The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

by V. E. Schwab

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

With her signature wit and deliciously wicked imagination, V. E. Schwab is one author we just can’t get enough of. In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, prepare to be mesmerized by Addie — our unflappable heroine, cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets after agreeing to a Faustian bargain, and left to answer the question: “What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?” What follows is a story as creative and unforgettable as Addie herself.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER

Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine
#1 Library Reads Pick—October 2020
#1 Indie Next Pick—October 2020
BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST—Book of The Month Club

A “Best Of” Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * Bustle * PopSugar * BuzzFeed * Barnes & Noble * Kirkus Reviews * Lambda Literary * Nerdette * The Nerd Daily * Polygon * Library Reads * io9 * Smart Bitches Trashy Books * LiteraryHub * Medium * BookBub * The Mary Sue * Chicago Tribune * NY Daily News * SyFy Wire * Powells.com * Bookish * Book Riot * Library Reads Voter Favorite *

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

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.

Also by V. E. Schwab

Shades of Magic
A Darker Shade of Magic
A Gathering of Shadows
A Conjuring of Light

Villains
Vicious
Vengeful

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765387561
Publisher:	Tom Doherty Associates
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	1,484
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)
Lexile:	900L (what's this?)

About the Author

VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, the Villains series, This Savage Song, and Our Dark Duet. Her work has received critical acclaim, been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post and more, been translated into more than a dozen languages, and has been optioned for television and film. When she’s not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/08/2020

Schwab (the Shades of Magic series) crafts the tale of one woman’s desperate drive to be remembered into a triumphant exploration of love and loss. The story hops across time as it follows the life of Adeline “Addie” LaRue from the French country side in the early 1700s to New York City in 2014. As a young woman, Addie makes a deal with the devil to save herself from the tedium of an arranged marriage, asking for “a chance to live and be free.” The devil grants her immortality but curses her to a life of horrible isolation: no one she meets will be able to remember her. The first half of the book––as Addie learns the limits and loneliness of her curse––is as devastating as it is prescient in these self-isolating times. Which makes Addie’s eventual meeting with Henry, the first person to remember her in some 300 years, all the more joyous. This sweeping fantasy is as much a love story as it is a tribute to storytelling, art, and inspiration. Schwab’s diverse cast is beautifully rendered, and the view of human connection on offer is biting and bitter, yet introspective and sweet. This ambitious and hopeful work is a knockout. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue:
“For someone damned to be forgettable, Addie LaRue is a most delightfully unforgettable character, and her story is the most joyous evocation of unlikely immortality.”
— Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and winner of multiple Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards

“Victoria Schwab sends you whirling through a dizzying kaleidoscopic adventure through centuries filled with love, loss, art and war — all the while dazzling your senses with hundreds of tiny magical moments along the way. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue will enchant readers as deeply as its heroine’s Faustian bargain; you will find yourself in quick turns both aching with heartbreak, and gleefully crowing at the truly delicious, wicked cleverness in store.”
— Naomi Novik, Nebula and Locus Award-winning author of Spinning Silver

“Addie Larue is a book perfectly suspended between darkness and light, myth and reality. [This novel] is—ironically—unforgettable.” — Hugo Award winner Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

“The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is the kind of book you encounter only once in a lifetime. . . . A defiant, joyous rebellion against time, fate, and even death itself—and a powerful reminder that the only magic great enough to conquer all of it is love.”— Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M

Praise for the Shades of Magic series:

“Addictive and immersive, this series is a must-read.” —Entertainment Weekly, Grade A, on A Gathering of Shadows

“A gem of a tale.... This is a book to treasure.” —Deborah Harkness on A Darker Shade of Magic

“Compulsively readable.... With so many worlds on the map, there's plenty left to discover.”—NPR on A Darker Shade of Magic

“Feels like a priceless object, brought from another, better world of fantasy books.” —io9 on A Darker Shade of Magic

From the Publisher

★ 07/01/2020

In 1714 France, desiring a life lived by her own rules, Adeline prays the night before her wedding for freedom. That night her prayers are answered, except the price of her freedom is her name, her life, and her soul. She will live forever, but everyone she meets will forget her moments after the encounter. Living eternally with no presence, teased by a demon to give in and give up, Addie LaRue spends the next 300 years surviving, thieving, and hiding, creating moments that will find expression in art and inspiration, until the day she tries to return a book she stole from a New York City bookstore, and the young man behind the counter remembers her. As Addie learns the truth about Henry's knowledge, they both face choices that will determine the course of their lives—however long they last. Featuring both Addie's and Henry's points of view, this story takes readers through centuries of history, as viewed through the eyes and soul of an incredible and indelible heroine. VERDICT Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic) returns with another epic story of love and remembrance that probes deep into history while also penetrating profound matters of the heart. [See Prepub Alert, 4/8/20.]—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Library Journal

★ 2020-07-01
When you deal with the darkness, everything has a price.

“Never pray to the gods that answer after dark.” Adeline tried to heed this warning, but she was desperate to escape a wedding she didn’t want and a life spent trapped in a small town. So desperate that she didn’t notice the sun going down. And so she made a deal: For freedom, and time, she will surrender her soul when she no longer wants to live. But freedom came at a cost. Adeline didn’t want to belong to anyone; now she is forgotten every time she slips out of sight. She has spent 300 years living like a ghost, unable even to speak her own name. She has affairs with both men and women, but she can never have a comfortable intimacy built over time—only the giddy rush of a first meeting, over and over again. So when she meets a boy who, impossibly, remembers her, she can’t walk away. What Addie doesn’t know is why Henry is the first person in 300 years who can remember her. Or why Henry finds her as compelling as she finds him. And, of course, she doesn’t know how the devil she made a deal with will react if he learns that the rules of their 300-year-long game have changed. This spellbinding story unspools in multiple timelines as Addie moves through history, learning the rules of her curse and the whims of her captor. Meanwhile, both Addie and the reader get to know Henry and understand what sets him apart. This is the kind of book you stay up all night reading—rich and satisfying and strange and impeccably crafted.

Spanning centuries and continents, this is a darkly romantic and suspenseful tale by a writer at the top of her game.

Kirkus Reviews