Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

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

This book is fantastic. I literally had to force myself to put it down around 3:00am one night so I could get a few hours of sleep before work the next day. I was reading during all my breaks and any moment I could claim for myself. We all know those tell-tale signs of a reader that is really hooked into the story, and every chance I got to read this book was pulling me in.

Addie is a wonderful character. She's rebellious, knows her own mind, is smart, sly, and unapologetically herself. And in pushing back against the world, she ends up living with a curse that makes everyone forget her. Since she's such a fantastic character, but no one else knows her, reading this feels like we as the reader are in on a special secret because we get to see who she is when no one else can.

AND, while being a captivating tale about a girl carving out a place in the world under extraordinary circumstances, this book is also a literary achievement that deals with the intersection of history, philosophy, art, and the nature of love as Addie seeks to make her mark on a world that has forgotten she exists over a span of 300 years.

A work of historical fiction and fantasy with a bit of romance and a hard look at the power of ideas, this book gets 5 stars from me, and will be a must-read this Fall.

"The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark." 

"His heart has a draft. 

It lets in light. 

It lets in storms. 

It lets in everything." 

"A story is an idea, wild as a weed, springing up wherever it is planted."