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A review by theespressoedition
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
5.0
"Do you know how you live three hundred years? she says.
And when he asks how, she smiles. "The same way you live one. A second at a time."
A little over halfway through reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a friend asked me if I got the hype surrounding it or if I was feeling underwhelmed. I began to explain that while I was certainly not underwhelmed, I hadn't discovered the elements that created the hype. As I was talking through the plot, I began to realize more and more that I had, in fact, already discovered those elements without even becoming aware of them. They were slowly sinking in and making an impact and I hadn't noticed until I stated them aloud. But isn't that what a truly good book should do? Sometimes the impact hits like a train - a really good quote or moment that just stands out above the rest - but other times it just seeps in like a steady IV drip of profound knowledge.
What I loved most about this book wasn't the beautiful story (though yes, it was hauntingly beautiful), but it was the way it made me FEEL. It was a book of emotions in the form of words. It carried you to new places and made you experience everything Addie, Henry (and even Luc) did as they experienced them. You felt their pain, their joy, and when they were the most emotionally vulnerable, you felt stripped down to your rawest self as well.
Though moments of it were slightly predictable, I didn't mind. They were written in such a way that while I saw them coming, I also wanted that outcome (and not because the outcome was always "perfect" or "good" but because it was REAL). Yes, this book may have been written about a girl who lived to be 300 years old, trapped in the body of a 23-year-old, but it was still relatable in many ways I wasn't expecting.
I don't annotate books. I just can't make myself take a pen to a book, however, I can see myself wanting to reread this and learn from it (and yes, maybe even annotate) time and again because there's so much to gain from it. It is one of the most profound books I've ever read. Leave it to Schwab to create another pure masterpiece.
And when he asks how, she smiles. "The same way you live one. A second at a time."
A little over halfway through reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a friend asked me if I got the hype surrounding it or if I was feeling underwhelmed. I began to explain that while I was certainly not underwhelmed, I hadn't discovered the elements that created the hype. As I was talking through the plot, I began to realize more and more that I had, in fact, already discovered those elements without even becoming aware of them. They were slowly sinking in and making an impact and I hadn't noticed until I stated them aloud. But isn't that what a truly good book should do? Sometimes the impact hits like a train - a really good quote or moment that just stands out above the rest - but other times it just seeps in like a steady IV drip of profound knowledge.
What I loved most about this book wasn't the beautiful story (though yes, it was hauntingly beautiful), but it was the way it made me FEEL. It was a book of emotions in the form of words. It carried you to new places and made you experience everything Addie, Henry (and even Luc) did as they experienced them. You felt their pain, their joy, and when they were the most emotionally vulnerable, you felt stripped down to your rawest self as well.
Though moments of it were slightly predictable, I didn't mind. They were written in such a way that while I saw them coming, I also wanted that outcome (and not because the outcome was always "perfect" or "good" but because it was REAL). Yes, this book may have been written about a girl who lived to be 300 years old, trapped in the body of a 23-year-old, but it was still relatable in many ways I wasn't expecting.
I don't annotate books. I just can't make myself take a pen to a book, however, I can see myself wanting to reread this and learn from it (and yes, maybe even annotate) time and again because there's so much to gain from it. It is one of the most profound books I've ever read. Leave it to Schwab to create another pure masterpiece.