The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - Book Review
Last week, I finished reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, and it’s safe to say this book shook me to my core. With its "It's a Wonderful Life" vibes, it felt like the perfect read for the season. The story was gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and eye-opening—a true emotional rollercoaster.
Exploring themes like "be careful what you wish for," the high price of every granted wish, and forbidden love, this novel seamlessly blends historical fiction with magical realism. V.E. Schwab's writing is nothing short of impeccable; her ability to capture raw emotion and craft vivid imagery is unmatched by any book I’ve ever read.
I wholeheartedly recommend The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue to everyone—yes, literally everyone. This time of year is a perfect reminder to cherish what we have and recognize that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Below, I’ve shared some of my favorite quotes from the book. As only V.E. Schwab can, these lines beautifully capture the essence of her extraordinary novel.
"What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind? She has learned to step between the thorny weeds, but there are some cuts that cannot be avoided— a memory, a photograph, a name." Chapter I - Page 15
"She will learn in time that she can lie, and the words will flow like wine, easily poured, easily swallowed. But the truth will always stop at the end of her tongue. Her story silenced for all but herself." Chapter XIII - Page 63
"A secret kept. A record made. The first mark she left upon the world, long before she knew the truth, that ideas are so much wilder than memories, that they long and look for ways of taking root." Chapter XV - Page 77
"The darkness has granted her freedom from death, perhaps, but not from this. Not from suffering." Chapter XVI - Page 82
"Being forgotten, she thinks, is a bit like going mad. You begin to wonder what is real, if you are real. After all, how can a thing be real if it cannot be remembered? It’s like that Zen koan, the one about the tree falling in the woods. If no one heard it, did it happen? If a person cannot leave a mark, do they exist?" Chapter II - Page 103
"She remembers the stench of rotten food, and waste, the brackish waters of the Seine, the figures on the docks. Remembers moments of kindness erased by a doorway or a dawn, remembers mourning her home with its fresh bread and warm hearth, her family’s quiet melody, and Estele’s strong beat. The life she had, the one she gave up for the one she thought she wanted, stolen and replaced by this." Chapter III - Page 111
"She must know. “Why? Why did you do this to me?”
His dark brows knit with false worry, mock concern. “I granted your wish.”
“I asked only for more time, for a life of freedom—”
“I have given you both.” His fingers trail along the bedpost. “This past year has taken no toll—” A stifled sound escapes her throat, but he continues. “You are whole, are you not? And uninjured. You do not age. You do not wither. And as for freedom, is there any keener liberation than what I’ve gifted you? A life with no one to answer to.” Chapter IV - Page 116
"Live long enough, and you learn how to read a person. To ease them open like a book, some passages underlined and others hidden between the lines." Chapter IX - Page 140
“I gave you what you asked for, Adeline. Time, without constraint. Life without restriction.”
“You cursed me to be forgotten.”
“You asked for freedom. There is no greater freedom than that. You can move through the world unhindered. Untethered. Unbound.”
“Stop pretending you did me a kindness instead of a cruelty.”
“I did you a deal.” Chapter X - Page 149
"Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put their feet. But if you only walk in other people’s steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark.” Chapter IV - Page 179
"Time moves so fucking fast. Blink, and you’re halfway through school, paralyzed by the idea that whatever you choose to do, it means choosing not to do a hundred other things, so you change your major half a dozen times before finally ending up in theology, and for a while it seems like the right path, but that’s really just a reflex to the pride on your parents’ faces, because they assume they’ve got a budding rabbi, but the truth is, you have no desire to practice, you see the holy texts as stories, sweeping epics, and the more you study, the less you believe in any of it. Blink, and you’re twenty-four, and you travel through Europe, thinking—hoping—that the change will spark something in you, that a glimpse of the greater, grander world will bring your own into focus. And for a little while, it does. But there’s no job, no future, only an interlude, and when it’s over, your bank account is dry, and you’re not any closer to anything. Blink, and you’re twenty-six, and you’re called into the dean’s office because he can tell that your heart’s not in it anymore, and he advises you to find another path, and he assures you that you’ll find your calling, but that’s the whole problem, you’ve never felt called to any one thing. There is no violent push in one direction, but a softer nudge a hundred different ways, and now all of them feel out of reach. Blink and you’re twenty-eight, and everyone else is now a mile down the road, and you’re still trying to find it, and the irony is hardly lost on you that in wanting to live, to learn, to find yourself, you’ve gotten lost." Chapter I - Page 225
“I can’t,” she says, looking up. “I can’t hold a pen. I can’t tell a story. I can’t wield a weapon, or make someone remember. But art,” she says with a quieter smile, “art is about ideas. And ideas are wilder than memories. They’re like weeds, always finding their way up.” Chapter IX - Page 261
"Memories are stiff, but thoughts are freer things. They throw out roots, they spread and tangle, and come untethered from their source. They are clever, and stubborn, and perhaps—perhaps—they are in reach." Chapter VII - Page 327
“They just don’t want to accept the cost. The soul is the easiest thing to trade. It’s the time no one considers.” Chapter VI - Page 383
"Belief is a bit like gravity. Enough people believe a thing, and it becomes as solid and real as the ground beneath your feet. But when you’re the only one holding on to an idea, a memory, a girl, it’s hard to keep it from floating away " Chapter II - Page 437
"A story is an idea, wild as a weed, springing up wherever it is planted." Chapter III - Page 440
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Citation (APA): Schwab, V. E. (2020). The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com
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