I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. It falls squarely in the Fantasy genre, which I have found is very difficult to pull off without seeming implausible, if not downright ludicrous. But in the case of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the book was so well written and so masterfully put together that I almost forgot that what I was reading was purely a figment of the author’s imagination and could not happen in real life.

And what an imagination! A young girl, Adeline (she prefers the name, Addie), makes a deal with the devil to get out of a life situation abhorrent to her in exchange for living without ever being remembered. And she never gets old and never dies. It might not seem to be such a bad deal – after all, she is not actually invisible and all her human faculties are intact, so she can still enjoy all the things we humans enjoy. However, while she can be seen by other people, they forget her the moment she is out of their sight, which means that she has to keep getting acquainted with them over and over again and can never build any kind of relationship with anyone. She can also never have a home or a job or anything permanent for that very reason – all of these require some recognition, some continuity, something to build on. While the ability to not be remembered allows her to get enough of the basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter to survive every day – she still has these human needs – she has to repeat this every single day. For eternity.

The deal that she has made with the devil – who was a god that she had been warned not to pray to after dark, but which she did out of desperation – gives her the choice to opt at any time by surrendering her soul to him. But she is stubborn and refuses to do that. So she soldiers on, becoming more adept at figuring out how to handle her “curse” in order to be able to continue to have, at least, a decent, livable life. And given that it was 1714 when she made the deal and that it is 2014 when we meet her in the present, she has had three hundred years of experience and practice in living like this, and she has perfected it to almost an art. Along the way, she has taught herself to read, learnt multiple languages, traveled all over Europe and the US, lived through the French Revolution (she was born in France) and the World Wars, and met in person many of the greatest writers and artists of the last three centuries. Of course, no one remember hers, and her curse does not even allow a painting or a photograph of her to be captured.

Then something changes – because, of course, if it wouldn’t, there would be no story. In the present, in 2014, she unexpectedly meets one person, after three hundred years, who can remember her! Like everyone else who comes into contact with her, he does not forget her the moment she is out of sight. She can’t believe it — who is the person and how is it that he is immune to her curse?

This, then, is the plot of the story, and it is told by going back and forth between the past and the present. The past here is not just the time in 1714 when Addie made the Faustian bargain with the devil, but it traces her life across all the pivotal times in the three hundred years since then, showing not just how she was living with the curse at that time but also providing a window into what life was like in that era. The writing is so good that it never seems too fantastical or unbelievable. And despite the seeming impossibility of it given Addie’s curse, there is a rather haunting love story in the book as well. The devil, it turns out, is not as evil as he seemed.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It’s been a while since I read something that transported me to another world that I know is impossible but was still so believable.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V. E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: October 2020

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Contributor: Lachmi Khemlani is a fan of the written word.