The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
In 1714 a young Frenchwoman named Adeline LaRue, desperate to escape a marriage her village has arranged for her, prays to any god who will listen and is answered by a dark one she should not have summoned. In exchange for freedom he gives her immortality with a cruel catch: no one she meets will remember her the moment she is out of sight, and every attempt to leave a mark, a name, a child, a sentence on a page, will erase itself behind her. For three hundred years Addie wanders the backstreets of Europe and the lofts of New York City, loved and forgotten, until one ordinary afternoon she walks into a used bookstore in Brooklyn and a young man named Henry looks up and says, I remember you. V.E. Schwab's novel is a tender, literary fantasy about art, loneliness, and the trace a life leaves.
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On the night of her arranged wedding in 1714 France, twenty-three-year-old Addie LaRue prays to whatever god will listen and gets the dark one. He gives her three centuries of life and the curse that no one she meets will remember her, until 2014 New York, when a bookstore clerk says her name.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue contains some on-page intimacy but is restrained, around 2 to 3 out of 5 on the spice scale. The romantic and existential themes outweigh explicit content.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue contains some on-page intimacy but is restrained, around 2 to 3 out of 5 on the spice scale. The romantic and existential themes outweigh explicit content.
V.E. Schwab has indicated a follow-up is in development, though no confirmed release has been announced as of 2025. The novel has remained a bestseller for years, with significant fan demand for more.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was written by V.E. Schwab, published in 2020 by LUMEN.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is 504 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a standalone novel by V.E. Schwab, not part of a series.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.