READING VLOG: THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE BOOK REVIEW ✨ by v e schwab - no spoilers!

I finished it. Hi friends, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're well and as you can probably already tell by the title of this video, in today's reading vlog we are going to be reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This is like one of the most hyped books on booktube right now. I think like one of the most hyped books that is coming out this entire year. I have had a really mixed relationship with V.E. Schwab's writing. I loved Vicious, like it was five stars. One of my favorite books uh the year that I read it and I hated Vengeful. I hate it so much. I mean all I can do is be honest with my feelings. So I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this but this is about a girl named Addie who makes a deal with the devil that she can live forever but she won't be remembered by anyone. So as soon as she leaves someone's company they'll no longer remember her and who she is and I think it's kind of following her along the length of her life, culminating when she meets someone who does remember her, who remembers her name and so she's shocked with over 100 years that's never happened. Yeah that's what I really know going into it. It's so much smaller than I thought it was going to be. For reference it's like the size of a paperback but it is a hardback. So when I found out this was like 500 pages I thought it was going to be a massive hardback but it's actually really ditty. Well guess what people, I get excited about small things. So I feel like it's actually quite easy to read and yeah I'm gonna be reading this over the next two days. So today and tomorrow I have got to read this which I think is fine. I'm just really excited to give this a go. Hopefully I'll love it. It's been getting like incredible, unbelievable reviews. Like everyone has been obsessed with it and I really love this edition. I got the Waterstone special edition. So it is signed and I love the edges. They are gold and they're a little bit glittery. They're not quite as glittery as like Fairyloot ones but they are glittery and we know how I feel about glittery edges. I think every edge should be glittery. I'm really excited to get into it. Hopefully I'm gonna love it. I've heard people say it's beautiful and haunting which is like, we know that's everything I love. Everything I'm obsessed with. So hopefully we'll be successful. I'm gonna go and then I'll check in with you maybe when I've read the first 100 pages. Maybe I'll check in like every 100 pages so that we get a good representation of what I'm thinking of it. So I am 100 pages into The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I have read the first 100 pages and very conveniently 100 pages ends on part two. So I've read part one. It's like they knew I was coming. Like she is very special and I really, she's special. The way that this is written, this entire first part is Addie's backstory explaining the situation to us and kind of what leads up to her making the deal with the devil, demon, spirit, god, whatever he is. I don't really know. Going back and forth between that in like 17 something and then her in New York in 2014. And I really like actually the part set in the past when Addie was young and made the deal. I feel like we're not gonna maybe go back to that a lot now. I might be wrong but like I feel like we're now gonna move on with the story in this timeline. But I enjoyed the kind of like historical fiction nature of the start of this and it's definitely written very beautifully. There's been quite a lot of lines where I'm like oh I love how that is said. She's about to do what she's about to do and she's about to show what the girls should have did. It's a book that's definitely taking its time. You can tell I think that V.E. Schwab is a really prolific writer and has written loads of books because sometimes I think when you are reading a debut there's this feeling of rushing. Perhaps a more commercial way of writing like keeping the pace really fast and like getting into the conflict straight away and that's not necessarily what this does. It really takes this first 100 pages to take its time with you and say everything that it wants to say with you and like it doesn't care what you think of that. You know what I mean? I think only a seasoned writer will have the balls to do that. I am really enjoying it. I feel like it's been putting me to sleep a bit though and like not in the- not in a bad way but like it just feels like the kind of book you should read as you're falling asleep at night. It's got that kind of like magical comforting cozy quality to it. Basically the way that the people like forgetting her works is that even if they like go into another room, cross a door threshold, they forget her. Aww. All right. She left the door of this bookshop stealing a book and the guy who works there followed her out and was like you've got to pay for that and remembered who she was but she's like hang on. Hang on. This can't be right. That's suspicious. That's weird. And then it's just ended there so I think he's gonna play a big part in it but I think I need to wake up a bit. It got me feeling a bit sleepy so I'm gonna organize my