Synopsis (From Goodreads)
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
My Review
4 out of 5 stars
In an act of desperation, Addie LaRue makes a deal with a devil to live forever but in exchange no one will ever remember her. She then learns the loneliness that is a life where everyone forgets you. It’s not until 300 years later that she does meet someone who actually remembers her, a 28 year old man named Henry.
This is a very slow-paced novel. Ms. Schwab takes her time to fully introduce Addie so you can understand her character– why Addie makes a deal in the first place. She then takes her time to allow you to feel what Addie feels– the unrelenting loneliness and what it means to live for 300 years. I found myself overtime emphasizing Addie’s burden, and was happy when she finally meets Henry. I couldn’t help but ship them together in hopes of a sweet romance with a happy ending. Then there is the mystery of why Henry can remember her– why does a man 300 years from Addie’s original life have this ability? Is it fate that they met? The technique that Ms. Schwab uses to slowly reveal all the mysteries is by alternating chapters between the past to present, which in this case is the year 2014. I’ve always wanted a good story involving both past and present point-of-views to show how a past from long ago affects the present, and the order of everything told here helped me understand Addie’s motivations, feelings, and responses. I really appreciated the execution.
I believe I heard this novel pitched as a hate to love romance between a human and a devil. I would like to clarify that it is much more complex than that. The devil character himself is never necessarily referred to as such, and he is a very dark character that you’ll meet through Addie’s past. He is dangerous and not to be taken lightly.
I’m very happy that I read this book. I’ve read a few of Ms. Schwab’s other novels and while the pitch behind them have been amazing, the execution has been a little flat for me personally. Ms. Schwab has really grown as a writer with this one however, and I will definitely continue to pick up her books.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
See this review on Goodreads.
Mad Scibrarian 