COMMENTARY: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020)
The following are thoughts and reactions I had while reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020) by V.E. Schwab. They do not reflect my overall post-reading opinion of the work.
⚠️ SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD ⚠️
- Chapter 3 is a backstory but it’s touching and sad. Why? In contrast… why did the lore dump in Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) make me so angry? I already observed that the lore is not plot relevant nor develops characters. But what I’m also noticing here is Addie’s viewpoint and callback to the wooden ring she leaves on the dressing room floor. There are stakes. We see the origin of the thing she’s now abandoning. And the viewpoint shows character. We get a touching father/daughter relationship, as simple as it is. The lore dump in LLL does none of this. It’s a bunch of historical facts. Lynch attempts to use it as foreshadowing for the next chapter, but as a reader, I have no context and don’t care. It’s not “surprising” when the one thin thread of lore is mentioned in the present timeline narrative later.
- this is obviously an escapist fantasy for women, the number of times Addie thrusts, shoves, or slips her hands into pockets is innumerable.
- 25% mark could the dark one be Addie’s fucked up true love?
- Wait. Hold on. What happens when Addie’s lover of the night goes to the washroom? They must go sometime during their encounter….
- 38% that’s a stand up and cheer moment. When Henry says, stop flirting with my date.
- Is a good page-turner something where by the quarter mark, you’ve defined the parameters of your story and you have a sense of where it will lead and go and now you’re just wondering how the author will do it? Once Henry was introduced, we know it’s the person who will remember Addie from the back cover copy. We can also guess they will date and fall in love and also eventually, Addie has to tell him her secret, and there will be scenes where Henry’s friends are confused because they’ve forgotten Addie. Or is this is just the “Promise of the Premise” in the fun and games section of 2A? Or maybe that’s what plot threads are… a promise/progress/payoff we’re aware of but not fully certain of. Like an amusement park ride?
- 48% the parallels between flashback and present are delightful.
- 72% oooh good fight. Adeline is invisible and Henry is offering to take care of her by paying for stuff. So simple and works so well given the magical circumstances.
- 85% of course they were lovers at one point.