The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

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

This is the best book by Schwab that I’ve read, hands down. 

I’ve read a few of her other books and if you’ve been following me and happened to read them, my responses range from meh to bleh for every one of her novels. 

Until now. 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a Faustian tale in which Addie makes a deal with a devil. Desperate to leave her small town of Villon, Addie exchanges her soul for true freedom. However, deals with devils are never what they seem. While Addie does get to leave Villon and the small life destined for her, she also leaves behind any kind of semblance of companionship and memory.

 Because the devil hasn’t just freed Addie from her mundane life, he’s made sure that any person who ever meets her forgets about her as soon as she leaves their vision, he’s made sure that Addie can’t leave any imprint behind, whether in writing, art, or otherwise, and he’s made sure to drive Addie to the brink of giving up her soul in order to escape this so-called “freedom.”

Except that it doesn’t work. Instead of succumbing to hopelessness and loneliness, Addie finds the beauty in every moment, person, and situation. She learns that she can leave an imprint—in the form of inspiration, ideas and passions, and in lingering thoughts and feelings. She travels and sees the world and experiences lifetimes worth of history, culture, and art. 

Instead of creating an individual so desperate to be remembered that she’d willingly give up her soul, the devil, self-named Luc, instead creates an equal in his own right, someone stubborn and headstrong enough to battle it out with him over centuries. 

This all changes, however, when Addie comes across Henry, an unimpressionable young man living in New York. Nothing about Henry should stand out. He works at a bookshop, failed out of Theology school, and is victim to depression and anxiety, seasonal “storms” that never seem to go away. 

Nothing about Henry is special. 

Except that he remembers her, remembers Addie. 

What unravels is Henry’s own tale of making a deal with Luc, a deal born out of the bone-crushing desperation to be loved. Henry and Addie find solace and companionship in one another, something that both of them have craved and needed. 

A love between them grows, a connection so strong that Addie will do anything, including changing her own deal with the devil, to make sure Henry is okay and will have the long life he deserves. 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue isn’t a particularly noteworthy idea, Faustian bargains have existed for decades, but Schwab does it well. 

Switching back and forth between time periods, readers get to see Addie in Villon 1714 as she claws her way out of her predetermined life, witnessing wars, revolutions, and renaissances along the way, juxtaposed with present day Addie in New York City, having just met Henry and having her life flipped upside down. 

Swapping back and forth might seem irritating, but Schwab did a great job of intermixing the past and present so that any chapter built and scaffolded the others. It didn’t feel like I was reading two different stories side-by-side, but instead one seamless tale where each chapter filled in a missing blank of Addie’s life. 

I do prefer the past chapters slightly more because I love the historical elements included in it. Each time we see Addie in the past, we also get a little taste of what Paris was like in 1725 or Germany during World War II, or Florence at the height of the Italian Renaissance. 

This intermingling is fascinating to read about and every chapter left me both interested in Addie’s choices and development, but also the period at the time. 

Each chapter is also incredibly short, making reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue easy and addicting. It was effortless to say, “Oh, I’ll just read one more chapter” and before you know it, you’ve been reading for two hours and you’re halfway done with the book. 

I loved seeing all the different settings Schwab took us to while regaling Addie’s journey to get to the present. While the New York chapters were similar, earmarking the best and most interesting sights and eateries New York has to offer, I don’t think it held a candle to the historical segments. 

In terms of actual plot, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is solid. I do think the novel was predictable and as I said earlier, the idea of a Faustian bargain isn’t unique, but the journey Addie takes is breathlessly beautiful and immensely fun to experience. 

Henry’s chapters, while also engaging, did drag on a bit as I thought they felt more tedious than any of Addie’s chapters. 

That brings us to what I believe is the only flaw of the book: repetition. 

While The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue had a lot of stark and raw moments that left me emotionally battered but satisfied, there were several chapters, especially towards the end, where I felt like the theme or takeaway of each chapter was the exact same thing over and over again. It goes like this.

1. Addie experiences something horrible about humanity 

2. Addie experiences something lovely about humanity 

3. Addie realizes that life is ugly and painful, but always worth living 

Rinse and repeat for…pretty much the whole book. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s a great message to have. However, Schwab sort of beats you over the head with it. A lot of the New York chapters were simply Henry and Addie doing something fun together and realizing how great life is. 

While I liked these chapters, it seemed more like a New York tour recommendation blog than an in-depth insight into Henry and Addie’s relationship which went from zero to one-hundred in only a few short chapters. 

Given the circumstances of both of their deals, it wasn’t unwholly unrealistic, but I still would have preferred more time to develop their relationship versus advertising an art installment on The High Line. 

I think the book could have been around fifty pages shorter and still packed the same punch that it did, without the repetitiveness of sight-seeing around New York and lamenting about their bargains and yet ecstatic to have found each other. 

That being said, I still really enjoyed this book. Reading those unvaried chapters was still enjoyable, even if I think the book would have been fine (aka even better) without them. Addie, Luc, and Henry as characters are all well-developed and fleshed out. 

This is a good thing as they’re really the only three characters who matter. There are some side characters, especially Henry’s friends and family who make an appearance, but overall the novel revolves around those three.

The theme of this book is well done and cemented: live your life to the fullest. Enjoy every moment. Cherish every day. 

Again, while not necessarily new, the theme did make me appreciate the small things as I was reading—the sunshine dappling my legs, the sweet tang of iced tea on my tongue, a fluffy cloud slipping overhead. And while Schwab came across a bit heavy-handed with this theme at times throughout the novel, it made an impact on me. 

There is no better marker of a good book than the realization that it’s made an impression on me and my life. 

Recommendation: As Addie spends the whole novel trying to leave impressions on others, there is no greater compliment I can give to Schwab other than saying that The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has left its imprint on me and my heart. 

Score: 7/10