Introduction

“Because time is cruel to all, and crueler still to artists. Because visions weakens, and voices wither, and talent fades…. Because happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end… everyone wants to be remembered”

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.

My Thoughts

At the top of the year, I was very determined to keep myself on a strict reading schedule – that’s flopped. I’ve been trying to expand my horizons with the kind of books that I’m reading and I’m slowly finding out that I can’t read every book as quickly and comprehensively as I thought I could. Needless to say, Addie La Rue broke my reading schedule once again. Besides being on the thicker side, the prose was just hard for me to get in to at first but, once I did, it was smooth sailing.

Let’s get into the book:

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely LOVED Addie La Rue. This is yet another #Booktokmademedoit read (most of my reads so far have been because of booktok) and I was incredibly wary of it at first. Recently I was hanging out with good friend of mine and she purchased the book after hearing great things about it as well. I decided to use her as a guinea pig and I’m glad I did. It took her a while to get through the book but she loved it so I knew exactly what to expect.

I knew the book would be thick, and maybe it was just the semester getting to me, but boy was it hard to get through it. About 100 pages in, though, things started to get easier. I got used to the writing, the rapid change in settings, and the flashbacks.

Let’s talk about these characters:

I immediately clung to Addie. V.E Schwab broke straight into my heart when she gave me this woman who just wants to be free to do whatever she wants. Every now and again, I have to take a pause and look at my life and wonder if I’m really doing what I want. Obviously, I love books – reading has never been the problem – it’s just all the other stuff that’s expected of me. Anyway, Addie was a character straight after my heart. She was so passionate, stubborn, and resilient – I truly don’t know if I would’ve been able to last as long in life as she did.

If Addie wasn’t enough to sell me on giving this book a high rating, Henry was it. At first I found him to be a little bit bland until it was revealed why he was able to remember Addie. From then on, everything about his was interesting because it only amplified his decisions.

Not to mention Luc. My favorite part about him (it?) is that he was meant to be the antagonist but, like Addie, I was always waiting for him to show up again. It was just nice having this character who was just bad all around (impatient, vengeful, full of wrath, etc.) but was still the only solace for Addie for so long in her life.

The ending was phenomenal as well but it was a tiny bit predictable once all the characters were fully fleshed out and came in contact together all at once. I cried my little eyes out while reading the last 20 pages, but there was something about Henry’s character lacking direction despite higher education that really jumped out at me. Maybe it WASN’T super helpful to identify with a character like that when I’m less than 50 days away from graduation but he really brought me comfort.

Critically speaking, though, my friend and I had to discuss how different this story could have been if Addie wasn’t a white woman. I don’t often have these kind of conversations about books because the book community is largely white, and my friends don’t often read the same books as me, but this really was an eye opening conversation. The book is fine as it is, it was just interesting to consider how a plot like this would’ve been even more devastating if the narration belonged to a woman of any other race.

Rating

Overall, I give the book 5 stars. Just because it was a little hard to read at first doesn’t mean that it is deserving of anything less than this rating. I’m so glad this book came my way and I’m very proud of myself for getting through it while dealing with the beginning of the end my time as an undergraduate.