Honest Review of Addie Larue

*Spoilers down below if you have not read this novel yet**

Amanda Machado

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2 min read

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Nov 28, 2020

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I first heard about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue thanks in part to both social media and the eye-catching cover at my local Barnes and Noble. 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. Sign me up!

For all intents and purposes, V.E. Schwab knows how to hook her readers with an interesting premise. Unfortunately, this book felt like it dragged on a little too much for my liking and some of the purple prose that was sprinkled in didn’t make sense to me.

“ He tastes like the air at night, heady with the weight of summer storms.” How??

I also assumed that after 300 years, Addie would have changed as a person or at least recognized some of her flaws & tried to work on them but her stubbornness comes across more as an intentional annoyance.

I wish there was more diversity in the novel. You have Bea who seemed to be the sole black character and Robbie- Henry’s ex-boyfriend who is gay — not bisexual/fluid as Henry identifies but being set in New York in 2014… you would think there would have been more diversity?

Plus, for someone who has lived as long as Addie has why did she only explore parts of Europe and the United States? What happened to South America, Asia, Africa, Central America… heck Australia or even Canada? How is her mindset supposed to grow if she only stayed in those areas?

I also didn’t understand the insta love appeal Addie has over people. What exactly compelled men and women to gravitate towards her? Her seven freckles that were mentioned several times throughout the novel?

Overall, it’s not a bad book nor it is badly written — I just think there were some fillers that could have been taken out that could have made the story not feel so tediously long. Also as far as the ending goes, the fact that Addie thinks she can make Luc (god after dark) hate her to the point that eventually he will tire of her and cast her off just seemed more comical to me more than triumphant. He’s basically the devil — I highly doubt he will be conned that easily.

I also believe that V.E. might have intentionally made Addie stick with Luc because the words used to describe Luc vs Henry made me realize that the author probably conjured Luc to be way more attractive in that sinister way. Not to mention Addie and Luc’s relationship borders on unhealthy & possessive.

I did appreciate that Schwab did give readers a chance to see Henry’s point of view as brief as it was later in the novel. My overall rating is 3 stars out of 5.