The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab

This is one of those books that I enjoyed the idea of the story better than the actual story itself.  In other words, I kept wondering how this thing could have been better than it was. It was actually a very satisfying read, it just seemed to have an awful lot of areas and elements where it seemed the author may have been a tad unsure as to how to move the plot forward, and I found several elements to be a tad lacking.  I felt with a bit more polish that this weird somewhat-supernatural tale could have been a masterpiece of creativity.  Instead, it ended up just being a good book.

We meet Adeline LaRue in the year 1714. She lives in a small French village with her family, and she’s just coming of age from being a girl to a young woman. Like a lot of people who live in small villages in the 18^th century, they know very little else of the world.  At times, her father takes her on business travels and she gets to “experience” a much broader life. Companions in her small village include an elderly eccentric woman named Estelle who many would describe as the village witch.  She warns Adeline to “never ask the Gods anything after dark”.   Well, when forced marriage to young Adeline is impending, she runs. She prays. It’s after dark.  She makes a “deal” with some sort of supernatural deity.  She wants freedom.  The entity grants Adeline her wish.

Well, we’ve all heard the saying “be careful what you wish for.”  We’ve also seen too many movies and shows where someone makes a deal with someone like the devil, an evil genie, or Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island to know that these sort of things don’t end well, and for Adeline LaRue, the consequences of her bartering don’t go as planned.  I won’t reveal too much about the deal she makes, nor the plot, but let’s just say that Adeline “Addie” LaRue is still alive and walking the streets of Brooklyn, New York in the year 2014.

Getting to live for 300 years?  Immortality?  Seems pretty good. Right?   Well…….  It’s quite fun to read about Addie’s escapades and how she struggles and attempts to somehow live a normal life.  The problem that I had with this book is that the story bounces around too much within the 300-year time period.  The author is trying to show us how Addie has built character and learned lessons by giving us snippets from her very long life.  It’s a bit much.  We jump to places like Paris, Venice and Chicago during  these 300 years, yet we never stay there long enough to enjoy the scenery.   I think had Addie’s “journey” been limited to two or three places it would have been easier; even if it was in such a sprawling time period.

Then we meet Luc.  Who is Luc?  Luc is the entity (devil, demon, whatever) who she made the deal with back in 1714.  He has the ability to manifest whenever he wants and has an aura of mystery about him.  Every time he appears, he manages to fascinate and frighten Addie at the same time.  Addie is somewhat entranced by this figure, yet she’s much angrier because of what he’s done to her soul.  We read about way too many of these encounters that are essentially a battle of wits between the two.  This is another element that should have been toned down and significantly cut.

Of course, this is an “artsy” book, so we read a lot about literature, fashion, visual art, theatre, etc.  I found it a tad laborious to have to read 2-3 pages when Adeline is trying to figure out what to wear.  But there are probably others (such as the author) that this sort of thing is important and interesting, so I have to give these escapades a pass. This, again, is how I felt about the entire story.  There were many parts of this book when I would heavily sigh and think “Do we have to read more about this?  Can’t we just move on?”  I think I felt that way because the character and circumstances of Addie were so strange and eccentric, that I really wanted to know what would eventually happen.  Despite the setbacks, I did find the conclusion overall satisfying.

This was definitely a colorful read, and I really didn’t know anything about the book nor the author when I picked this thing up.  I found it good, but can see why so many people thought much more highly about it than I did.