The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
A little backstory...Back in June, a friend of mine asked me to have his daughter write me a book report. She'd not turned in some assignments and even though she passed, he wanted her to show she could do the work. So, I pulled a dozen or so books together and took to her. While we were talking about books, she told me this was the only book she sort of read in her English class. She was enthusiastic when she talked about it, so I told her I'd read it because she liked it so much.
I am not as enthusiastic about it.
When I was told about this book, I was told the teacher paired it with The Odyssey, so I was looking for it to be a modern retelling of that, or at least related to it. The only connection this book has to the epic poem is that Addie reads it at several points in her life.
This, as it turns out, is a modern retelling of Goethe's Faust or Marlow's Doctor Faustus.
Addie is a young woman in France at the beginning of the book, and on the day that she is supposed to be married (against her will), she sells her soul to Luc. Part of her sentence is that she is always forgotten. She can't say or write her name either. This book encompasses three hundred years, and all of Addie's lovers during that time. The ending disappointed me.
I did not expect this to be as tedious as it was. I only actually read a hundred pages or so. The rest I listened to the audiobook. If I hadn't, I probably would've abandoned this book. In truth, I really only liked the chapters when she was with Henry, and then the author went and fucked that up.
I am not sure I could in good faith recommend this.
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