The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Beautiful
Meaningful
Unforgettable

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

V.E. Schwab2020
In the vein of The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But there's always a price - the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone. Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day. Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal. Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him. Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can't escape her fate forever.
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Reviews

Photo of Margaux Yiu
Margaux Yiu@emspace
1.5 stars
Feb 4, 2025

Great premise squandered by an uninteresting protagonist with shallow goals. By around page 70, I was hoping for a tragic (in the style of the Greeks) ending for Addie.

The lyrical writing was affecting, but the plot, characters, tension, romance, arcs, and ending were not.

Not for me.

Photo of Ian Brakspear
Ian Brakspear@ibrakspear
5 stars
Feb 2, 2025

This Book has been sitting on myself for years and I have been daunted about picking this one up after hearing so many people love this one and leaving rave reviews. Take 1 weekend in February and a Buddy read gave me the perfect opportunity to finally pick this one up and dive into the world of Addie & what a book it was! I know that this one will stay with me for many months and years to come and a story was beautifully poetic.

 

Addie LaRue, a French girl who was born in the 1700s. She was always warned not to pray to the gods who answer when it gets dark. But on a desperate night, she does it and she gets an answer. Addie ends up making a pact with the devil: now she will live forever, but she will be forgotten by everyone once they look away. One day 300 years later, a boy says the 3 words that will simply change everything “I remember You”

 

What a book this is, Its full of reflections, life and humanity. I felt honoured to be able to get a glimpse into Addie’s life. I know that there was going to be a few twists and turns along the way, but I did not see the final one coming at all, but I can say that it felt right and the perfect way to end a book, Am I going to say more… No, I’m going to say no more  

 

Now I can only say that Addie LaRue deserves to be read, known and remembered. It is a book so real, but at the same time so full of magic, that you will never forget.

+2
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fara@hiddenorbits
5 stars
Jan 12, 2025

need 3 to 5 business days, or maybe 300 years, to recover from this book. this book brilliantly explains how desperation to fulfill one's deepest desire can blind humans to reason, making them forget that everything comes with a price to pay.

and once again, v. e. schwab makes me fall in love with another beautifully toxic villain

+1
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Sílvia@sibmaral
5 stars
Jan 6, 2025

I need 10 to 15 days to recover (or 300 years actually :’))

Photo of Emily Lucie
Emily Lucie@elucie
5 stars
Jan 1, 2025

Took me a while to get through but so so so worth it

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BC Hark@vaporvisions
5 stars
Dec 2, 2024

A wonderfully bright story with a great central character. The life and breadth of it is really fascinating. The story does take a predictable turn at the end, although I'm not sure what other ending it could have had. I liked this book and would recommend it for a fun and relaxing read.

+2
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debbie <3@debbiereadslittle
3.5 stars
Nov 12, 2024

ending so good it broke my heart and gave me hope but i would have believed in luc, would have fallen in love, so I THOUGHT IT WAS going in that direction, which it did… kind of??

+2
Photo of a
a@literaury
4 stars
Nov 2, 2024

one of the books i can never reread

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Isidora Vatali@eleaza
3 stars
Oct 30, 2024

Unpopular opinion : I REALLY hate Addie LaRue
#justice_for_the_devil

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irina@irinaaaaa
3 stars
Oct 27, 2024

i love Luc

+3
Photo of Yalin Tsikun
Yalin Tsikun@yalin_tsikun
5 stars
Oct 15, 2024

This is such a beautiful book, each sentence is pure poetry!!! I cried so much during it and related to Addie on some many different levels, I feel like this book mirrored a part of my soul to myself. I literally can’t stress it enough, everyone should read this beautiful masterpiece!!!!

+4
Photo of Jillian Roberts
Jillian Roberts@jillianroberts
4.5 stars
Oct 8, 2024

This book was absolutely beautiful and enthralling. It has been on my TBR for the last four years and I wish I had read it sooner. Wow.

+3
Photo of Laurie
Laurie @inadu
5 stars
Aug 4, 2024

Reading this book was a wonderful experience. I wish this story could’ve lasted forever. This books makes me want to cry but I don’t know for which emotion. Truly amazing!

+5
Photo of Jonnie Dolan
Jonnie Dolan@softmossdog
5 stars
Aug 2, 2024

I really loved this book. I thought I had predicted the ending, but I was wrong. I'm left with so many questions but in a good way. I have absolutely no complaints.

