
Fantasy
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
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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.
A girl is running for her life.
The summer air burns at her back, but there are no torches, no angry mobs, only the distant lanterns of the wedding party, the reddish glow of the sun as it breaks against the horizon, cracks and spills across the hills, and the girl runs, skirts tangling in the grass as she surges toward the woods, trying to beat the dying light.
Voices carry on the wind, calling her name.
Adeline? Adeline? Adeline!
Her shadow stretches out ahead—too long, its edges already blurring—and small white flowers tumble from her hair, littering the ground like stars. A constellation left in her wake, almost like the one across her cheeks.
Seven freckles. One for every love she’d have, that’s what Estele had said, when the girl was still young.
One for every life she’d lead.
One for every god watching over her.
Now, they mock her, those seven marks. Promises. Lies. She’s had no loves, she’s lived no lives, she’s met no gods, and now she is out of time.
But the girl doesn’t slow, doesn’t look back; she doesn’t want to see the life that stands there, waiting. Static as a drawing. Solid as a tomb.
Instead, she runs.
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.
Chelsea R.
Newark, 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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stephanie F.
Warrington, PA
A beautifully written, time traveling tale, alternating timeline. It’s not my typical genre but I could not put it down. I fell in love with Addie LaRue and I’ll never forget her! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!!
Jaime M.
Sarasota, FL
I really enjoyed this book and the creativity to it. It invokes a sense of curiosity and make you wonder if there may be more “invisible” characters weaving in and out of our lives. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
abril p.
chicago, IL
Loved the story and how it referenced art.I couldn’t put this book down . I felt like there was a lot of “fluff” between chapters that didn’t add anything to the story but it was a great read anyway.
MaKayla C.
Marshall, TX
I genuinely enjoyed this book. The change of povs made it more interesting for me. The time skips also kept me hooked. I want to erase the last two days so i can read it again ????????????????????????????????