The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

I’m trying to write this down before I forget because honestly, this book was not the most memorable.

First, the positives: interesting idea as basis, easy to get through, characters were somewhat appealing, some nice representation

Now, why I gave it 2 stars:
Too many line breaks! Why does every sentence have to be a new paragraph? This book wasn’t that short, and I bet she could’ve cut it in half just by deleting some of those return’s.

Clichés galoreeee. I have a feeling my third grade self would’ve been obsessed with these characters—Addie’s outfit choices of leggings with sweaters and leather jackets, Henry and Luc’s dashing green eyes and black curls, etc. (not that a child could read this book, considering the semi-vague descriptions of sex). Also that cliché ending… No spoilers, but I literally rolled my eyes when I read it.

Missed opportunities. Schwab had three centuries to work with, but practically every setting read the same way. I hardly felt immersed in the time jumps, which was disappointing. Additionally, the lore behind the gods wasn’t really fleshed out at all, which impacted my investment in the characters and their dilemmas.

The worst part was that while it basically read like a modern romance with a fantasy background, the author kept writing as if there were some grand schemes, often writing things akin to, “The first move had been made. This had been a hard battle, but the war had just begun.” Which is nice and dramatic and all, but there kind of has to be substance behind claims like that for the reader to actually care, and this book definitely fell short.

I read this book because I wanted some nice YA, and people said it was similar to The Starless Sea. Well, it definitely had some of the same elements, but if you haven’t read that book yet, I’d do that instead. And if you, like me, were hoping to read this book to get something similar out of it, I’d just move on. This book was okay, but you can do better. Maybe bring it on a flight? Yeah, this is definitely a good Airplane Book!

I’m 40 and have read a decent amount of books, but by far this is my favorite! When did I discover this book? When I was 39!

3.5 stars is probably more accurate. I’m wondering if I didn’t love it more because there was so much hype surrounding this book. To me, it didn’t quite live up to it. Enjoyable? Yes. A tad long/tedious in spots

This was my first V.E. Schwab book and I was intrigued in her writing. Being a fan of history, I loved the historical nuggets scattered across Addie's timeline. The story did slow for a bit and I wondered if there was a point to the plot or if we would simiply be following her journey through time. Henry & the ending were amazing twists and at times I couldn't put the story down, wanting to know what happens next! Not the exact ending I would've hoped for, but I'm glad we never lost the true essence of Addie.

I really can’t offer much. This book was just so hard for me to get into. It was very slow. I DNF’d fairly early on. Maybe the 30% mark.