+5
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Svetlana @svetja
4 stars
Jul 23, 2024

ouch. this hurt. a lot

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nany@bibliomoon
5 stars
Jul 23, 2024

OH MY GOD. My heart hurts. Estoy enamorada de los personajes, de Luc, de Henry y sobre todo de Addie. Me encantó conocerla, vivir con ella trescientos años, sufrir junto a ella, enojarme junto a ella y enamorarme junto a ella. Addie LaRue merece la pena.

Photo of Linara K.S
Linara K.S@linara
1 star
Jul 19, 2024

DNF? DNF. DNF... *sighs* I REALLY really tried to like this book i even had bought this in different editions that's how much esteem i had for it. I was so READY to tackle this heart-wrenching stand-alone I've been only hearing GREAT things about. It was supposed to be exceptional. It was supposed to be enticing, riveting until the last page. It was supposed to be gut-wrenchingly dramatic and tragic AND YET! And yet... To me, when reading this, it felt like one of those unexpected plane crashes due to technical failure. It was bound to crash, no one expected it from the three first chapters and the plane couldn't be saved by anyone other than the pilot, aka the author. This was my FIRST VE SHWAB book give or take; and I'm quite disappointed. Wait that isn't the right word.... CONFUSED!!! I don't understand why this book got so MUCH hype from booktube AND tiktok. Like they just sang this book's praises and I fell for it. THE most INFURIATING of factors (that isn't a spoiler) is that THERE IS NO DIVERSITY WHAT SO EVER!!!! Not oNlY tHaT, but our stale bread main character had 300 YEARS to simply EXIST and never thought to herself: "hey, I should probably go visit the other part of the world someday. You know the part that has been colonised and exploited by white people all the while i was lamenting about being lonely." Oh also did i mention? oUR STale BreaD MC had teh AUDACITY to 'travel' but only to europe and the US. *Ahem* ma'am I think you forgot that the world isn't composed of colonisers. You're aware of that? Oh well, my bad. Let's talk about actual CONTENTS of this book. The writing for example. It didn't seem flowery at all, like... AT ALL; It was AS stale as our maincharacter or even more. I know the author wanted this book to be all metaphorical and allegorical but DAMN she made every small thing seem like a HUGE ASS EVENT. Like calm down girl. I feel like this review is more of a rant and i don't have the neural capacity to organise my thoughts just yet so this 'rant' will stay as it is: choatic and confusing. (just like the book! yay) To wrap this all up with out spoiling anything let me just ask these questions... Who is Addie Larue? Like really. WHO THE F*CK IS SHE? Cause after 200 ish pages i just gave up.

Photo of Christina Rose Sullivan
Christina Rose Sullivan@salteenz
4.5 stars
Jul 17, 2024

Ok but why was the devil hot, should I seek therapy

+4
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Ada@adasel
5 stars
Jul 16, 2024

I cried. Too good. V.E. Schwab always nails it.

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Anna @ann_omalia
4 stars
Jul 13, 2024

všichni asi addiin příběh trochu známe, protože poslední rok se kniha objevovala úplně všude; dívka, která je nesmrtelná, háček je ten, že si jí nikdo nikdy nezapamatuje... tedy dokud jednoho dne nepotká henryho. zní to krásně, že? myšlenka je nádherná, strašně moc jsem se na to těšila, všude jsem slyšela samé pochvaly, a tak jsem se do knihy taky pustila, ale.. no, četla jsem jí 20 dní. bylo to neskutečně pomalé, místy nudné. děj přeskakoval ze současné doby do různých období, kde jsme sledovali addie a její smíření se s neviditelností - ale vlastně se tam vůbec nic nedělo. tento problém jsem přehlédla - řekla jsem si, že toto dílo nebude o ději, jako spíše o nějakém ponaučení nebo myšlence, kterou nám autorka chce předat - tu jsem tam ale taky nenašla. celý sloh je napsaný poeticky, ale já jsem v tom pořád viděla fakt, že takhle autorka normálně nepíše a snaží se spíš experimentovat (nehledě na fráze, které mě postupem času začaly rozčilovat - např. 'zahlédla čajovnu a připomnělo jí to Istanbul, Hong Kong a další exotické město, o kterém už se v knize nikdy víc nezmíní' a nebo 'jednou zažije tohle a tohle a tamto, ale teď ještě ne'). když už jsme u té exotiky, v 500 stránkové knize se pohybujeme pořád buď jen ve Francii a nebo New Yorku. sem tam v Itálii. proč se autorka nezaměřila na ostatní kultury? proč nepopsala to, jak addie ovlivnily, nebo jak addie ovlivnila je? proč je addie pořád tvrdohlavá holka, kterou byla před 400 lety? proč se v knize autorka nezmiňuje o různých důležitých meznících? jak je možné, že v nich addie nehraje žádnou roli? poslední věc, která mi vadila, byla romantika. se vztahem se mohlo vymyslet tolik nevšedností, ale on byl... nezáživný. henry byla podle mého názoru dobrá postava, které se ale nedostalo kvůli bezcharakterové addie moc prostoru, a to mě mrzí. ✩ nemám to srdce knize dát špatné hodnocení - moje názory pochází i z recenzí, takže to beru spíš taky trochu jako nějaké 'ovlivnění okolím'. knize tedy nechám 4*/5*, i když bych jí nejradši ještě půlhvězdu ubrala - obálka a myšlenka supr, ale provedení až tak moc ne. ✩ 4*/5*

