i HATED the invisible life of addie larue by the time i finished it. i genuinely don't think i've ever encountered an author so uninterested in their own premise. oh we're going to get to see a woman change and evolve through centuries? NO. oh we're going to get an interesting look at certain periods of time? NO. oh we're going to get some interesting insight into how the arts are made? NO. oh we're going to get some interesting views into how someone might deal with being immortal? NO. oh we're going to get a scrumptious little romance where she fucks the devil? you guessed it...NO. for 500+ pages?? not a scrap of research done (addie says she speaks swiss) not a thought to how someone from the 1700s might behave, not a thought to how the arts might evolve over the centuries (sorry i LAUGHED when another character presents tracking addie through art as a genuine postgrad thesis fuck offfffff oh my god). the whole thing read like a ya fantasy romance where the author doesn't gaf because they think they're pandering to the lowest common denominator but ☝️ with all the romance taken out. 500 pages and all she really did was walk and lounge in a bed. christ
I was sooo compelled by the premise and then she did ????????? nothing???? with it???? and it was a book I wanted to like SO bad bc a very good friend loves it. But VE Schwab imo suffers from that thing many authors who get popular from the start do, where they just aren't interested in honing their craft and the output suffers from it.
lowkey I believe that it was started a decade before it was published bc I can see an inexperienced author writing a lot of it actually.
