I’ve seen a whole heap of 5-star reviews for this one and I can see why. It’s a beautifully written fantasy romance story, with a dark love triangle (of sorts) and tear-jerking messages about the meaning of life, and love, and everything in between. It’s sort of a cross between Matt Haig and Erin Morgenstern, with the forays into sentimentality of the former and the purple prose of the latter. But I don’t want to do a disservice to Schwab through comparison: she writes this with a lyrical prose very much her own and her characterisation is (for the most part) vivid and compelling.

Thematically, it’s a powerful story. The idea of living your life over centuries, cursed to have people immediately forget you once they turn their back to you, is so devastatingly sad. Aside from the fact it would mean I might finally make it through my TBR, I can’t think of a much worse fate. I was hooked in the opening section as we follow Addie through the centuries, living with the consequences of her desperate, Faustian bargain with an old, dark god. However, when the love interest arrived, I found myself losing interest. The middle of the story dragged and I wasn’t massively enamoured by Henry’s character to begin with, so the repetitive scenarios and almost heavy-handed tone of foreboding that Schwab kept returning to, became a bit tedious.

The ending redeemed this somewhat: I thought it was a poignantly crafted conclusion to a good story but one I will, somewhat ironically, likely forget in time.