My god I fucking adore this book. It was a step away from my usual vibe but I'm so glad I took that step. Schwab's writing is like nothing I've ever read before. Everyone talks about painting pictures with words and Schwab goes above and beyond and puts you in the damn book. I wish I'd read this digitally instead of renting a physical copy from the library because I'd have so many things highlighted.

The love story is so good. Learning about Addie is so interesting and every chapter about her past makes you want more and more of the world's history through her pov. Addie is complex and interesting and I loved seeing how she's experienced the world over the years.

Henry is sweet and endearing but my god his backstory is so, so depressing. His need for everything to be happening all the time always is written well enough to make you get the same jitters just from reading about it. Literally the only reason this isn't five stars for me is because Henry stressed me the hell out constantly.

I did find it a little off-putting that we spend so much time seeing Henry and Addie fall in love and rooting for them and then learning more about Addie with Luc at the same time. I understand why it was relevant to the story and gave us more information about why they interacted how they did but it ended up making me feel like Henry was kind of more of a puppet than anything. I get the whole "I set you up to find each other" but it made Henry feel so small and immature compared to both Luc and Addie, like he didn't matter as much anymore. He was a prop in a show that was only ever about Addie and Luc, written and produced by Luc. I know the point was to show that Luc set it all up to be that way, but from a fully outside perspective it felt like Henry mattered less than the other two, even thought we spent a good amount of the book with him and learning about him. As much as I like Henry, I found myself being more drawn to Luc and wanting to know more about him and his life with Addie. I might look around for fanfic about it bc i'm very curious indeed.

Anyway, all told, this book fucking slaps. I spent the last couple of chapters reading through tears. Schwab's writing style is above and beyond phenomenal and I WILL be devouring all of her books in the smallest amount of time I can manage. Borrowed this from the library but I'll definitely be getting my own copy to read a million times and annotate until there is nary an empty margin to be found.