Genre: Fantasy (literary) Age Range: Adult Star Rating: 5 stars Series: Standalone CW: Depression, mention of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse
Synopsis:
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.
Synopsis taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
This book has been absolutely everywhere at the moment, and has been selling insanely well. With all that hype, and the fact that I knew this book would be leaning a bit more literary then I normally read, a la THE STARLESS SEA, I was a little hesitant going in.
It is a gorgeously written book, absolutely sweeping you into the story. I wouldn’t consider this a “dark” book, simply because of the atmosphere generated by the prose. It hits my other major requirement for a book to be dark (a magnetic quality and a perpetual feeling that there is a chance for it to go well, but it’s slipping from reach a little more each time so the only way it will go well is a massive sacrifice that will shake the hero’s very foundation, and maybe destroy one of their goals), but the prose it too… poetic.
What do I mean? Well, VICIOUS/VENGEFUL are 100% books I’d call dark – there is a hard, uncompromising feel to those book. The story and the prose are all angles. THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LA RUE feels more like smoke – glittering, charcoal coloured smoke. It’s very hard to pin the prose down, but it has a gorgeous flow to it, the use of third person present gives it an ethereal quality – not quite fairy tale, and a world barely out of reach.
It’s a slow story, and in some ways, very low stakes (no end of the world, just will Addie give in), which probably also helps it feel less dark as the world will keep spinning whatever happens with her story – playing into the theme of the book. That is far from usual in fantasy, which helps explain why this book feels like it’s dancing the edge of fantasy and general/literary fiction.
The book is told in a non-linear fashion – the “present day” story (2014!), and Addie’s past. Plus there’s some stuff from Henry’s past in there too. I’m glad I’d seen somewhere that he was a POV, because it probably would have thrown me for a bit of a loop when he started narrating, as the first section is all Addie.
The ending fits the book perfectly, so bitter sweet and perfectly fits the feel that there is so much more to Addie’s story than told between the pages of the book.
Read my reviews of other books by V. E./Victoria Schwab:
Adult:
Villains:
Shades of Magic:
Young Adult:
The Archived:
- THE ARCHIVED (#1)
- THE UNBOUND (#2)
Standalones:
Middle Grade:
Cassidy Blake:
- CITY OF GHOSTS (#1)
- TUNNEL OF BONES (#2)
- BRIDGE OF SOULS (#3)
Everyday Angel:
- NEW BEGINNINGS (#1)
- SECOND CHANCES (#2)
- LAST WISHES (#3)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 