Photo of Kath
Kath@kath_read
4 stars
Jul 13, 2024

This was the book that I DNF last 2021 but then I picked it up again after finishing A Little Life and had no regrets doing so. I feel like this is one of those books that I will always remember, from the story to the characters. I loved the book and how poetically written some scenes are; like the scene of Remy and Addie. I like how intimate it was but I did not feel the cringe while reading it. But I am rating it 3.8 since I am somehow not expecting that the ending would turn out that way. I just don't like how the plot was given, like there's no specific rules about the deals with Luke and then towards the end, it turns out that the deal was bent that way just to give that plot. If V.E. Shwab would release a book 2, then the ending would turn out to be a great starting point. On the other hand, it being somehow open ended would help release the creative juices of the readers, like we could imagine Addie doing everything to make Luc go mad. I'd always vouch for the sincerity of Remy and Henry Strauss. I like how the author put the story of Remy and Addie, like it was a layover before continuing the long flight and it was a great slowdown moment. Henry on the other hand for me is like your temporary companion during the flight who you would feel attached to but since the flight won't take forever, you'd have to say good bye and just hope that he would always remember everything about the journey. Some of my favorite quotes: • If you walk on other people's steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark. • She cannot erase the memories of those other nights—so she decides to become a palimpsest, to let Remy write over the other lines. • And even though he's safe, both feet firmly on the ground, Henry feels himself begin to fall • When truth is not an option, fiction takes on a mind of its own.

Photo of Kellie Davis
Kellie Davis@kelliedavis
5 stars
Jul 8, 2024

Love V.E. Schwab!!!! I did the audio book with this one and was so glad I did. I felt like it pulled me into the story more and it felt more magical. Honestly nothing bad to say. One of my favorite books of the year!

Photo of Shannon C
Shannon C@shannonhaleyy
5 stars
Jul 5, 2024

Wow. i have no words. just typing this i’m tearing up again. i sobbed at the end. this was so beautiful and heartbreaking… i can’t think about anything but how sad i am😭🤣

Photo of Mercy Jepchirchir Barno
Mercy Jepchirchir Barno@merc-barno
5 stars
Jun 30, 2024

It's beautifully well-written. Absolutely fell in love with the characters, even Luc himself. Eventually. To have been able to see/read Luc's POV, would have been kinda nice. It's interesting how The Invisible Life of Addie Larue ended, did not expect it to be honest but all in all, the book, I genuinely enjoyed hands down.

Highlights

Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

So Addie says nothing of the new game, the new rules, the new battle that’s begun.

She only smiles, and sets the book back on its shelf.

And follows him out into the dark.

Page 442
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Perhaps it will take twenty years.

Perhaps it will take a hundred.

But he is not capable of love, and she will prove it.

She will ruin him. Ruin his idea of them.

She will break his heart, and he will come to hate her once again.

She will drive him mad, drive him away.

And then, he will cast her off.

And she will finally be free.

Page 441
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Three hundred years, she’s had to learn the color of his moods. She knows them all by now, the meaning of every shade, knows his temper, wants, and thoughts, just by studying his eyes.

She marvels, that in the same amount of time, he never learned to read her own.

Page 441
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Addie has said so many hellos, but that was the first and only time she got to say good-bye. That kiss, like a piece of long-awaited punctuation. Not the em dash of an interrupted line, or the ellipses of. quiet escape, but a period, a closed parenthesis, an end.

An end.

Page 440
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

She runs her fingers over the name, feels the embossed letters arc and curve beneath her touch, as though she had written them herself.

The shop girls are right. There is no author’s name. No photo on the back. No sign of Henry Strauss, beyond the simple, beautiful fact that the book is in her hands, the story real.

She peels back the cover, turns past the title to the dedication.

Three small words rest in the center of the page.

I remember you.

Page 439
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

He will get an agent, and the book will go to auction, and in the end he’ll sell the work on one condition—that there is only one name on the cover, and it is not his—and in the end, they will agree. They’ll think it some clever marketing trick, no doubt, but his heart will thrill at the thought of other people reading these words—not his, but hers, of her name carried from lips to lips, from mind to memory.

