Well now, hello first 5-star read of 2021! Yes, technically there have been two others, but they were both rereads and I already knew I was going to love them again. This book, oh this book, felt like it magically appeared at a time when I wanted it most. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue captivated me from the moment that it started. It’s true that I’m a sucker for tragic love story at the best of times, but this particular story is like a piece of art. The more that you stare at it, the more that you allow yourself to be immersed, the more you find to uncover.

Addie was a beautifully complex character, and my heart went out to her immediately. As her life unfolded on the pages, both the past and the present intermingling with one another, I was in awe of how rough, messy and fragile it truly was. A lot of times I feel like Fantasy books have a habit of making a character too black or white. When, in fact, we are all some shade of gray in between. Addie’s character embraces that wholeheartedly. She is wild, and broken, and beautiful. She is simultaneously brave and utterly heartbroken. It’s truly almost impossible not to love her, simply because she is so relatable. When she met Henry, and their two kinds of gray meshed together into something somehow so much brighter, I was completely sold. You couldn’t have pried this book out of my hands if you tried.

I sometimes have issues with books that flip back and forth between time periods, especially on audio. Since I half listened to this, and half read it, I was worried that I might fall back into that trap. There was no need to worry. Schwab makes the transitions feel completely natural as Addie’s story slowly comes to light. The pacing is perfect, in my opinion. It never felt like like too little was being shared, or that too much was happening too quickly. Even as the book approached the ending, and my heart knew that it was in for something painful, the pace felt on point. My favorite part were the small, quiet moments in this story. They never felt unnecessary, or out of place. What they did was bring the link between Addie and Henry even more into the forefront and, of course, made them even harder not to love.

If you can’t tell, I am trying extremely hard not to spoil anything because this is a story that absolutely needs to be experienced sight unseen. I knew next to nothing about what I was getting myself into before I started this, and I’m honestly so happy about that. It made every little detail, every win and every loss, that much more vivid for me. It made the character growth that much more palpable, and the heartbreak that much more devastating. With all the reading I do now, it’s hard sometimes to find books that truly feel new. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue gave me that feeling. It swept me away, and I went willingly. This was one stellar read, and my only regret is that I can’t erase my memory and read it again for the first time.