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

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.

Addie LaRue, a girl with seven freckles, one for every love she will ever have. A girl who wants a life of her own. A girl who made a deal with the gods who you definitely should never, ever pray to after dark.

A girl who is unable to leave her mark on the world. A girl who everyone forgets.

Then one day she meets a young man who remembers.

Books are like meals. Sometimes you fancy a light snack, quick to eat on the go. Other times you want something more substantial, like a burger and fries. Warm and filling, and you enjoy it at the time, but like Addie, one you don’t remember.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is like a meal from a Michelin starred restaurant. Layer upon layer, expertly combined. A hint of something you can’t quite put your finger on, but which gives it that certain… je ne sais quoi that will linger in the memory for long afterwards.

It is… wonderful.

It’s an exploration of love and life, of the price we pay to make our mark on the world. It’s a love story told in the here and now, but also in the three hundred years of Addie LaRue’s life. A glimpse into the inbetween places of life, those liminal spaces which are merely glimpsed at.

And there’s a bookshop, with a cat. What more could you ask for?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is just the most splendid, beautiful book. One to curl up on the sofa and lose yourself in for a century or three, in the company of a girl with seven freckles.

One of my books of the year.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is published by Titan Books in October 2020. Many thanks to Titan Books for the advance copy via NetGalley