The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Interesting idea for a story but I wanted more than a YA love triangle, especially one that was among three such lightweight characters.

It was basically very readable, the plot was entertaining enough for me to want to see how it would end for Addie one way or the other. In the midpoint when we meet Henry, I was curious about him until his secret was discovered. Those things kept me going.

One aspect that could have been explored in a meaningful way was the reasons for Addie's initial bargain. For her freedom and immortality, she trades the idea of being remembered by others. When she's out of their sight, she's out of their minds.

What she's avoided is the idea of growth and change, of growing up and taking responsibility. She wants to stay a child, exploring and dreaming. Part of responsibility is affecting people and living with the consequences for better or worse. Young people in her time didn't get the same opportunity to be teenagers and students that privileged kids in the 20th-21st century get.

Schwab doesn't dive deep into the potential danger of Addie's life or the meaning of a life without responsibility. Instead, Addie feels cheated out of lasting romance and prevented from making a mark on the world as an artist. These are certainly things she's lost but these are romantic and superficial notions. I would have liked to have seen some chapters that were mini-stories in which Addie really had to struggle and suffer.

I fervently wish that the devil or darkness character had had more menace and been a lot more fun. I do not see what he and Addie see in each other Also, Henry's reason for making a deal with the devil was dull and not believable. Everyone gets dumped, dude.

This is an enormously popular book and many mentioned the beautiful language as a reason for liking it. I found the prose to be a bit much. Schwab uses figurative language to the degree that it stops being evocative and gets in the way of telling the story. She also overuses incomplete sentences as a way of creating emphasis.

It's a bit like poetry rather than a traditional style. In a way, I get why people would like it. It might be my own failing since I'm not a big poetry lover.