The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab Book Review!

Hi Readers! I am back with another book review and this time it’s for a book I truly enjoyed & loved reading! I wanted to read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue since months. I kept seeing it everywhere & moreover I saw a lot of 4 & 5 star reviews, which was a happy thing to witness. I used this last long weekend to finish this long book in 3 days! This story is a combination of fantasy, romantic fantasy, historical fiction & magical realism. Fascinating, isn’t it?

 

~~INTRODUCTION~~

As Goodreads describes, “A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.” Such is the story of Addie LaRue. Born in 1700s, Addie makes a deal with the devil for her freedom. The cunning & intelligent shadow monster Luc gives Addie immortal freedom but with a cost. No one she meets will ever remember her, in this way she is not bound to anyone and is in fact free, but it’s a lonely freedom. We see the narrative from 1700s where Addie struggles with this big change in her life. In a parallel narrative in 2014, we watch 300+ year old Addie falling in love with someone who finally remembers her.

It’s an impossible love story between star-crossed soul mates. It’s a coming-of-age story in a fantasy world. It’s a story of how humans are the only superior creatures capable of love. It’s a story with miraculous characters, timeless beauty of time itself, daunting emotions & so much in between. It’s a story of grit, determination, sentiments & above all time.

~~INSIGHTFUL QUESTIONS~~

“Do you ever feel like you’re running out of time?”

 

“Do you think a life has any value if one doesn’t leave some mark upon the world?”

 

“Would you rather feel nothing or everything?”

 

“But isn’t it wonderful,” she says, “to be an idea?”

“Choosing a class became choosing a discipline, and choosing a discipline became choosing a career, and choosing a career became choosing a life, and how was anyone supposed to do that, when you only had one?”

 

“Why would anyone trade a lifetime of talent for a few years of glory?”

 

“How could you give up so much for so little?”

 

“Were the instants of joy worth the stretches of sorrow?

Were the moments of beauty worth the years of pain?”

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

~~CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT~~

After recently reading ‘The Four Winds’ which had zero character development, I was ecstatic to read an incredible arc in all the characters in this novel. Starting with Addie LaRue, she changed from Adeline to a million different names to finally fit into herself as Addie. Because of dual story telling as per the years, this progression is all the more evident. In 1714, we see her struggling through her new invisible identity, but then 300 years later, she becomes competent at it. Throughout the novel, we can see the change in her, how she grew & then how intelligent she was in the ending. With this growth, she also kept visiting Villon Sur-Sarthe, her hometown, which even though is a minor detail, but also quite vital. I cannot state how much I loved this character. I would read everything that has Addie LaRue in it.

After the first chapter, we get to meet Henry Strauss, Addie’s great love. I think Henry was introduced at the perfect moment, which created an increased appeal towards him. All this time, I was fascinated by Addie, and then Henry came up like a breath of fresh hair. Reading about his life, his thoughts, his perception towards everything was something I found to be the most human element of the story. To read about his fears, hopes, regrets, anxieties & phobias! We have Addie to magically glamorise the story & then we have Henry who is simply the most relatable character. And this combination struck the perfect symphony for me.

Not forgetting our shadow devil of the story named Luc. While Addie had an amazing story arc & Henry had the human relatable touch, I think Luc brought his consistency to the story. He was a devil when he made a deal with Addie & he was a devil at the end when he took ownership of Addie. In between, there were times when he showed some feelings of lust & jealousy even. I’m glad it did not last, because after all he is not human. He was not able to sacrifice himself for his love, which was an integral part of the story.

I loved so many little things in the story & I am not going to shy away from them. I loved how characters are casually shown as bisexual & gay & lesbians. The way they naturally introduced it without making it a big deal was so eye-opening. So normal, as it should always be.

And the last thing about the characters – I loved all of Henry’s friends! They are all artists & are worth something. Usually, the friends in novels are not worth anything & are almost always lame or too messed up. But here even the minor characters of Bea & Robbie are shown to be such creative geniuses, which fits perfectly with Addie’s-life-in-art angle.

