BuzzFeed has picked V.E. Schwab’s fantasy novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue as the latest selection for its book club.
Schwab’s novel, published by Macmillan imprint Tor Books, follows an 18th-century French woman who surrenders her soul to the devil so she’ll be able to live forever. Unfortunately, the deal comes at a horrible cost: For the remainder of her life, she’ll be forgotten instantly by every person she meets.
In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “rich and satisfying and strange and impeccably crafted” and “a darkly romantic and suspenseful tale by a writer at the top of her game.”
Other critics have largely agreed. Ellen Morton of the Washington Post called the novel “a tour de force,” while a reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote, “This ambitious and hopeful work is a knockout.”
In an interview with BookPage, Schwab said her novel is “about defiant joy, it’s about a stubborn hope.”
“It’s about being willing to live through hard times because of the promise of good ones,” she said. “I think there’s a huge current of loneliness and fear running through things right now. When I was in a really, really dark place in my life, the smallest things kept me going.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
