#2 [2026/CBR18] The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

My book club led me to yet another book I had not heard of and wouldn't have chosen on my own. Our latest pick was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020) by V.E. Schwab. It is long and a little slow in places (a couple of women from my book club gave up on it), but it was also well written and very original. We had a lot of good discussions about the characters and the world of the novel.

Adeline (Addie) LaRue is in her early 20's and lives with her parents in a small town in 1714 France. She loves drawing, and yearns to see and experience more of the world. But when a marriage is arranged for her with an older widow with young kids, she despairs that all chance for a life of adventure is gone. She makes a bargain with one of the "gods of the night" to get her out of her circumstances.

Addie did not really understand what she was getting herself into when she bargained with the god/demon she ends up calling Luc. Suddenly she finds that no one, including her own parents, know her. And any people she runs into forget her as soon as she is out of their sight. This bargain frees Addie from her marriage. Also, when she is hurt or injured, she quickly heals, and she can't die. However, the bargain is truly a curse and makes Addie miserable. In a matter of seconds, she loses her family and her town. Addie heads to the closest larger city and then on to Paris. But she is walking the streets alone. She cannot have any kind of relationship nor any kind of safety or stability. Her suffering is immense. Once a year, the demon/god Luc comes to visit her. He is waiting for her to give up so he can take her soul, but Addie is nothing if not stubborn.

The book jumps back and forth between 1714 when her bargain begins and 2014 when Addie is in New York City and runs into a man named Henry working at a used bookstore. When Addie comes back the next day, Henry remembers her. He is the first person to remember her in three hundred years.

***SPOILERS*** Addie has to tell Henry what's happening to her. But Henry understands. He tells Addie that he made a bargain with the devil as well. Despondent over his recent breakup and severe lack of connection with his family, Henry is ready to kill himself when Luc shows up. Luc gives Henry one year with everyone around him seeing what they want most in Henry. Suddenly, Henry is surrounded by more attention than he can handle. And he realizes that people fawning over him for the wrong reasons is not the panacea he thought it would be.

Addie and Henry make a wonderful, if odd, couple for many months. But Addie doesn't know that Henry's time is limited. When she finds out, she makes a bargain with Luc for Henry's life. She gives herself to Luc "for as long as he wants her." In some ways, this felt right, because after three hundred years, Addie is something more than human at this point, and Addie and Luc had grown closer after all that time. But the twist is that Addie is intent on making Luc miserable and letting her go. She is using Luc's own tricks against him. ***END SPOILERS***

Like I mentioned before, this book was slow in places. I kept getting frustrated and bored whenever Luc came back to Addie, and they would have the exact same argument once again. However, once I finished it, I realized the slow points in the novel were setting up plot points for later. This book is not at the top of my list, but I'm glad I read it. There was lots to talk and think about, and we had a good group club discussion.