The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
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4.4 • 5.6K Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine
#1 Library Reads Pick—October 2020
#1 Indie Next Pick—October 2020
BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST—Book of The Month Club
A “Best Of” Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * Bustle * PopSugar * BuzzFeed * Barnes & Noble * Kirkus Reviews * Lambda Literary * Nerdette * The Nerd Daily * Polygon * Library Reads * io9 * Smart Bitches Trashy Books * LiteraryHub * Medium * BookBub * The Mary Sue * Chicago Tribune * NY Daily News * SyFy Wire * Powells.com * Bookish * Book Riot * Library Reads Voter Favorite *
In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
Other books by V. E. Schwab
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Shades of Magic series
A Darker Shade of Magic
A Gathering of Shadows
A Conjuring of Light
The Fragile Threads of Power
Villains Series
Vicious
Vengeful
Victorious* Coming October 2026
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This dark fantasy revolves around a simple, fascinating question: Is being immortal worth it? Hoping to escape her stifling existence as a country wife in 18th-century France, Adeline LaRue cuts a deal with the god of darkness. In exchange for immortality, Addie will never be remembered by anyone she meets—and she can never be loved. V. E. Schwab, author of the best-selling Shades of Magic series, finds an unexpectedly captivating side to Addie’s fate: Although her heroine can’t connect with people, she’s able to witness, in real time, the world’s ever-changing beauty over the span of centuries instead of decades. She devours art and music and literature. It seems like a worthwhile trade-off—until Addie meets Henry, who actually remembers her name. At that point, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue becomes even richer, its sensuous strangeness turning romantic and exciting as the couple attempts to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Schwab’s book made us appreciate the joy of having someone to share life’s discoveries with.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schwab (the Shades of Magic series) crafts the tale of one woman's desperate drive to be remembered into a triumphant exploration of love and loss. The story hops across time as it follows the life of Adeline "Addie" LaRue from the French country side in the early 1700s to New York City in 2014. As a young woman, Addie makes a deal with the devil to save herself from the tedium of an arranged marriage, asking for "a chance to live and be free." The devil grants her immortality but curses her to a life of horrible isolation: no one she meets will be able to remember her. The first half of the book as Addie learns the limits and loneliness of her curse is as devastating as it is prescient in these self-isolating times. Which makes Addie's eventual meeting with Henry, the first person to remember her in some 300 years, all the more joyous. This sweeping fantasy is as much a love story as it is a tribute to storytelling, art, and inspiration. Schwab's diverse cast is beautifully rendered, and the view of human connection on offer is biting and bitter, yet introspective and sweet. This ambitious and hopeful work is a knockout.
Customer Reviews
Great read with wine. It’s a slow read. Savor it.
So here’s the premise: girl in 1700s France doesn’t want to get married. Totally fair. So she runs off into the woods and makes a deal with a sexy shadow demon who’s probably wearing a well-fitted coat and smirking the whole time. He grants her immortality, but curses her so that no one ever remembers her. Not her family, not the guy she just talked to, not even the bartender pouring her a drink. Every conversation is like hitting reset on a dating app, forever.
Cut to 300 years of Addie ghosting her way through history like a hot, sad Easter egg in the background of every famous painting. Until—plot twist—a guy in a bookstore actually remembers her. Which is wild. And also suspicious. But mostly wild.
Now, this book isn’t fast. It meanders. It vibes. It’s like someone handed you a glass of wine and said, “Let’s sit in our feelings for a while.” And honestly? I was into it. The writing is really good—like, highlight-half-the-book good. It’s soft, romantic, a little tragic, but never full melodrama.
So no, this book didn’t wreck me. But it did impress me. It’s smart, it’s thoughtful, and it sticks with you, even if you’re not out here scribbling Addie’s name into the fog on your bathroom mirror.
Definitely worth reading. Just don’t expect explosions. Expect pretty words and existential dread dressed in a very stylish coat.
This is how it starts
This book simultaneously tore my heart into pieces and put it back together again. I feel as if I, too, have lived with Addie for those 300 years, and I hated finishing the book because it meant, for now, saying goodbye. But it isn’t a goodbye, it’s an ellipses, it’s a see you later, because I will definitely be rereading this again and again. It’s a timeless tale that I can’t get enough of.
Incredibld
Read this if you want to immerse yourself in a magical, yet realistic and heartbreaking story. The writing is gorgeous, the characters feel genuine and they truly come alive on the page. It blends dreams and reality masterfully, a touch of dark magic in the real world. This is the kind of book you’ll be thinking about long after you finish reading it (I know I will be).