The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The book started interesting with a young girl named Adeline who was a dreamer and loved drawing. Once Adeline drew a boy out of her imagination and pretended she was his and he was hers. She imagined the love between each other. I found it beautiful to read, enchanting, fairytale-like. It was inexplicable how much I resonated with Adeline; I instantly gave that book five stars already (and I didn’t even pass the first fifty pages). But how much further I got into the book, how more disappointed I became and how more stars fell down.

The plot was very interesting. I liked the idea of gods and ‘the gods who answer after midnight’ thing. It was something I haven’t read before and was very excited. Now of course, there had to be a scene where the gods would answer after midnight, and I was very nervous when that part would come. The reason Adeline prayed to the gods (and later ‘accidently’ after midnight) was because she was forced by her parents to marry a guy she didn’t love, and she wanted to be free. Free from marriage, free in the world. She ran away in her wedding dress to the forest and cried and prayed to the gods. The reason felt very weak, little, small, I don’t have a better word to describe what I mean. I guess I was just hoping something bigger would happen to her for her to pray to the gods. And what I also didn’t understand, how did she not notice the change in the sky? How did she not notice the sky turning dark? Even if you are screaming of sadness, it should be remarkable… therefore it was a bit unbelievable, and because of the reason and the unbelievability, I couldn’t empathize with her.

I am someone who notice the smallest details in books and questions a lot of things. The writer Schwab didn’t succeed to make it look realistic. Doesn’t a talented/professional writer thinks about even making the smallest details fit reality? I am not saying this is how it should be or that Schwab isn’t talented because she certainly is. Schwab did drag me into the life and world of Adeline, which I believe was her whole point of writing this book and the title says it all: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Another big plus: the chapters going back in time and the chapters of the present complemented each other very well. Schwab did such an amazing job at that! That’s how I can see Schwab does have talent in writing, and that is why it is so unfortunate that she failed in the rest of the story, because I am certain this book could be much better if only…

Though I know Adeline’s background story was needed to understand what’s happening in the present, the book was unnecessarily long. I understand it could be ‘boring’ for others to read, but then this book isn’t for them (for me it was boring as well at times, but the plot was so interesting that I kept reading— even finished the book) Because it isn’t supposed to have a lot of action. It is simply a story about a girl Adeline who isn’t remembered by anyone except one. It is literally a story told through Adeline’s life. Anyway, this story could have been told less than the pages of this book. I say within 300 pages or even shorter. I believe that is also what a good writer can do: bringing the message in even 20 pages. We don’t need the long-winded and slow-paced.

The writing style bothered me much. It came over as trying too much to make it beautiful and poetic. The thing I hate most about writing fiction is to write it poetically. It’s not poetry! It’s not a fairytale! It’s not beautiful, it’s annoying. I love poetry, I even write poetry myself, but when I am reading a book that is supposed to be relaxing, I am not into the beautiful/poetic writing style. I am into a good elaboration of the story. Aside of that, I thought this book genre was adult fantasy? Why did it feel like I was reading a young adult? There were so many cliché words you also find in many young adult books. For example the word ‘emerald’ to describe a green color. Stop using that overused adjective. Instead excel yourself in using your own way of describing colors. That would be refreshing!

Now that I have talked about the plot and the book, lets go talk about the characters.

Henry was in my opinion a dull and unlikeable character. And please respect my opinion when I say this, but I am not into lgbt, but such books I can disregard. But what really grossed me out was the part Henry had a trio. I was shocked to read and was relieved there wasn’t explicit sex scene but only a statement.

The rest of the characters I didn’t like either, except Luc and Adeline. I was hoping there would be a love story between them, yet instead there was a love triangle (I’m not sure though, Schwab was very unclear) between Adeline, Luc and Henry.

Let me first tell you about my opinion of Adeline and Henry. Was that love? I didn’t see it. Where was the chemistry between them? Where were the cute, laughable, sweet moments? Schwab didn’t show anything.

Like I said, I hoped Adeline and Luc would eventually have a relationship, but even their ‘love’ or whatever it was between them, was weak. Their relationship was quite confusing to me. Did Luc really love Adeline and vice versa? And if they did, I miss the scene where it was clear that the do (just like with Henry). Adeline mentioned herself having some feelings for him, but I barely read a scene where Adeline and Luc had that chemistry. The sex they had, was it lust or was it love? I could love them together; I could love them together if their relationship was better described.

There were many contradictions in this story. If Luc loved Adeline, how could the reader be so sure of his feelings since Adeline always talked negative about Luc, saying she couldn’t trust him, that he lied about many things etc. From what I’ve read—when Luc said he loved her—it was spoken truthfully. But how am I supposed to know for sure when Adeline always distrusts him? Now Luc is for once honest? If he was honest or not, let us know. Because I am still here wondering if he truly loved her or not. And did Schwab wanted us to like or hate Luc? She was very vague about Luc, which made it vague for me too. Schwab also tried to make Luc look like he is the devil, but does she know who the devil is? Because Luc showed he has feelings (from what I’ve read it does like he has) and how he couldn’t stay away from Adeline. Was is just his loneliness like Adeline said, or did he truly wanted to be with Adeline? Tell me Schwab, did Luc really loved? And the whole ‘making Luc look like the devil’ didn’t work on me. He wasn’t evil, he was just a god that manipulates people so he could take their souls. Okay, that sounds pretty evil, but it’s not like he did other evil things. This was literally the only thing he did. Humans are just so stupid and desperate to fall for their pretty tricks and ‘didn’t know everything comes with a prize’.

Lastly, I don’t understand Adeline’s seven freckles. I really love it, but they are too specific and a coincidence that it’s hard to believe there isn’t a reason behind her freckles. I was hoping there was indeed a meaning behind it, but alas.

I wanted to love this book so much, I was so hyped and enthusiast to read this book, and it really had me in the first hundred pages, but the story turned out totally different then I hoped it would be. I rate this book with two and a half stars.