The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is not a perfect book. It is, however, a very good book, and damn if it didn't make me feel something.
And that's something a story hasn't done in a very long time.
If you've read any of my other posts, you'll know I've been pretty disappointed by the content I've consumed of late. I've been searching for a story to sink its teeth in me and have mostly been uninterested and unaffected.
Then I read Addie LaRue. And let me tell you, I felt it. I felt all of it. A lot.
So, naturally, I've spent the past few days obsessing over The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, trying to figure out why exactly it's having this effect on me, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
The story is about a young woman named Adeline, though she prefers to be called Addie. Born in 16th century France, Addie does not want to lead an ordinary life. When she's forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 23, she makes a deal with the devil to escape. But, of course, there's a catch. In exchange for her life of freedom, she's cursed to be unremembered. It's not that everyone she meets forgets her, it's that everyone she's ever met has forgotten her. Her parents, all her friends. As soon as someone turns away, she slips away from their memory, and they haven't the foggiest idea that they'd ever seen her before.
Addie can't stay at a hotel because the innkeepers don't remember renting a room to her. She can hardly ask a favor because as soon as someone has turned away from her, they forget they'd agreed to help her and become alarmed by the strange women in their presence. And so Addie suffers. She suffers a lot. She starves and freezes in the streets of Paris. She's forced to steal and sell her body at the docks. But for all her hardship and suffering, the harshest moments aren't of violence or cruelty, not of desperation or dispair. They're the when she meets someone and she gets to spend several beautiful, glorious moments with another human and she connects with them, begins to care.
Then they forget. They always do.
It's because of this, I think, that I can't.
And I need to understand why.
This is more than just a point of intellectual curiosity for me. I aspire to be a writer too, and I know that creating memorable characters is central to that success. I want to know what specifically is working when a character grabs ahold of a reader and doesn't let go. What it is that make some stick with readers long after the story's ended.
One's like Addie did to me.
It's not just that I feel for her. Though I do. Sympathy is certainly a large part of what gets readers invested and makes us care about a character, as so many writing books and blogs are wont to tell us. Addie's character earns sympathy in spades. She suffers and struggles a lot. But none of this makes her particularly compelling or unique. And it's certainly not because I particularly like Addie. I don't dislike her, perse, but she's not a person I admire or someone I'd like to meet. I don't really think she and I could be friends, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy having a conversation with her if I ran into her at a bookshop or café.
It might be because of the beautiful irony of her situation. She's designed so that no one will remember her, thereby ensuring that readers will. I have to admit, this is good. And I'm not sure I can articulate why it works so well. But it does. This is the sort of hauntingly aching poetic stuff that some people go nutty for. And while it doesn't always work well for me, it clearly does in this case.
I think it's this strong and simple story design that makes Addie resonate with me so much. It's not just that she had a clear want. Lots of characters in lots of media want things. They want big things and little things and very human things clearly. Addie LaRue works so well for me because of how expertly the story is designed around that want.
It's why I deeply I felt the words "I remember you." Both when Henry first said them and last wrote them. I knew how much that meant to Addie – how specifically that story beat was designed to fit her soul – and thereby made a deep impression on me.
As much as Addie wanted to be remembered, what I wanted was to feel something. And that's what Addie LaRue did to me.
So I'll remember you too, Addie. I will.
My Overall Review: 4/5 Stars
Characters: ★★★★
Plot: ★★
World: ★★★
Story: ★★★★
Prose: ★★★
If you'd like to hear my other thoughts on books, visit my goodreads page here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22518538-carrie-nelson
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