Hi and welcome to the reading world!
Today I’m going to be reviewing a very well discussed novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab.
Standalone Adult Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Takeaways: This is a very character driven novel that revolves around the lifetime of a unique and enigmatic protagonist.
It’s difficult to write a review of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue because this book is already so widely covered by reviewers across platforms. However, I still wanted to share my own thoughts and experience reading the story as well as how my thoughts have evolved over the past few months since finishing it.
When everyone said that this is a largely character driven novel, I went into it expecting there to not be much of a plot. However, I think that the plot of this story is simply following Addie’s life and how she adapts to her newfound immortality and the constraints it also imposes. As a reader, I found the story initially difficult to get into, but then as I settled into reading it flew by. However, for me the ending felt a little rushed for wrapping up a storyline that only really came into center stage in the last quarter of the novel.
The character of Addie is an interesting narrator and perspective to follow. Her emotional complexity is explored through vignettes of her experiences across centuries in addition to her modern self. I liked the interactions we saw between her and Luc as a means of seeing a unique side of her that we only really get in those scenes, and I wish we’d seen more of that development relative to the other stories.
The romantic elements of the story felt a little lackluster to me compared to the robust character development the book had provided. The deal itself also was explored in intricate detail throughout the story, but to me this just created more opportunities for the story to be slowed further at points.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a great story to go into knowing that it is heavily centered around character development. However, looking back on it, the ending was definitely not as good for me compared to the tone and characterization arcs the story had created. While for me it didn’t fully live up to the hype so many had built up around it, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is definitely an interesting and unique story.
Have you read this one? What were your thoughts?
Thank you for stopping by!
-Rae
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