“There are nights when she cannot sleep, moments when she lies awake and dreams of dying. But then she wakes, and sees the pink and orange dawn against the clouds, or hears the lament of a lone fiddle, the music and the melody, and remembers there is such beauty in the world. And she does not want to miss it—any of it.”
“Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put their feet. But if you only walk in other people’s steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark.”
“Books are wonderful, portable, lasting, but sitting there, in the darkened theater, the wide screen filling her vision, the world falls away, and for a few short hours she is someone else, plunged into romance and intrigue and comedy and adventure.”
“Ah,” says the darkness, reading her silence. “You do not know.” Again, the green eyes shift, darken. “You ask for time without limit. You want freedom without rule. You want to be untethered. You want to live exactly as you please.”
“What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind? She has learned to step between the thorny weeds, but there are some cuts that cannot be avoided––a memory, a photograph, a name.”
New illustration based on a scene from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It came to my attention by one of my lovely Patreon members that there’s not much fanart of a joyous Addie, so I obliged!
SPOILERS for Addie LaRue below:
This scene was probably the most joyous scene in the book for Addie. As an artist, imagining having to live 300+ years and watch any mark you make disappear I felt was the worst part of Addie’s curse. The moment Henry made it possible for her to paint again, especially her name, and tip-toe around rule of the curse was elating and so so satisfying. Literal Letters of Marque.
“And Adeline knows, then, that she has made a mistake.”
Happy Luc-pays-a-visit Day!
307 years ago today, Addie LaRue made a fateful deal with a devil, cursed to walk the earth as an immortal and immediately forgotten by anyone with whom she interacts. Here to keep her fresh in our minds.
““I am stronger than your god and older than your devil. I am the darkness between stars, and the roots beneath the earth. I am promise, and potential, and when it comes to playing games, I divine the rules, I set the pieces, and I choose when to play.””
booksreadin2021: the invisible life of addie larue by v.e. schwab
There are days when she mourns the prospect of another year, another decade, another century. There are nights when she cannot sleep, moments when she lies awake and dreams of dying. But then she wakes, and sees the pink and orange dawn against the clouds, or hears the lament of a lone fiddle, the music and the melody, and remembers there is such beauty in the world. And she does not want to miss it—any of it.
V.E Schwab writes such dynamic and complex characters that are so unforgettable. Like they have so much range and spice to them,, they’re just *chef’s kiss*
I often find myself thinking about the gay little family in Vicious and the nerdy little romantics in Addie Larue and the bisexual Slytherpuffs in Shades of Magic. I wish I could give Kell, Lila, Addie, Henry, Victor, Syd, Mitch, Eli and Rhy a little forehead kiss and protect them.
It is the seam between winter and spring—though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stitches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens. You don’t know what you’ll find, until you step outside.
There’s a line in “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” that says:
“Never pray to the gods that answer after dark”
And I don’t know how to tell you, but right now I need those exact gods… So if any god is kind enough to answer to me after 12am that would be perfect.
Like… At this point I’ll bargain my soul, idc.
Either someone DID NOT learn anything from Addie Larue and want to try to live 300 years out of pettyness, or is trying to escape an awkward social situation by gaining the ability to be forgotten in a blink of an eye…
I stan whichever option it is. Go get a dark god as a booty call either way!
It has been such a long time since I read a book and mourn each turn of pages that brought me closer to the end. I feel like I counted the chapters, then the pages, the same way Henry did with the days and hours.
Thank you so much @darkles–sparkles for making me discover this book!
I’m absolutely excited to finally show this illustration inspired by The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, commissioned by V.E. Schwab as a bonus print with every ticket purchase for her upcoming virtual tour in October 2020! I usually take the time to deep dive into these pieces; to explain the symbolisms and inspirations and hidden meanings - but I approached this illustration as how one would approach cutting a movie trailer. To tease your curiosity with its emotions and capture your attention with its mystery, and hope that as you read it, the story behind this illustration begins to unfold with the book.
⭐⭐
I hope everyone reading it for the first time can really take the time to absorb it - it’s such a heavy-hearted, slow-burning, and wonderfully atmospheric book. Since I did not have an audiobook version (which I’m STOKED to re-experience when its released), I could only read a little bit at a time on my daily dog walks. But it gave me the time to sink into each segment, and feel a similar stretch of time as Addie was experiencing through her 300 years.
⭐⭐⭐
Thank you so much, once again, to V.E Schwab and Tor Books for this wonderful opportunity! I’m excited for it to finally be released to you all, and super stoked to have been one of the many artists in these campaign events who contributed what I would consider a ‘review’ with our artwork. It’s something I’ve always thought would be improbable to review an ARC through art in lieu of written reviews.
