444 pages
For all the hype it has received, I can’t deny that this book was unlike anything I’ve ever read. Although it got a bit long, it kept me interested the whole way through. I love Victoria Schwab’s writing style because of how engaging it is. She writes descriptively about deep topics in a digestible, lighthearted way.
The premise of the book was unique—a girl is cursed with immortality. She cannot make any mark, including writing or leaving a trail, and everyone who meets her forgets she ever existed the moment she leaves their sight. There is a lot one can do with such an open-ended concept, and I was impressed by how much the author explored it. I am often frustrated by books and movies where even basic logistics of a superpower or condition aren’t worked out, and the lack of functionality ruins the story. (I’m not very good at suspending my disbelief.) We learn many details about how Addie’s curse works and how it has affected her life, and despite being fantasy, this made the book a more thorough and believable experience for me.
That said, I always end up having at least a few questions. For example, what if somebody spends a long time with Addie and then leaves her sight? What do they remember from the day if her being there was a key part of it? Surely they can’t just not know what they did for the last five hours and think nothing of it.
Another aspect I enjoyed were the settings. There were many different locations throughout the book, and the author’s descriptions of them all made it feel so much more real. The characters’ appearances were also described the right amount—enough to have a clear visualization, but not so much that there was no room for imagination.
And now we get into the negatives. The biggest one was that I found the characters lacking. They spoke similarly and were all rather bland. Henry and most of the other modern-day characters had nothing interesting to them and barely any importance to the story. This wasn’t as much of a problem for the chapters set in different years of the past, because they read more like vignettes and the mysteriousness to each character worked, but it didn’t transfer well to the NYC part. Some other reviews I read described Addie’s character as annoying and pretentious, but I just found her dull and, ironically, forgettable.
The synopsis seemed to emphasize how Addie finds a boy who remembers her. I went into it sort of expecting a worthwhile love story with an intriguing twist, but it was less focused on the romance. As I continued reading, though, it still seemed like Addie and Henry’s relationship was the main or only plot. What didn’t work for me was that they went straight from her stealing from his bookstore to dating. There was close to nothing of the process of going from strangers to lovers. Given how long the book was, I’m sure there could’ve been room for a little more trust and bonding before they were inseparable.
Spoiler alert! Click to view my rant
I thought the ending was brilliant. It left the future of the characters open in a fascinating way, and kept the mysterious energy of the story. Except…it was all ruined by a little detail!
I may sound petty, but when it came together how Henry wrote down Addie’s life and mentioned things like the book showing up in stores and being titled The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I got more and more excited with each paragraph, realizing that the book was a work of itself. Henry published it under the name of a different author and knew that nobody reading would remember Addie, implying that we could never really know—maybe it is true and this is that book.
When Henry wrote the vague dedication for his book, I was in awe, flipping back to the inside cover and expecting to see the same words. But instead, it’s an actual dedication from the author. Although this is a small observation, it completely destroyed my interpretation of the open ending. I think the story could’ve closed much better if the dedication hadn’t been described in the epilogue, or better yet, if it matched that of the actual book.
Despite the multiple downsides, I’m giving this book three and a half stars because it was delightful to read and I would recommend it to anyone looking to try something new. After having read Gallant and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I look forward to reading more of V. E. Schwab’s work in the future.
Words on Key 
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