the invisible life of addie larue by ve schwab

The cost of this bargain? Adeline is unable to make a mark on anyone or anything - she has been forgotten by everyone she has met for 300 years. Part 1 of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue focuses on the existence of the cursed immortal Adeline, who trades her soul away to a Shadow God in 1714 in exchange for eternal life. I will make it clear what is paraphrased and what is not. keeping dialogue as dialogue, and narration as narration). There are a few moments that I bookmarked that I pull out word for word in the essay, but there are also a few times when I paraphrase, trying to keep the paraphrasing as accurate as possible (i.e. Finally, I’ve been listening to the audiobook, which makes it a little hard to pull out quotes and references. Given that the essay focuses on structure and style, I do not think that future plot turns will change my thoughts about Part 1. I have not yet finished the book, but wanted to get my ideas out about Part 1 while they were fresh.

So, I think she’ll survive a little good-natured critique from me.Ī few bits of business before I dive in: This essay focuses specifically on Part 1 of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and contains spoilers for the plot.

Schwab is a bit of a genre darling right now, often appearing on podcasts like “Writing Excuses” and generally hyped as a big deal - Addie LaRue is getting mostly good reviews. from analyzing what doesn’t work in Addie LaRue. But I do think there is something to learn about writing, editing, etc.

I’m not trying to roast Schwab - I think she’s a talented person who comes up with some cool creative concepts and writes decent prose. I think she tends to overwrite, and this results in frustrating redundancy in exposition, plot points, and emotional impact. But after picking up The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a book that should absolutely be up my alley, I started to realize that something just doesn’t really work for me in Schwab’s writing style. At the time, I assumed it was just a genre thing (I've never been big on the superhero/supervillain genre). I tried her Villains series but lost interest. I read her Darker Shades of Magic novels years ago and enjoyed them (although I think I would approach them more critically if I read them now). Schwab’s new release: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

The invisible life of addie larue by ve schwab