~~WRITING STYLE~~

As I mentioned in the introduction, the narrative is split into two parts where the story goes in parallel. We have the 1714 onward years which finally catch up to the second narrative of the year 2014. What I enjoyed is how perfectly balanced the story was in both these eras. The older period is longer to form a foundation with the readers so that we understand exactly how Addie’s life worked & how she survived when no one remembered her. Once we got a gist of it, the later years are skipped with a gap of 30-40 years in between, which somehow works! And lastly, the 2014 era story is coupled with romance & drama & suspense, which was a great reading experience. The entire story is written amazingly well & the ending ties up perfectly too.

I cannot state how much I loved the art angle in the story. Art was the perfect way for Addie to prove her existence. Also, how each piece connected to the other with those 7 freckles on her nose – incredible! Ideas are indeed wilder than memories! This aspect gave an extra edge to an already fascinating story.

The only problem I had was that the book could have been a bit shorter with less unnecessary details. Chapter 2 and 3 where there is not a lot happening, felt too long & also boring. If it were a bit shorter or had an additional element with the current number of pages, then it would have gotten 5 stars from me.

~~SENTIMENTAL QUOTIENT~~

For a powerful invisible ghost person, Addie LaRue sure knew how to express her emotions. Every time after meeting someone new, she had an iota of hope that maybe this person will remember her. That iota of hope is what made her so human, even though she was 300 years old. The times when she visited her hometown and allowed it to wreck her was something different to read in such a novel. The way she met her aged mother who didn’t recognise her. The way she planted a tree at Estelle’s grave. The way she felt such a tide of sorrow over the death of her closest people who could not remember her. All those emotional chapters were impossible to read, which shows how soaked a reader gets into this novel.

 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was everything that I hoped it would be. I definitely recommend it if you love reading about fantasy or magical realism & love a character-inspired plot. I gave rated it at 4/5 stars!

 

Until next time,

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah Book Review!

Hi Readers! After 23 long days which weren’t as long as the story, I finished Kristin Hannah’s ‘The Four Winds’! Released in February this year, this book was the one book I had a lot of hopes pinned on. Many of you know that Kristin Hannah is one of my favourite authors. I have read 3 of her books before this one & on some level or other, I enjoyed those – The Nightingale, The Great Alone & Firefly Lane. Because of her incredible story writing, I was looking forward to reading the Four Winds, because the genre was again historical fiction set during the Great Depression. Also, the blurb sounded incredibly miserable which is the kind of writing in which Hannah thrives. Unfortunately, in The Four Winds, it is only misery & no wow factor to turn the whole thing around.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.

~~CHARACTERS~~

Elsa Martinelli is the heroine we did not ask for & did not deserve. This story is inspired by real events which were tragic, life-wrecking, soul-crushing & inhumane. In addition to this, we have our main character Elsa who is a soul-less mush of a person with no hope or dreams. This combination of tragic circumstance & lifeless characters is what made the story very difficult to read. For the entirety of the story, Elsa is showed as someone who lives by the day, from one problem to the next. Be it the dust bowl in Texas or the ditch-bank living in California or the Welty Farms. There is absolutely no improvement in her character. It stays the exact same from page 1 to page 400. The only rebellion we see is in the last 48 pages.

The other protagonist is Elsa’s daughter Loreda Martinelli, who is naturally the opposite of Elsa. Loreda is the colourful & full of life daughter who has dreams & aspirations. Her practical approach to tragedy frictions with Elsa’s dull optimism. Loreda’s character also does not have a lot of growth, but it definitely spikes higher than Elsa’s.