book cart. I don't have a bookshelf here at this flat so I just have like piles of books everywhere that are organized to me but no one else knows what they mean and I have my book cart which is where the majority of my books are and at the moment it's just kind of organized randomly but I want to sort it into paperbacks and hardbacks and genre within that and also I just want to go through all my books because I can't see them all and so I want to go through them all and just like reacquaint myself with all of my books. So I'm gonna do that and then I will just come and read another 100 pages and then check in with you again. Let's see. Oh no I'll read part two because that's to page 192. So I'll read part two. So honestly where has the time gone? Like do you ever have those days where you don't know? Your whole day is gone. I am now just finished part two of The Invisible Lady. There were points just now, not gonna lie to you. I was a bit bored. Like just a little bit. Not a lot. Not a lot of boredom. Just a little bit. I don't know. I don't know if I love it in the way that I'm hoping I will. I love what it's doing. I love what it's setting out to do. I love like the core of the story but like I was a little bit bored at times. I was wrong. We do, we are still following Addie in the past. Oh sorry I need to stop doing that to my leg because it makes you shake. The devil would reappear every year to her and now her and Henry have met. He remembers her completely and she's like freaking the f**k out and I'm so nervous. I'm so, I'm so nervous for what's gonna happen. I don't want to feel like good about this because I don't think it's gonna be good. Like I don't, I don't think there's a good explanation for this. Like I don't see how the devil would just suddenly lapse his concentration and allow one to slip through the cracks. I don't believe that. I don't see it. I don't see it for me but okay. Nah. I don't want to trust it at all. The writing is still beautiful. There's still so many like positives to it but it is strange reading from Victoria Schwab who is so often this high pace, high plot writer that it suddenly be the opposite and I think that's fun as a writer for her to explore those two different things but for me I'm like oh. But I knew that coming into it. I don't know. It's like a four star. Like I'm not hating it. I just wanted this to be a five star from what people were saying. I'm hoping I'm gonna cry a lot. My eyes are really bad. I promise I'm not high. I promise I'm not high. Anyway I am gonna go read some more tonight. It is 20 to 10 so I want to get quite an early night. I don't want to read too much more but I'm gonna try and read a little bit more. I think it's actually not morning. It's one o'clock. I am now 306 pages into the book and I am falling more and more in love with it as time goes on. I think that I'm starting to get it. I'm starting to become more and more connected to the story and to Addie and I love Henry. I love Henry so much. Henry's the one who remembers her and we've just learned why he's able to remember her and learn more about his backstory and I love him. He wants to marry me. I love Henry. I love Henry so much. I also love both the main characters in this are bi and I feel like that representation is done really well and like in a really natural way. It's a beautiful story. It's really lovely and I'm just I'm so intrigued as to where it's gonna go because we're gonna get into like kind of the ending and there's not been much conflict necessarily yet like in terms of a traditional plot. I mean it doesn't really have a traditional plot so I'm just intrigued as to where it's gonna go now. The thing that I was terrified last night was gonna happen I don't think is gonna happen. Like I think we're fine in that regard. I really love one of Henry's friends. I think that's a really interesting dynamic and like every time she meets someone that you know is gonna forget her, every time more and more you're hoping please don't forget her. I mean obviously Henry hasn't but in all the other aspects, all the other people that meet her you're like please don't and I really love seeing how she's influenced like art and music and how she's chosen to live and like find ways to create things that put her mark in the world even when she can't necessarily draw something you know because it disappears straight away. So yeah just the way that she's coped and managed to live I love. So I am really enjoying it. I feel like it's the middle section. What have I got to say other than I'm enjoying it? You know what I mean? Am I leaving my bed today? No. Okay I'm now on page 400 and to be honest with you I don't feel any type of way. I'm enjoying it. I feel like for me the thing I'm enjoying most is the writing like the prose how beautiful the writing is but I don't feel particularly connected to Addie like emotionally. She feels very distant which is very strange to say for like a character we have spent the whole book with learning about her and everything she's been through without a real plot. So like I know I've seen everyone crying at the end and like I always cry so I probably will but I don't feel that emotionally connected to her. Honey you've got a big storm coming. I don't know why back when I read I