Book Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

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

What is there to say about this book that hasn’t already been said by a million other fans? Of course I had been seeing it all over Bookstagram forever, and the premise sounded intriguing, but it wasn’t until my sister gave me her rave review that I decided it was time to see what all the fuss is about.

And oh yeah, it definitely lives up to the hype. I do not have enough mastery of the English language to express how beautiful of a story this is. My adoration for Addie’s tale can pretty much just be summed up in quotes from the book:

“What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?”

“Three words, large enough to tip the world. I remember you.”

“Because time is cruel to all, and crueler still to artists. Because visions weakens, and voices wither, and talent fades…. Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end… everyone wants to be remembered.”

“There is a defiance in being a dreamer.”

“Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget.”

“Blink and you’re twenty-eight, and everyone else is now a mile down the road, and you’re still trying to find it, and the irony is hardly lost on you that in wanting to live, to learn, to find yourself, you’ve gotten lost.”

“It is just a storm, he tells himself, but he is tired of looking for shelter. It is just a storm, but there is always another waiting in its wake.”

“But this is how you walk to the end of the world. This is how you live forever. Here is one day, and here is the next, and the next, and you take what you can, savor every stolen second, cling to every moment, until it’s gone.”

“That time always ends a second before you’re ready. That life is the minutes you want minus one.”

And I could go on and on a basically quote the entire book, because Schwab’s prose is exquisite and makes me want to be able to read this book again for the first time. Instead I will get myself a pretty copy of this masterpiece and set it on my shelf where I can return to it again and again whenever I want to drown myself in beautiful words.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5