New York and Paris. Two very predictable, overused settings. This put me off when I started reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020). But, my mediocre feelings towards this novel did not last long.
Adeline is a young French woman living in 18th century rural France. She is about to be married off to a local man, but she yearns for freedom. She yearns for it so much that she runs into the forest and strikes a Faustian deal with the ‘darkness’.
For this deal, she pays an unexpected price: she cannot be remembered.
She moves through time as an immortal wanderer. The moment she is out of someone’s sight, she is forgotten.
‘it is a lonely thing to be forgotten.’
The narrative travels back and forth between centuries, spanning the French Revolution all the way up to modern day New York City. It is exciting and glorious.
There is pain in Addie’s life, but there is also beauty. She doesn’t have anything to lose, but she also has to live in the shadows, stealing her way through life. Encounters with other people are all transitory: one-night stands or passing encounters.
Addie learns to revel in her situation and her stubborn, resilient nature is compelling.
The darkness (or Luc, as Addie calls him) is seductive and yet we are consistently reminded that he is dangerous. He doesn’t play by the same human rules. He is only interested in one thing: acquiring Adeline’s soul.
As a coy reminder of her fate, he appears each year on the night of the anniversary of their pact.
As time goes on, his appearances become less predictable, more sporadic. You never know when he’s going to show up next, but you know that he will. He is an all-seeing entity that comes and goes as he pleases and is the only constant presence in Addie’s life, until she meets Henry.
Henry is an ordinary boy who works in a New York book shop. But, he is different because he remembers her.
While Luc’s seductive aura and demeanor proves powerful, it is Henry that she falls in love with. Through these two men, Schwab explores the opposite forms of love – that of passion and desire and that of contentment and warmth.
The tension that builds between Luc and Addie blossoms throughout the novel, and the development of their relationship, however toxic it might be, proves a powerful driving force for the narrative.
Luc is incredibly realised as a character. You know he’s deceitful, you know he doesn’t care about Addie, you know that his handsome words and face are masking the darkness that lies beneath. But, you’re still attracted. Such is the plight that Addie grapples with throughout the novel. As a reader, I was strangely left caring about how these two would fare in the end – these two lonely, tortured wanderers.
The magical elements are vivid and alive, but there is also enough subtlety to make the story a poignant, thoughtful one. It isn’t all action, magic and seduction.
I particularly enjoyed the artwork interwoven into the story; little imprints of Addie that are captured through ideas.
The New York skyline and Central Park are familiar, but we still discover new places through Addie’s unbounded knowledge of the city.
This book reminded me why I used to enjoy reading fantasy books so much as a child. I have already added more V. E. Schwab onto my ever-growing reading list.
I didn’t want this story to end. It’s an absorbing, exciting novel that’s a perfect companion for a long wintry night or two.
The edition pictured above was published by Titan Books in 2020.
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