Breathe To Read

Breathe To Read

Monday, November 16, 2020

Extra Book - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

 Book: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Author: V.E. Schwab

Pages: 448


This is my 89th read for the year.

I started by listening to this book as an audio book about a month ago.  Scribd - my go to audiobook subscription site - had it and I was THRILLED.  I got to the end of October, had about 2 hours left to listen and Scribd removed it from their library.  I have never had that happen before.  I was crushed.  It is such a popular book that I would have been a long list to wait.  So when my Book of the Month club had it, I scooped it up.  It arrived Friday, and this morning I read the last pages to finish this story once and for all.

This is the story of Addie LaRue.  In the year 1714 Addie is to marry a man she does not love.  Growing up in a small town in France under a doting father and mother and a wonderful neighbor, Estelle, Addie is afriad of what will happen if she marries this man.  So on her wedding day she runs into the woods and begs someone to save her.  She has always been warned to never beg for help in the dark, but Addie is desperate.  Her begging in the darkness brings the devil who promises he can save her from an unwanted marriage - as long as he can have her soul.  Addie agrees.

What happens next is Addie spending 300 years invisible from the world.  Anyone who meets her - immediately forgets her once they are out of her sight.  She cannot hold a job, a home, a relationship.  She cannot leave a trace.  Cannot say her name, write, leave a footprint.  Yet every time Luc (her name for the devil) visits her and asks her to turn over her soul to him, she refuses.

After 300 years, Addie walks into a bookstore and takes a book, knowing that no one will remember her even being there as soon as she is gone.  But what she discovers is.....this time, that isn't true.

This is a great book.  The writing is superb, the story intriguing.  The books bounced back and forth between the past - creeping forward through the decades - and the current year, 2014.  The story follows Addie as she tries to make a life for herself and what that would be like if no one ever remembered you.  How she can't really have a love.  How she cannot rent a room because as soon as the person is out of sight, they won't remember she was ever there.  That she has more lows and hard times than good times.  I enjoy watching her fight to stay alive, keep her soul, and find flaws in the devil's system.  Finds suttle ways to try and leave her mark over the years.

It is really great and one of the best reads I have had this year.  I highly recommend it.

Stars: 5




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