The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

I love a book that defies genres, and this one is really hard to pin down. At its heart is a story about someone who makes a decision in the heat of a moment that will change the course of the rest of their life. But there is a lot more going on that gives the story multiple facets, view points, timelines and makes it hard to define.

The story revolves around Addie, as the name of the book suggests, who is living in rural France in the 17 hundreds. She feels restricted and constrained by the life that has been mapped out for her and the size of the tiny village where she lives with her mother and father. At the age of 23 it is decided that Addie must marry a widow from the village and in her desperation to escape her fate she makes a deal with someone (or perhaps something) who she should perhaps have been more careful about making a deal with.

The repercussions of this desperate act reverberate through the centuries as Addie and her nemesis toy and battle with each other through some of the major events in history and across two different continents.

Eventually Addie meets a boy who is different from everyone else, who sees her in a way that no one has done since her deal was struck. At this point the story becomes more about love and loss and the value of quality time over the quantity of time, always with the shadow of ‘the darkness’ hanging over them.

It’s a really interesting and enjoyable book. It’s a little it ponderous and slow in the middle but not in a way that is distracting or that dilutes the story. Another strong recommendation from me!