edit: i just want to reiterate, i do like and enjoy this book. however, i also can find issue within it. i'm not calling the book problematic, i'm just highlighting some aspects that i believe the book failed on. if you don't want to hear that then you don't have to read this review.i am also not calling this book racist, or "making it about race", as people who typically argue against these kinds of things would say, nor am i asking this book to be about Black people. i am simply suggesting tha...

Welcome back students. I have been reassigned to teach Writing 102: So many words, so little plot. After my success with my first course, I am sure you are all aware it is expected that you have read this novel before attending my class in order to avoid spoilers. We will be delving into three main topics: monotony, pretension, and shallowness. Fill up your favorite mug with your choice of caffeinated beverage; I promise my review will be more entertaining than this dull novel. We also have a gu...

BR with the lovely MartaI know how many people love V.E. Schwab to death, and I know how many people were completely blown away by The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but I just do not get it. This was a nightmare.Plot-wise, this story could have been so thrilling. The plot begins when Addie LaRue, our protagonist, makes a deal with the devil in order to get out of an arranged marriage, and finally live the adventurous life she has always dreamed of living. But there is a catch. Not only does she...

To be honest, this felt a bit … well… twee. “[…] It is sad, of course, to forget.But it is a lonely thing, to be forgotten.To remember when no one else does.” Now, I was actually captivated by the beginning. Adeline LaRue makes an ill-considered Faustian bargain in 1714 with a sinisterly handsome devil/darkness god - trading her soul for the life of freedom and immortality, with a caveat that hits her like a ton of bricks rather quickly - the price of freedom is forgettability. Everyone forget...

When a book traps your soul from beginning to end and beyond, keeping hold of a string to your heart even as you leave it behind, you know it deserves all the constellations in the night sky.Credit: Nicole What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind? They say if you look through a wooden ring on the 29th night of July, just after dark, you’d see a wraith wandering valleys and alleys—singing, sighing, seeking. And if you lean in, shell of an ear pressed to the ring, you would hear the ...

ARC provided by Tor in exchange for an honest review. "Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books." This is a book about a girl, a boy, a devil, and the stories that get told and repeated and remembered. This is a tale of power dynamics and imbalances and what humans are willing to do to not feel trapped and alone. This is all about a young girl who lives her life for herself, who lives her life in spite of the odds, w...

V.E. SCHWAB REALLY DID THAT. I CANNOT STOP CRYING.Note: To read my review in english, scroll down. “Do you think a life has any value if one doesn’t leave some mark upon the world?”---ESPAÑOL:Empiezo esta reseña sin saber qué decir exactamente. Este es uno de esos libros que sé que se van a quedar en mi mente y en mi corazón. Siempre he dicho que los libros de V.E. Schwab me fascinan, pero este, por mucho, es mi favorito. Y créanme que entré a él con altas expectativas, y pues... las superó.Este...

This time, I’m truly at a loss for words. This masterpiece has left me speechless—utterly awed, adored, and deeply moved. I may even announce it as one of the top ten best books of the year.I know we’re only in the fourth month, and during quarantine, if I continue reading 10 to 14 books weekly, I could finish around 500 more books. But when you know, you know—this book is like unconditional love at first sight.It tells the unique story of a village girl who fiercely demands her independence, fr...

Oh, to be a French girl who knelt in the woods, on the eve of a wedding she did not want, and prayed for freedom to a god—or perhaps a devil—who made her a deal that'll grow to be like a thorn in her, a goad: she will live forever, but she will be forgotten by everyone she meets, always slipping out of reach. An eternity of flitting from one place to another, never feeling quite at home anywhere, and from one person to another, leaving behind only the phantom feel of her touch, and the faint mem...

1.5 (and please please don't look at me like that okay. I know.)(Also, mild spoilers ahead.)(Also, it's been brought to my attention that in the review below I got just a tiny bit technical at times. Sorry about that. I promise I'm not in the least trying to come off as a conceited know-it-all.)The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a manifesto of the dangers of pouring too much of yourself in your artistic creations. Does that mean that art must be impersonal? I'm too much of a relativist to make...