The protagonist of V.E. Schwab’s latest novel, Addie Larue, has lived the last 300 years giving everyone she meets a kind of temporary amnesia. The man she meets on Monday night will not remember her when he wakes on Tuesday morning; the clerk she just greeted will not remember her as soon as she walks out the door. Addie is resigned to her fate, until Henry, a boy in a bookshop, says what seem to be magic words: “I remember you.”
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is beautifully, if a bit circularly, written. The repetition of certain ideas and phrases (several things are “trapped in amber”) only seem to bring the reader deeper into the mind and experience of a woman who moves through time, yet feels stuck in a loop. Ultimately, the novel is a story about what we are left with after a relationship ends, and what not even a curse can erase. These themes make this fairy tale of sorts as relatable as any other piece of contemporary fiction. (4/5)
By Molly Horan
THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE
By V.E. Schwab
(Tor Books)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was published October 6, 2020. This article originally appeared in the Fall 2020 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!
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