Author: V.E. Schwab
Format: Audiobook
Rating: 5 Stars
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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.
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This book wrecked me in a thousand different directions. It is an amazing, wonderful book that is filled with so much heartache, and I loved every single page.
Addie makes a deal with a "god" that makes her immortal yet completely forgettable. She cannot leave her mark on this world in any way. She cannot write, she cannot create art, whoever she meets forgets her with minutes of leaving her. Henry comes into her life after 300 years of being forgotten, and he remembers her. This leads to a tragic story that I secretly hoped would turn out differently.
Addie lived a remarkable life in many ways, but it was also heartbreaking and sad, and leaves her making decisions and choices she might not have made if she hadn't been immortal and also backed into a corner. She meets the darkness, names him Luc, and spends time thinking about him, yet wishing she could forget him. Although she seems to wish she could forget him, I think she wants him in a weird twisted Alina/Darkling type relationship. Watching this relationship between Luc and Addie develop was weird and strange and amazing.
Watching Addie grow and develop and change over the course of 300 years was the best part of this book, especially since every other part of this book is tied up in Addie's life and the changes she goes through. She spends an eternity coming to terms with what happened and who this new her is. She meets people who forget her, until she meets one who remembers her. She sees war, and famine, and destruction, and new life, and new inventions, and they all become part of who she is and who she will be. I loved watching and reading about all of that and loved seeing how it became a part of her and who she is.
I absolutely loved the surprise that met Addie when she realized that Henry remembers who she is. She tried to steal book, then tried to return the stolen book and that ended up chancing her entire life. Henry and Addie ended up developing a relationship with each other over the remainder of the book, and that relationship added to Addie's life and changed and altered her trajectory in massive ways. I had high hopes for this relationship, and I was crushed when the book went in a different direction.
The events in this story weaved seamlessly together. The whole story and everything that happened moved together to created a book that I won't soon forget. There were some things that were easier to figure out, and some things that shocked me and made me want to throw my phone across the room. Even when I was mad, and sad, and annoyed with Addie and with Henry, I still loved every single heartbreaking, lovely part of this book. I loved it so much I've now described it as heartbreaking more than once. Sorry friends. And yet, not sorry.
I think the dual timeline also worked very well with this book. It helped give us some insight into Addie's past, and helped us see the development of her character, as well as the development of the relationship between her and Luc. That played well into giving some understanding as to why the book ended the way it did. I didn't love the way the book ended - it was hard and I cried. But after watching the way that Addie and Luc were with each other throughout the entirety of the book, I sort of understand it.
So, friends, have any of you read this book yet? If so, drop me a comment and let me know what you thought of it. If you haven't read it yet, get your hands on it now - you'll love it!
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