Book review: “The Invisible Life of Addie Larue”

I have to say that ‘The Invisible Life of Addie Larue’ blew my mind. Even my friends got tired of me talking about it. You may be wondering, was I talking about it good or bad? Well, we can say both.

In case you don’t know the plot of the book I’ll give you a quick summary in a few words. The story is about Addie Larue, a young woman growing up in a quiet village in 18th century France.

She has many dreams, she would like to travel and see the world. She wants to meet new, different people. She wants to live her life, desperately. But this is not in her family’s plans. In fact, all relatives are born and die in the same place, keeping each other company in the same village cemetery.

They plan to give Addie the same future, so they plan an arranged marriage with a boy for whom she has no feelings. The thought of ending up like that drives her crazy.

So much so that before she puts the ring on, she runs away, not looking back. And as the crowd that has been looking for her approaches, the sun has set and the agitation mounts in her chest, Addie does something irreversible. She makes a pact, one that will change her life.

I will try not to give you spoilers.

The book is divided into two, the chapters alternate, some are in the past and some in the present time. In the past, they show us an Addie trying to come to terms with her curse and all that it means to her. The rest of the chapters, on the other hand, show us a woman who, after centuries, has accepted her situation and learned to gain happiness from it.

In the beginning, not much happens in her life, the writer focused more on telling us how we ended up there and where we are now. But of action, there is no trace. And this unfortunately created a huge block for me. In fact, after trying to read it five times, I abandoned it in a corner for several months and devoted myself to other books.

And of course, I nagged my friends because I could not understand how such a boring book could be so loved.

Fortunately, however, I picked it up again, thanks mainly to my hatred of starting books without finishing them. My curiosity does not allow me this luxury.

When I picked it up again, it felt like a totally different book. And I must say I was lucky. In fact, I had stopped right at the edge of the climb, not knowing that everything would be easier beyond that point. The change in the narrative happens when Addie finally has valuable conversations, with two characters. Through them, the most interesting part of the book is finally established and I suddenly found myself speaking well of it.

I received many dirty looks because of this sudden change of opinion, but it was worth it. My days are often dedicated to work and things to do so I decided to devote only the evening after dinner to reading. And on days when I read The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, I looked forward to the evening to start reading again. And I would keep the early hours to get to know the next chapters.

Once you get past the first few pages and its lengthy descriptions, the story thickens and becomes a mystery.

Suddenly things are not so clear and doubts and questions begin to arise.

About what kind of relationship Addie has with the person who cursed her, what he has to do with her new encounter, but above all, how will there be an ending in which Addie emerges victorious?

Will she be able to break the curse or will she ultimately be left with no option but to surrender?
Everyone is bound to forget her, but someone seems to be the exception.

Will this really be a good thing?

Characters

The most significant characters are:

Addie
Estele
Luc/the Dark
Henry

Addie is of course our protagonist, who seen from the outside proves to be a sunny and resourceful girl. She is a very interesting character, who lives a lot in her mind and likes to explore every single corner of this constantly changing world. She has the courage to fall but also the courage to get back up.

Estele is a very important character, she starts everything. Despite this we only get to know her through Addie’s memories and a few moments when we see them communicate. She is the one who brought Addie closer to the deities of nature, and she is the one who used to tell her never to pray to the deities listening after sunset. She is a very interesting character that Addie is incredibly fond of. I would have liked to have seen more of her in the course of the book.

The dark one is what makes Addie’s dreams come true, but also her nightmares. He is an entity who shows himself to Addie as her ideal guy, but she knows full well that behind that familiar face lurks an eternal darkness, ready to see her surrender. He is an incredibly fascinating and mysterious character, I loved every single moment he appeared on the page.

Henry changes everything. He breaks the monotony of centuries without ever waking up next to a friend, a life partner. Addie feels blessed to have known him, and he proves to feel the same way. But there are intricate plots behind their acquaintance and they will only reveal themselves in time. Henry is a golden boy, but one who has made mistakes. Their interactions warmed my heart (or made it tremble, it depends) and if he were here, I would just tell him, I’m proud of you.

Would I recommend it?

Besides suddenly becoming much more interesting after that long narration, the book gives us more satisfaction on the romantic side.

We finally get to feel real emotions, along with Addie, and I have to say that the writer was very good at this. I almost fell in love myself.

I won’t go on because I wouldn’t want to spoil this book for you, I myself am so thankful I didn’t spoil it for myself. You certainly got it, but yes I would recommend it. Seeing other readers’ opinion, I noticed that I’m not the only one who had problems with the first part.

So in case it happens to you, I assure you that it is essential to get through those slow pages because you will not regret it at all. I wish you a good read, and be careful not to disappear in the dark!!!

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