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As we are gearing up to dive into Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, today’s title feels like a great preface as I imagine both titular characters have quite the journey and quite the challenge to bear throughout the works.  Yes, this is Nikki confessing she’s never read or seen The Handmaid’s Tale.  To join in her bookish education and have a candid conversation about these titles, register at the link here and join us for our double feature Virtual Book Club on Friday 17 September 2021 at 7:30pm Central Time.  Real talk will happen, and so many spoilers.  

We’re going to need to get this out of the way from the beginning. V.E.Schwab and Victoria Schwab are the same author. The adult titles are published under V.E. Schwab and her young adult and middle grade reader titles are published under Victoria Schwab. That makes choosing a genre a little easier to do and I truly appreciate the differentiation. V.E. Schwab has published six novels including The Villains series and The Shades of Magic Series – which include a comic series, and of course her New York Times bestselling Faustian fantasy October 2020’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. There is a small discrepancy between her website and her publishers, as Victoria Schwab’s debut fairy tale novel, The Near Witch was republished in 2019 under V.E. Schwab. Her website labels it under the young adult genre, not the adult. You have been warned and informed – But, since you know how Nikki and I love a good witch story, we wouldn’t be sad to read it either way. V.E. Schwab currently lives and writes from Edinburgh, but Nikki and I were pleasantly surprised/not surprised that the idea kernel for Addie LaRue happened on a walk in her East Nashville neighborhood. She admits on her blog that she is “a product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a Southern upbringing” and that her wanderlust is a great place to find stories. 

That wanderlust is a perfect segway into discussing the biggest part of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue that I truly loved and that was the settings. Addie travels from the French countryside to Paris, and has stops in London and Italy, admits to stays in L.A. and New Orleans, but the main setting of the narrative happens in New York and Brooklyn. Each of the settings that Addie speaks of, each of the settings we see her in, are described as if they were alive. And truly they are, each city, each place is alive with a purpose for Addie. Addie sees every place from on foot, she mostly walks from place to place, even in modern times with trains, planes, and automobiles as modes of transportation. Because of these descriptions, we are transported to these places, though, it doesn’t hurt that I’ve been to the majority of them in real life anyway.

Other things I love about this novel where the titular character is three hundred years old and yet no one who meets her remembers her are the two males that DO remember her. Not her father, not her myriad lovers, both male and female through the years, but that devilish dark god she prayed to for freedom and the modern man who works in a bookshop. There’s so much that could be assumed about these two males who purposefully look so much alike, like Disney’s Prince Eric with green eyes, but they are almost the complete opposite in character. Honestly, any woman would be lucky to have two handsome men, well, one handsome man and one handsome (literal) devil paying you all the attention you could desire, and that you sometimes don’t actually want. 

I won’t give any spoilers, you know, but this is definitely another five star book that our friends at The Popcast have greenlit. I’m here for Schwab’s backlist and I’m never going to sleep on another green light choice from Knox McCoy or Jamie B. Golden. (Well, sometimes Knox picks these questionable nonfiction choices, but Jamie B., she’s my spirit animal, the 7 to my 1, my lifestyle guru and personal tastemaker.)

~Ashley

Dear readers, I’m going to come at this review backwards, so prepare your hearts.  I give The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab an emphatic five stars and it’s definitely on the list of possible rereads.  This is a creative tale about moving through life while not being remembered, about strength and love, and about what it means to be human.  Addie’s story is unique and just gorgeous.  The writing is smart, I just don’t know how else to describe it.  The dialogue is on point – alternately whitty, snarky, and melodic depending on the characters in a scene who have such amazing presence on the page, with rich descriptions of the inner monologues and the settings too (which are just, almost also characters).  The structure is one I typically don’t appreciate (yes, for the second time this month), yet it’s done so well that I actually enjoyed the way the back and forth over the centuries slowly revealed the characters in play throughout Addie’s centuries of life.  But the real gem of the book, it’s definitely the ending.  While I wanted more (because I always want more), the story has the perfect ending, truly.  Best of all, the wild ride to get to this perfect ending, was so well plotted, feels very intentionally paced, and is fantastically well-told.  

I want to tell you all the things I truly love about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and I want to tell you all about the story, and why the ending is perfect, but I’m not going to do that because the beauty in Schwab’s writing is that she reveals the pieces of the story slowly but surely as she shows you Addie’s life throughout the years piecemeal.  I’m going to leave you with a few of my favorite quotes (no spoilers), in the hopes they’ll inspire you to pick up this book, either on our recommendation, or on Jamie’s, and that you’ll adore it too.  

What she needs are stories. Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget. Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books. Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.

“…life’s a bitch with a crooked sense of humor.”

“Eighteen is old enough to vote, twenty-one is old enough to drink, but thirty is old enough to make decisions.”

Henry wonders, as they wait in the queue, if some people have natural style, or if they simply have the discipline to curate themselves every day.

For every shadow, there must be light.

There are plenty of shadows in the world.  I’m seeing the light in this book, and in Addie LaRue, and how she relishes her life despite its hardships, but there’s more light out there.  I’d love for you to share with us where you are seeing the light.  

~Nikki

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