jumping around in time was confusing. In my opinion, this is not the case. Yes, there were indeed many references and big time jumps, but they didn’t break the general framework of Addie’s life. Each episode from her past reveals a reason in the present. The way she fought back against the curse. The attempts to find a loophole to escape. The moment she realizes there is a way to make her mark on the world. It probably won’t appeal to everyone, I realize that. I read it with interest and would recommend it to readers.
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.