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

~~CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT~~

Rigid & unlovable characters for an outstretched & tormenting story did not sit well with me. I understand the kind of appalling situations that the farmers faced during the dust bowl & the Great Depression. A thing like that can take the life out of you leaving you bereft of emotions & purpose. This pandemic is an example of that. We are all entirely helpless, many of our dear ones have lost their lives & there seems no end in sight. But, we are still living & most of us are probably doing it better than Elsa Martinelli in this book. In a novel, if you want to keep the readers engaged, you must create some sort of semblance. If it is all depressing & miserable, why would I read it, in a pandemic no less? Because there wasn’t a balance of happy-sad, good-bad & so on, it felt like the story was dragged too much. The major aspect was absolutely no character development for any of the characters. Also, all the characters were too stuck up with closed minds & no imagination. This dull lifeless portrayal of characters was my main problem with The Four Winds.

~~STORY PROGRESSION~~

I wouldn’t say there was no story progression, but I can also say that I can write the entire story in less than 10 sentences. The first part set in 1921, is about Elsa & how she was unloved in her own home & rejected by her family every day. She decided to be a rebel for one night to end up pregnant by her one-night stand. The second part set in 1934 is Elsa’s life on the land of the Martinellis. We see the loveless life between Elsa & Rafe. We see a dreamer in 12-year-old Loreda & some fun in the toddler Anthony. We also see Rafe’s parents’ rigidity to staying on their dying land dying with it, which drives Rafe insane till he up & leaves them after which follows the dust bowl era. The third part set in 1936, we finally see Elsa moving to California with her kids & them living in a stinky unhygienic dump. So yes, the story has minor progression in terms of places, geographically. But it has no progression whatsoever in terms of the characters’ mental & emotional places.

~~THE ENDING~~

On 400/448 page, we finally see a fire in Elsa when she decides to join the Workers Alliance to fight for fair wages. I guess since the change was so late, I should not have built up any hopes in terms of a satisfying ending. I won’t reveal the ending, because no matter how ruinous the whole novel is, I need to stick to a reader’s vow. As mind-numbing the entire story was, the ending was ten times worse. I’d say it was realistic, but if I wanted realistic, I would have picked up a memoir, not fiction. So, yes, overall, the whole book was a big disappointment.

 

~~MOMENTS THAT WON~~

As I mentioned before, there needed to be more of a balance between the good & the bad. So, yes, there were moments where it was gut-wrenching, emotional & miserable – but in a good way.

The bonding phases between Elsa & Loreda. The friendship in adversity between Jean & Elsa. The innocence of Ant. The heartbreak they all felt when Rafe left. The time it rained only to be followed by black ash. The humane moments shared between Elsa & Loreda with their cows who they have known so long, all dying together. The mother-daughter moments between Rose & Elsa. The time I felt Loreda’s youth slip away in just one moment when she started doing chores in the ditch-bank. The time Loreda saved Elsa when they were on the road.

Even though I did not form a connection with these characters, there were some moments which just broke me in their raw, humane & natural ways. The subtle victorious story line which won my heart was the warrior motherhood story. Only for these moments, I have rated The Four Winds at 1.5/5 stars!

Until next time,

Celebrating my Favourite Women Authors! Happy Women’s History Month!

Hi Readers! It has been way too long, and honestly this time I have no excuses. After my month-long reading slump, I got back into it with Kristin Hannah’s ‘The Four Winds’. Just the fact of being out of the slump has made me lazy & I have given up trying too hard. I read when I get the time or when I am in the mood or when there is literally nothing else I want to do. But, lately, I am not able to read for a whole day & worse is I don’t feel like reading all day. I know! Forgive me, readers!

I have wanted to write a post about my favourite women authors since the beginning of this month, and now I finally have some time. Today’s my birthday! And, I am doing all the little things that make me happy instead of doing one extreme thing. I took the day off from work, watched The Office, read a bit, did book photography for this post, listened to Taylor Swift, did some yoga followed by eating my favourite red velvet cheesecake & drinking my favourite Hibiscus Tea & so on & so forth!

Now that I am finally on a non-work keyboard, I can literally feel the creative side of my brain waking up, hahah! So, first of all, I wish all my amazing readers a Happy Women’s History Month!! Being a voracious reader (I hope I still am), I thought of the best & only way I could contribute to celebrating women – Praising all my favourite women authors!! When I thought of writing this post, I did not realise just the sheer number of women authors I absolutely love! I know a lot of people read books specifically by women authors or black women authors or so on. But, it works best for me if I read as per genre, which is why I was in awe of myself when I found out the number of my women author idols!

