Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsUtterly unforgettable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 December 2020
On the eve of her wedding, desperate to escape the small life ahead of her, Addie makes a pact with one of the Old Gods - freedom for the price of her soul. From this date forth, Addie's life is cursed, for though she is free, no-one can remember her. Yet despite the hardships and loneliness of her existence, Addie stubbornly clings on to life, revelling in those small moments of beauty and wonder, her only companion the God who cursed her. He visits her once a year, the two engaged in a chess game, a battle that neither wishes to lose. Yet everything changes when almost three hundred years later, Addie finally meets someone who can remember her.
This was just a mesmerizing read, and easily my book of the year. I've never read anything from Schwab before, but was simply intrigued by the blurb for this book, however, if any of her other books are even half as good as this one, I would still be pleased. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is one of those rare reads that you know will stay with you for a long time, and reading it I just wanted to savour it. Indeed coming to the last few chapters I was almost bereft at knowing I would soon be leaving this world and these wonderful characters behind.
I have to say in some ways the book was not necessarily what I was expecting, but I loved it all the same. Whilst it does clearly have a fantasy element to it, the book is so much more than that, combining historical and contemporary fiction, together with romance. However, perhaps what surprised me most was just how reflective a read this was, in that it had an almost philosophical feel to it. It makes you ponder and pause. Furthermore, Schwab's writing was simply exquisite. I don't know if this is her usual style of writing, but it really suited the tone of the story. Every word seemed to have been perfectly chosen, every sentence crafted in such a way that it weighed. The prose itself flowed beautifully and was very evocative and lyrical in style.
The story itself spans about three hundred years with the chapters going back and forth, from Addie's early life, to her making this Faustian deal and learning to live with it, to chapters then set almost in the modern day, which is where Addie meets Henry, the man who can remember her. I thought this structure was really effective and kept the story moving, without ever being confusing, and I liked the New York setting for the contemporary aspects.
Of course when you've lived three hundred years, there's an awful lot of content to cover, and so Schwab has to be selective in terms of the parts of Addie's history that we witness and the parts that are left untold. I appreciate that some readers were a little disappointed by this and had perhaps expected the scope of the story to be wider in terms of the places Addie has travelled and the events she has witnessed through history. However, personally I appreciated the more personal story that Schwab was trying to tell, and thought she structured it well accordingly. It made sense to focus more on Addie's early years after the curse as that was when she struggled most to adapt to it, and whilst I would have loved to see Addie on her travels more, having the past narrative mostly in France worked for me, as it was the place Addie always still identified as home and so resonated with her character. Quite often we home in on Addie in the past on the anniversary of her curse, as this is when she most often interacts with Luc (the name she gives the God or Devil who cursed her), and again I thought this was an effective way of keeping the narrative moving forward and conveying their long standing history together.
Whilst I appreciated that Schwab was focused more on the implications of the curse and what Addie had lost, exploring themes such as identity, memory, loneliness and connecting with others as well as leaving a mark on the world, that is not to say that if Schwab ever decided to write a spin off book following Addie on her travels through time, I would not lap it up, as I would be intrigued to delve further into her thoughts on a changing world and experiencing different cultures.
Addie herself was such a memorable character, which of course is ironic, given that no-can can remember her. I loved her resilience and determined spirit, and that she just could not be broken no matter what happened to her and what she lost. She had such a zest for life, and it was easy to appreciate why she became a muse for so many artists, as her spirit just burned so brightly.
The other two central characters in the book are Luc and Henry, and in many ways they are the opposite of each other. Luc, for me, to begin with, was a little one-dimensional, however his character did develop as the story went on, and his relationship with Addie ultimately was very intriguingly drawn. There was an aspect of their relationship that was very compelling, with really interesting dynamics, and yet what I liked, was that whilst still acknowledging that fact and playing on it, Schwab never let the reader lose sight of the fact that this was an unhealthy dynamic. In many ways Luc and Addie represent a toxic and even abusive relationship, due to the fact that Luc always wields such power and is always in a position of control in comparison to Addie, and he uses that and manipulates it to his advantage. There were times when he was incredibly cruel, and yet as the story went on, you could see some change in him, and even some vulnerability, and actually by the story's end perhaps that power balance between them had shifted somewhat. Again there is scope for so much more here, in terms of where and how Schwab leaves the story, though this does work as a stand alone read too.
That leaves Henry, who was just the complete antidote to Luc's toxicity. What I like about this book, is that many authors may have left the focus on Addie and Luc's relationship (and I'm not sure if this is why some readers were again disappointed), but I personally really enjoyed what Henry brought to the story. He is the gentleness to Luc's cruelty, the light to his dark, a safe haven to Luc's unpredictability, and his story works so well interwoven as it is with Addie's. One of the things that Addie herself slowly acknowledges as the story goes on is that she is no longer really human, and given that fact, I think Henry is all the more important to the story, because he is so human. Henry encapsulates all our human fragilities and insecurities, as well as our huge capacity to love. His own arc in this story is such a touching one that Schwab renders really well, sensitively exploring subjects like depression and low self-esteem. However, combined with Addie's arc, this makes for something magical.
Some readers might find their romance a little 'cutesy', and certainly there is a quality to it that doesn't feel quite real necessarily, however, in the context of this story and the way their arcs intertwine and almost fit like pieces of a jigsaw together, for me they just worked. In the final chapter Addie herself reflects on their relationship as 'a gift. Time and memory, like lovers in a fable,' and I agreed with that sentiment. Their time together felt like a pause, a breath, in Addie's longer story, and they were able to complement each other and give the other what they needed in that time they had. Furthermore this relationship contrasted so well with Addie and Luc's, in that there was so much mutual respect and understanding there.
The nature of Addie's curse means that there are not too many other central players in the story, though to Schwab's credit she often managed to render characters who only had fleeting parts in the story, really well, such as Remy for instance and Estele. I also really liked the author's focus on how art in all its forms, can be this lasting imprint. Ultimately we're all forgotten, but in works of art, people live on and touch and influence others.
If you're the sort of reader who likes their books fast paced and action packed, then this definitely is not for you. However, if you don't mind something a little slower and character driven, then I would highly recommend this as book you can easily get lost in. Sometimes the story might seem a little repetitive, but I thought it suited the subject nature, at times having a deja vu feel, that Addie herself experiences so often. The last section of the story really raises the stakes and has this feel as if you're up against the clock (be warned you might need the tissues) and the ending itself was for me perfect.
Overall a very memorable and poignantly rendered story, that ponders on what it really means to live and to leave your mark.