The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V. E. Schwab was just stunning. It was a much needed mystical read I needed to end off the year, and I’m so glad I saved it for the right time. Schwab’s writing is absolutely tantalizing. It is gentle and flowing in all the right ways, yet kept me hooked and wanting more.
Addie’s story is unlike any other. In her twenties, just around my age, she made a deal to get out of marrying her life away. Despite her warnings to “never pray to the gods that answer after dark”, in a moment of panic she did just that. In the dark forest, she called and Luc answered. He granted her wish for freedom, but with strings attached.
For some, freedom is simply free will. For Addie, it is being invisible. For 300 years everyone Addie met was meeting her for the first time. Even her mother, her father, her lovers. Until Henry.
“I believe you.”
This novel was such a slow burn for me. I had no idea where the twists and turns were going, I just knew they had to be leading to someone remembering Addie. As soon as we were introduced to Henry in the bookstore, I knew it was going to be him.
“She watches customers lean toward Henry like flowers toward the sun.”
Henry Strauss snuck up on me. Recently, I have been seeing a lot on bookstagram/booktok about soul characters, or characters that resonate deeply with you. I hadn’t realized that this was something others experienced. As an avid reader, I often find myself deeply connecting to characters, and almost feeling like they are kindred spirits. Henry quickly became a soul character to me. His story touched me in a way that Addie’s didn’t. Despite understanding her need for freedom, I could not connect to that exact feeling. Being twenty-something in the 1700’s is much different than being twenty-something in the 2020’s, and Addie’s desire for freedom, though similar to mine, was deeper in other ways. Henry, however, felt like a kindred spirit to me from the start. From his bookish tendencies to his deepest fears aligning with “Nothing New” by Taylor Swift (ft Phoebe Bridgers), I felt so seen by him and his heart-gripping awareness that time was ticking by too fast.
The thing that meant the most to me about Addie and Henry’s connection was the fact that it was based on happenstance, “in that first-night-of-the-rest-of-our-lives kind of way”. I read a lot of romance books, and nearly 100% of them end in soulmates and happy endings. Don’t get me wrong- most of the time that exactly what I am looking for, but this one was different. I don’t think that Addie and Henry were soulmates. I don’t think that stars aligned for them in that sense. I think they were meant to be during the time that they were together, and it was the lesson that they both needed. They met so that eventually they could move on. I didn’t realize I needed a story like this until Schwab gave it to me, and for that reason this novel has already become so special to me. So many aspect of this book gave me chills (“they’re portraits of the same woman”...), and the ending of Addie Larue is one that will stay with me for a long time for multiple reasons. I will remember!!
“Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives- or to find strength in a very long one.”
“She moves around the books as if they’re friends.”
“Teaching is an extension of learning, a way to be a perpetual student.”
“There are many ways to leave a mark.”
“How strange, the winding way a dream comes true.”
“Times change, but everyone dances.”
Rating: 7/7 constellation freckles
xx, Lauren