 

~~JHUMPA LAHIRI~~

I have only read 2 of Jhumpa Lahiri’s books, but I have loved them both – Unaccustomed Earth & Interpreter of Maladies. Her ability to bring out emotions in the readers is remarkable. Even the stories I do not relate to, I can imagine relating to which then make me so entirely empathetic & it’s a whole maze of new feelings to discover. Honestly, no other author writes about emotions in a story that reads simple but ends up opening new horizons.

~~KRISTIN HANNAH~~

My favourite genre is Historical Fiction & Kristin Hannah is the queen of Historical Fiction, so naturally she rules my world. The Nightingale still remains my absolute favourite novel of hers, with The Great Alone coming in to a close second. I also liked Firefly Lane even though it was a different kind of novel that the ones I read. I am currently reading ‘The Four Winds’, which is going well & I am sure there will be something big hitting me soon, leaving me bereft & I cannot wait for it! I will forever read every historical fiction novel that Kristin Hannah writes!

~~HANYA YANAGIHARA~~

Hanya Yanagihara has written two novels. I have read them both. A Little Life is the book that wrecked me emotionally & remains in my Top 5. It will always be the book that I recommend too much to too many people. The People in the Trees is a completely different story with its own infinite sets of life lessons. The kind of power over words that Hanya Yanagihara possesses is truly unmatched. She may write one bland paragraph but there will be an ocean worth of wisdom between the lines. Her writing makes me want to dream big things. It inspires me in a way that I feel my dreams are completely unachievable but also completely achievable, if that makes sense. She is my literature powerhouse & her books will always remain on the metaphorical & literal top of the bookshelf.

~~MADELINE MILLER~~

‘The Song of Achilles’ & ‘Circe’ are the two books written by Madeline Miller. I have read both of them & loved them both more than words can state. For someone who was not a fan of mythological fiction, she sure turned me around faster than I even realized what was happening. I can totally imagine following her in a forest practicing the beauty & power of witchcraft through literature. I am in awe of her intelligence, imagination & simplicity. Anyone is capable of writing these two books, but only Madeline Miller can write them in a way that will leave the reader drowning in a pool of their own tears, befuddled, in a sort of mythological heaven. The thing I loved about both the books was the after-effect they had on me. You can describe the story of both the novels in 15 sentences or less & yet the loss of words & loss of thought after finishing these books is something else.

~~TAYLOR JENKINS-REID~~

On a more fun & not-so-serious note, Taylor Jenkins-Reid is my go-to author when I want to read something casual, but not too boring. Beach reads are not for me, because the stupidity of the characters in such books only makes my blood boil. So, when I am not in a mood for anything intense, I turn to her. I have read ‘Daisy Jones And The Six’ &‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’. I absolutely enjoyed reading both these books. There is just so much content in the story which I love & so many characters none of whom are neglected or are a cliché. There’s a magical quality to her writing which made both these books a hard to put down. I haven’t read her earlier books, which are more of the romantic genre. I don’t want to either, because I have read reviews that state these two are her best. Here’s to many more in-between books that let me soar high in the sky leaving me up above the slump pit!

 

~~OTHERS~~

Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch’ is in my Top 10. I think it was the first book I read of that length. It completely convinced of reading big books. Now I like big books & I cannot lie! I also plan on reading Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ soon enough.

It goes without saying that J.K. Rowling is among my favourite authors. While I do not like her opinions on some matters, she gave me a whole wizarding world to find comfort in. So, she will always stay in here.

When it comes to modern-age poets, I have had my difficulties with all of them. I think Rupi Kaur comes close enough to be included in this list. I loved reading her first books of poems ‘The Sun and her Flowers’ but thought her next 2 books to be not as rich as the first one.

 

So, that’s all folks! I am super happy that I got write today! Happy Women’s History Month!

 

Until next month,