The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
After a somewhat slow start illustrating the Addie's modern life of being forgotten over and over due to her curse and taking what she can from people and places--I got it already, thanks--I found this novel difficult to put down. It can be a bit too self-indulgent at times though.
In a small village in France in 1714, a desperate Adeline LaRue makes a deal with a dark god that was badly-worded on her end. She wanted to be free, to be herself, to not belong to some man her family gives her away to who doesn't even care about her as a person, to not live a small, short, and meaningless life. Since the darkness isn't interested in anything she's offering, she says he can have her life, her soul, in exchange "when I don't want it anymore." He makes her immortal, but anyone she's with will forget her the moment they look away from her. Immortal, but she can suffer from hunger, cold, pain, and loneliness. She literally can't tell anyone her name or make any mark on the world. Any belongings she tries to keep will get taken away from her somehow at some point. The god gets her soul if she gives up, after all.
She lives for a few hundred years, trying to make the best of it, testing the boundaries of the curse and trying for happiness where she can, often homeless, on the run, forced to steal to have food or clothing or shelter, having to decide if it's worth it to have to reintroduce herself again and again to any companions she tries to make and be the only one who remembers what they did together. Sometimes the dark god visits to torment her and try to get her to give up her life and soul, to surrender to him.
But in 2014 in Brooklyn, she meets one man who doesn't forget her.
(It's a shame that I find him kind of boring.)
But for the most part it had me quickly reading through to see what happened next. I had a moment of "oh no" near the start of the ending but then it went on to be quite satisfying.
My interpretation of part of the end was that she wasn't really in love with Henry, though she did have feelings for him. You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.
In a small village in France in 1714, a desperate Adeline LaRue makes a deal with a dark god that was badly-worded on her end. She wanted to be free, to be herself, to not belong to some man her family gives her away to who doesn't even care about her as a person, to not live a small, short, and meaningless life. Since the darkness isn't interested in anything she's offering, she says he can have her life, her soul, in exchange "when I don't want it anymore." He makes her immortal, but anyone she's with will forget her the moment they look away from her. Immortal, but she can suffer from hunger, cold, pain, and loneliness. She literally can't tell anyone her name or make any mark on the world. Any belongings she tries to keep will get taken away from her somehow at some point. The god gets her soul if she gives up, after all.
She lives for a few hundred years, trying to make the best of it, testing the boundaries of the curse and trying for happiness where she can, often homeless, on the run, forced to steal to have food or clothing or shelter, having to decide if it's worth it to have to reintroduce herself again and again to any companions she tries to make and be the only one who remembers what they did together. Sometimes the dark god visits to torment her and try to get her to give up her life and soul, to surrender to him.
But in 2014 in Brooklyn, she meets one man who doesn't forget her.
(It's a shame that I find him kind of boring.)
But for the most part it had me quickly reading through to see what happened next. I had a moment of "oh no" near the start of the ending but then it went on to be quite satisfying.
My interpretation of part of the end was that she wasn't really in love with Henry, though she did have feelings for him. You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.