Fantasy
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue!
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Join today!Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue!
A life of immortality is not all it’s cracked up to be when no one remembers who you are. That is, until someone does.
400+ pages
LGBTQ+ themes
Nonlinear timeline
Critically acclaimed
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 favorite stories are the ones I’ve heard before. Partly I blame my own obsessive personality for that—I’ve reread The Blue Sword a truly upsetting number of times—and partly I think it’s a deeper human thing. We like resonance and repetition; we like to shout under bridges just to hear the echoes.
So when I say The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue feels like a book I’ve read before, I mean that as high praise. Addie is a girl who wants to be more than she is, so she makes a deal with the kind of devil whose deals are always worse than they seem. For centuries she exists in a lonely purgatory, blessed with immortality and cursed to be forgotten—until the day she meets a boy who remembers her.
See how that story echoes? See how it rings all those old bells? Crossroads at midnight and gods that come out after dark, doomed lovers and deals with devils. But Addie LaRue isn’t a retelling or a reinvention, although it feels faintly familiar. It’s a new story.
Or maybe a very old one that we all—somehow—forgot.
Devin H.
Washington, DC
Deserves to win BOTY! V.E. Schwab’s writing is beautiful and immerses you into Addie’s world so completely, you’ll feel like you’ve spent 300 years traveling the world with Addie and Luc. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ellie H.
Winston Salem, NC
i’m literally in shock right now. i can’t even begin to describe how much i love this book. i feel like i just finished binge watching a comfort show - content but also sad that it’s over. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chelsea R.
Marion, NY
I haven’t read Schwab before and this was being hyped on Booktube, so I went out on a limb and I’m so glad i did. This was so beautifully written and makes me want to read more from Schwab. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Yenny D.
Fairfax, VA
I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did - I totally get the hype! It’s slow moving but the writing style is exquisite - it’s as if it’s meant to be read slow to savor the words.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Kathryn J.
Brick, NJ
There aren’t enough words in the world for my love of Addie LaRue. You fall in love with her from the moment you meet her. Beautifully woven story and the end brings it together perfectly. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️