The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

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Title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V.E. Schwab
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: October 6, 2020
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Julia Whelan
Length: 17 hours and 10 minutes
Genres: Contemporary Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Source: Libby, Kobo Audio
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Spring, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

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.

My Review:

4 stars — OMG emotionally draining.  This book had an ending that was both perfect and slightly unsatisfying…but maybe just for me.  It left me feeling very conflicted, b/c the ending fit the story, but I kept wanting something else…but I would have been disappointed if I’d gotten that something else.

The narration was fucking amazing.  Julia Whelan never ceases to amaze me with how many emotions she can wring out of me.  Honestly, I cannot IMAGINE not listening to this story.  Her voices were always spot on, and just gave me shivers at times.  I think if I’d read instead of listened, it would have been a 3 or 3.5 star read.

At the same time, it was SO LONG.  I’m not a long book reader.  It felt really slow at times, and drawn out.  I have a feeling if this book had been 2/3 the size, it would have been an even higher rating (4.5 for sure).  For me the pacing was just too slow.  I get that we needed a lot to get the full picture, but I feel like it could have been trimmed without losing the essence.

This was my first book by this author, and I was struck by her writing at many times.  Just the way she would describe things, it evoked such vivid impressions in my mind.  Not just physical descriptions, but feelings, emotions, just everything.  I was very impressed.  The writing had a quality to it that was affecting.

Addie was frustrating at times.  I felt for her.  Like a lot.  But I don’t know that I ever quite got her.  I kept second guessing what she wanted, what her motivations were…actually, maybe not through the whole book (just occasionally), but now that I’m done?  Oh yeah, the mind is whirling.  And unfortunately I’m not a reader who necessarily enjoys all that disruption in my thoughts and uncertainty.  But even so, her story was fascinating and affecting.

Henry was so unexpected.  I think he fucked me up a lot.  I felt so much for all he went through, and I just…I don’t know.  I was both satisfied and dissatisfied by the ending.  Mostly satisfied though.

There were just so many branches of where the story could go, and part of me wanted certain things, but when I think harder on it, I feel like I got exactly what the story needed…exactly what the characters all needed.

So that’s a long review that says nothing.  It was intriguing.  It was different.  It made me think.  But now I’m drained, and I need something light because I’m just spent.

ETA: I got the chance to chat with my book club peeps, and they actually helped me feel through some of my emotions about the ending, and I feel more settled now.  Thank god for book club (even if I missed the video portion).  Also, I think this is a great book club choice, b/c I can imagine people having wildly different reactions to the story (though we were pretty in sync).