Addie, Addie, Addie.

Page 438
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Henry sits there for hours against the side of the bed, turning through every page of every book, every story she ever told, and when he’s done, he closes his eyes, and puts his head in his hands amid the open books.

Because the girl he loved is gone.

And he’s still here.

He remembers everything.

Page 435
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

This is how it ends.

A boy wakes up alone in bed.

Page 433
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

“Promise me,” she says, and her face is beginning to smudge, the swipe of her lips, brown curls in a heart-shaped face, two wide eyes, seven freckles like stars.

“Promise,” she whispers, and he is just lifting his hands, to hold her against him, to promise, but by the time his arms close around her, she is gone.

And he is falling.

Page 430
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

She sighs, fingers threading through his hair. “You’ve given me so much, Henry. But I need you to do one more thing.” Her forehead presses against his. “I need you to remember.”

Page 429
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

“Life can feel very long sometimes, but in the end, it goes so fast.” Her eyes are glassy with tears, but she is smiling. “You better live a good life, Henry Strauss.”

Page 429
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Estele used to say she was stubborn as a stone.

But even stones wear away to nothing.

And she has not.

Page 429
Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

“You were right,” she says. “I am not one of them. Not anymore. And I am tired of losing. Tired of mourning everything I ever try to love.” She reaches out to touch Luc’s cheek. “But I won’t lose you. And you won’t lose me. So yes.” She looks straight into his eyes. “Do this, and I will be yours, as long as you want me by your side.”

Page 427
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

“You promised you would listen,” she says, “you promised you would write it down.”

He doesn’t understand. The journals are on the shelf. He has written her story—every part.

“I did,” he says. “I did.”

But Addie is shaking her head.

“Henry,” she says. “I haven’t told you how it ends.”

Page 425
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Music streams, thin and tinny, through a neighbor’s open window, and Henry pulls his thoughts back from death, and the edge of the roof, to the girl with her hand in his, the one telling him to dance with her.

He pulls her close, and she smells of summer, she smells of time, she smells of home.

Page 424
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

That time always ends a second before you’re ready.

That life is the minutes you want minus one.

Page 421
Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

And Addie is looking at him as if she can read his mind, see the storm building in his head. But she is sunshine. She is clear skies.

Page 421
Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

They stay in bed, curled together in the nest of sheets, head to head and hands trailing over arms, along cheeks, fingers memorizing skin. He whispers her name, over and over, as if she can save the sound, bottle it up to use when he is gone.

Addie, Addie, Addie.

Page 420
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

It has been a hard and lonely life, she says, and a wonderful one, too. She has lived through wars, and fought in them, witnessed revolution and rebirth. She has left her mark on a thousand works of art, like a thumbprint in the bottom of a drying bowl. She has seem marvels, and gone mad, has danced in snowbanks and frozen to death along the Seine. She fell in love with the darkness many time, fell in love with a human once.

And she is tired. Unspeakably tired.

But there is no question she has lived.

Page 418
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

“What a hard lesson it must be for you,” she says. “That you can’t have everything you want.”

“Want?” he sneers. “Want is for children. If this were want, I would be rid of you by now. I would have forgotten you centuries ago,” he says, a bitter loathing in his voice. “This is need. And need is painful but patient. Do you hear me, Adeline? I need you. As you need me. I love you, as you love me.”

She hears the pain in his voice.

Page 415
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Addie twists free. “I was never yours, Luc,” she says, turning away. “Not in the woods that night. And not when you took me to bed. You were the one who said it was just a game.”

“I lied.” The words, a knife. “You loved me,” he says. “And I loved you.”

Page 414
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

There is no triumph in his eyes. The color has gone out of them, so pale they’re almost gray. And though she’s never seen the shade before, she guesses it is sadness.

Page 412
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

There is an instant when she thinks she might be wrong.

A fraction of a moment when Luc looks wounded and confused, and she wonders if he meant only what he said, if, if—

But then, it is over.

The hurt falls from his face and it passes into shadow, the effect as smooth as a cloud across the sun. A grim smile plays across his lips.

Page 411
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Photo of Cassidy Nolan
Cassidy Nolan@cassafras28

Addie shakes her head. “You see only flaws and faults, weaknesses to be exploited. But humans are messy, Luc. That is the wonder of them. They live and love and make mistakes, and they feel so much. And maybe—maybe I am no longer one of them.”

The words tear through her as she says them, because she know this much is true. For better or worse.

“But I remember,” she presses on.

Page 408
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