Book: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V.E. Schwab
My Review:
Plot
This book is not quite what was advertised. It’s not so much a dark old gold x woman who wants freedom romance (a la Morozko and Vasya of the Winternight Trilogy) as it is an exploration of art.
The first 300 pages or so of the novel are basically a version of the Flâneur. (Addie’s French, so I guess this makes sense?)
What I mean is: Because of the nature of Addie’s curse, the story up to that point is basically just a walking novel, where she’s exploring NYC and Paris and waxing poetic about places in the cities and the cities’ connection art and sex, which is a bit over-done, in my opinion. Still, I found the historical fiction bits to be intriguing, with turns of phrases I found to speak to the crux of what makes humans humans, in large part because I still had the hope that some more fantastical bits would show themselves. But the 2014 scenes were a bit too contemporary literary fiction for my personal taste. They very much had the feel of Open City by Teju Cole, which is not a book I particularly want to read again. And, truth be told, while I liked the exploration of Henry fine enough, I didn’t see much of a connection or spark between them aside from the one manufactured by Luc. For 300 pages, it felt like the modern scenes were just Addie and Henry being alternatingly manic pixie dream girl and boy.
The book hits its stride in the last 70 pages or so, but at that point, I found myself more concerned with Schwab’s particular turns of phrases than the love story being told. And, I found myself wanting more of what the book claimed to be in the first place—more Luc and Addie.
Themes
At the core of the novel are ruminations about art and remembrance and human connection. Addie puts herself in position, time and time again, to be an artist’s muse, to have people “remember” her through other people’s art, since her curse doesn’t allow her to make her own. The novel basically seems to hypothesize the same thing as Terror Management Theory, which happens to be pretty harmonious with how I see the world, but the repetitive insistence on much of the theses was a bit draining. In particular, the overabundance of references to Addie’s seven freckles as a sort of metonymy for the thesis about art and remembrance as a whole was a bit grating over time. (Maybe that was on purpose, to empathize with Addie hearing it all the time? Though it came across more of Addie congratulating herself and the author trying to have a repeated image to trace through the narrative.)
Conclusion
It is hard to give the book a rating. Certain paragraphs deserve five stars, and I, too, am largely preoccupied by some of the same themes the book brings up, which makes me want to recommend it as a read. But then, the core relationships seem to fall flat and feel not fully explored. And the prose gets too purple sometimes, too self-serious. So, I’m stuck between thinking it’s just another MFA-coursework style piece and something a bit more magical. Something a bit more like what I was expecting.
But that’s not really the author’s fault? I saw many posts about the book before its release, from the author, from the publisher, from book bloggers. And what they tended to emphasize is not what the book is actually concerned with, from my perspective. I think part of my disappointment is due to the expectations I had from the hype, and though I tried to avoid spoilers and info about the book, maybe I needed more background? Or less? I’m not sure. Worth a read, but it’s not currently on my “favorites/to die for” list, as seems to be the case for most other readers.
Rating:
In an unpopular opinion, I’m giving this 3.5/4 star rating.
