Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

«Il y a mourir dans "je t'aime" 

Il y a "je ne vois plus que toi" 

Mourir au monde, à ses poèmes 

Ne plus lire que ses rimes à soi 

"Un malhonnête stratagème" 

Ces trois mots là n'affirment pas 

Il y a une question dans "je t'aime" 

Qui demande "et m'aimes-tu, toi?"» 

-Jean-Jacques Goldman, "Sache que je" 

Perhaps the most long-awaited V.E. Schwab book since she concluded the Shades of Magic trilogy in 2017, and certainly long in its gestation too - ten years, to hear Schwab herself say it. And after reading this lyrical, surreally dreamy, emotionally devastating novel, I can believe it. 

This one absolutely goes out to those who don't belong in this world. Those who can't abide by aggressively rigid rules about how to live a life - especially not a love life. Those who are the most disaster of disaster bisexuals. Those who are denied all the love they deserve because the world has decided that they have no soul, and therefore, no feelings. Those who are ignored and forgotten as quickly as possible by everyone they meet because nobody wants to remember them - or maybe don't have the choice, as long as that sinister devil Luc keeps spreading curses and Faustian bargains to what Ursula might call "poor unfortunate souls." 

I think it's safe to say Adeline's curse is the one I've got - though I'm most certainly not immortal, nor am I liberated enough to bed-hop around from one night stand to one night stand, what Addie and I have in common is that everyone around us ignores us, makes it a point of not hearing or remembering us. I almost wish, though, that I could have Henry's curse instead. At least then, I'd be enough for someone and their desires - and again, liberated enough for tons of bed-hopping, even if what I really want - a truly long-term love - will forever escape me. And so it goes through the centuries for poor Addie, even when she finally meets the first one to remember her in 300 years...and all leading up to an ending the envy of Adam Silvera, forever. 

This book, like Z Brewer's Madness, is absolutely one of those five-star reads that hits so much close to home for me that I can't imagine myself reading it more than once. It's just that impactful, and in this case, a revelation that I'm not going to be able to beat the curses laid on my heart and soul without major outside help from my friends. (Part of why I'm looking to move to Oregon soon, and get all the help I could never get in California.) 

Strange, really. How much I feel like I'd have to have either Addie's or Henry's curses to find the humanity I've lacked my entire life. But that's what happens when life is so bound and determined to torpedo any nonconformist soul with extreme prejudice. Or, more accurately, when a nonconformist soul is trapped in the unique hell that is California, and only now realizes that that soul even helped dig itself into the pigeonhole because it was taught that that was the only way to live. 

If this book isn't the final catalyst towards me reclaiming the life, love, soul, and pursuit of happiness that I've never had in life, I don't know what will be.

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