Finally completed reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. My rating? 3 over 5.
I found this book getting recommended a lot at Kindle Philippines fb group so I thought I’d give it a try after finishing Hopeless by Coleen Hoover (which I rated 4/5). Didn’t think it would take me 3 months to finish it. I’m a slow and uninspired reader, and even by my standards 3 months is too long for a single book hahaha. It was so dragging.
SPOILER ALERT
Here’s the summary from GoodReads…
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
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.
—
Interesting right? My favorite part about the book is really the writing style, beautiful prose poetry that vividly takes you wherever Addie is. I loved the time jumps between past and present, her relationship with her father, her child-like wonder whenever they head out of town, her frustration about getting stuck at their village forever, and her friendship with Estelle, who’s probably my favorite character in this book.
But whenever it jumps to the present, I always lose interest.
There are three main characters in this story; Addie our 300 year old heroine, Luc the god he struck a deal with, and Henry… Addie’s special sadboi lol.
None of them had any character development throughout the story. To think Addie has lived 300 years, she didn’t seem to have wisened up. The only thing special about her is her unorthodox distaste for being a homemaker and staying in Villon forever. But beyond that? We see nothing more, she’s just loitering around, I wouldn’t say the world but, Europe and America, looking for affluent artists who could draw her like one their French girls, char.
Perhaps it’s a consequence of having lived three centuries. At a hundred she’s learned enough to survive the world despite her curse. Another hundred and the weight of losing loved ones has taken a toll on her psyche. Another hundred and she’s desensitized to loss and being forgotten, as it becomes a recurring theme in her god-knows-how-long life. Maybe that’s why it seemed like she’s not grown enough. Maybe this book should’ve ended when she’s around 200.
Given Addie, it’s hard for me to imagine how she found some kind of favor in Luc’s eyes. As a god who answers in the dark, I had high expectations of his might. But he’s just all flair. Their snide banters aren’t even that clever. For a god who’s in the business of souls, he probably a low ranked grim reaper who’s more concerned about looking cool.
And don’t get me started on Henry. He’s an empty shell. Before and during the deal. There’s nothing special about him. He exists solely to write about Addie, which consequently gave him the recognition he’s yearned for so long, so yeah, good for him. Not for the readers though.
I don’t know. I feel like the premise was wasted in trying to establish a love-hate relationship between Addie and Luc. I probably had wrong expectations. I wanted to revel in the sinister nature of Faustian bargains, much like in the TV series Once Upon a Time, because the writing style could very much pull off such vividry, but I guess it’s too much to ask of someone who just goes with the flow, an undaunting villain, and a weak male character (Addie, Luc, and Henry respectively).