don't want to compare her books but like what I'm going to but back when I read Vicious I would say I was more emotionally connected to like Victor for example than I am to Addie. Addie almost feels more like a concept than a person but I know that's kind of the point because she says like I'm an idea I'm not I can't be the story I'm an idea. I just don't feel connected to her like I don't I don't know I don't know and I was going to say like I don't know who she is but I do I know exactly who she is and like what her traits are but I'm reading it more for the writing like how sometimes I'll come across a line I'll be like oh my god that's beautiful. I find Henry's story more emotive. Henry's in this way more than I thought he would be he's like a really main major character and we spent a good section of the chunk I just read learning about his backstory and who he is and that was interesting and I wish The Devil was a bit more developed because we really only have Addie and Henry as like our main main characters. I don't know he just seems a bit like caricature like a bit pantomime-y to me but I am really enjoying it like it's a four star but I just don't love it as much as I think everyone else does and as much as I was hoping to. It's like five o'clock now and at eight I'm going to be on Kayla from Books and Lala I'm going to be on her channel talking about Catherine House. Oh ow I just hit myself in the nostril. Oh dear that's not good. I feel the need to say the f-word now. It really got in there this it really got in there. Yeah we're gonna be talking about Catherine House which I have got a vlog coming up of me reading this next weekend but I've already read it but I really want to watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tonight so I'm aiming to finish this in time to do that but I don't know if I'm going to be able to so I really want to watch Buffy because I want to finish season three of Buffy. I want to finish season three of Buffy before I start The Haunting of Bly Manor which came out like yesterday or the day before which is a sequel like or companion series to The Haunting of Hill House which is I loved but I want to finish the season of Buffy that I'm on first so I really want to watch Buffy tonight. I have the mind of a mastermind what's that I don't know. Yeah I'm gonna go do some of my thoughts about Catherine House, have dinner, read a bit more of this, do the live and then I'll come back in and check in with you. Yeah okay bye. I finished it. I cried so much. The ending was the best part of this book. The ending was like so good, so good. The ending was so good and I'm really sad. I just want to know what happens. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna talk to you in the morning when I can think more clearly because like right now this ain't working. Final thoughts on The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I loved it. I loved it a lot. I think it is just this beautiful slow story and like the ending was incredible. The ending was a five star ending but there were points in the book where I was like this is maybe a 3.75 so it's I'm giving it like a solid 4. I wouldn't say that Addie is the character that I am most attached to by the end like at all. I really wouldn't say that. I don't want to say more than that because I don't want to spoil anything but like Addie wasn't the person that I was most attached to. I have something to say but it's a slight spoiler so I'll put spoiler in big letters on the screen so you can like skip forward. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry in the relationship between Addie and Henry but I also think that's kind of the point. They just seemed like kind of best friends to me rather than romantic partners but I suppose they loved each other for what they gave each other so I understand that but the romance itself it didn't ever really feel like a romance to me. It felt like a companionship but is that the point? Okay spoilers done. I think it's the kind of book that when you want to be a writer you read and you're like oh my god this is genius. The craft and like the expertise that is in this book as a writer is amazing. It took me a while to realize that that you wanted to be me. I just kind of wish that it packed a bit more of a punch earlier on. A bit more of a roller coaster with ebbs and flows throughout rather than just how it ended because the ending was incredible but I keep doing that and I shake you every time I do it. I'm so sorry. I feel like the ending was incredible but I wish there had been stuff that for me packed that emotional punch throughout not just at the end. I cried so much for a long time since I cried like that. I cried for like the whole last 50 pages maybe. I really really loved it so I'd really recommend picking this up if you haven't already. I think it's gonna be a book a lot of people love this year. Four stars, really enjoyed it. I am a bit disappointed it wasn't a five star. I think when a book is so anticipated and popular like a lot of people talking about it you want it to be that five star but it wasn't quite there for me but a four star is still a brilliant rating. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you had fun and yeah I'll see you in another one very soon. Bye!