Book Review- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

When Addie LaRue makes a deal with devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.

Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day.

Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal. Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him.

Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can’t escape her fate forever.

My thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing me with an EARC copy of this book!

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Schwab’s writing, I wasn’t enamoured by her middle grade novel City of Ghosts, and I thought The Archived was just ok but nothing special, so I was a wee bit apprehensive beginning this novel, but very intrigued by the description!

I am so so pleased that I absolutely adored this book! I raced through it in less than 48 hours and I loved every single page.

The novel tells the story of Addie, who makes a deal with the Devil for freedom from an impending marriage that she doesn’t want. However, in making this deal she is tricked into agreeing to be forgotten by everyone as soon as she leaves their sight or they fall asleep. She doesn’t age, so instead is forced to live everyday knowing that no one remembers her.

Despite this melancholy and sad basis for a novel, the novel is packed full of moments of light and hope, and the joy that Addie finds in the little things makes the novel so uplifting and joyful at times, that it balances out the sadness.

I loved the character of Addie so much. Her refusal to give up and relinquish her soul was so moving, and her stubborn refusal to yield was wonderful to read. She was also witty and funny, and had retained these traits despite her curse, and I loved following her in this novel.

This novel is also a love story to art; to sculpture, to music, to painting and to the power of words. I loved this element of the novel, the love Addie has for art, and the way this love is woven throughout the novel was wonderful. The way Schwab describes the art and writes about the power of art was so moving and awe-inspiring, these passages were some of my favourites to read.

Addie discovers a man called Henry who remembers her even after she leaves his sight, and Henry was such a sensitive and sweet person, he was a source of light and happiness in the novel, and I loved him a lot!

Overall I absolutely adored this novel, it was moving and wonderful and I cannot wait to pick it up again and experience the magic once more.

Thanks for reading!

Buy the book from Waterstones here (affiliate link)

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