His heart has a draft. It lets in light. It lets in storms. It lets in everything.
― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Ever feel like running away from your life and forming an everlasting pact with a hot demon you meet in the woods on the day of your wedding? Addie didn’t feel like it either but that’s what happened. It’s 1729 in rural France. Addie is twenty-three, single, a dreamer, an artist, and has zero interest in succumbing to the expected roles of wife and mother and good Christian woman. She’d rather travel to the big city with her father, continue working on her sketches, and hang out with Adele, the wise, old, witchy woman who lives alone, unmarried (gasp!), and tells Addie about the old gods. Addie is basically a loser in the eyes of her mother and the village, so it is decided that she will wed a recent widower with four small children. Addie pleads with her father to intervene, but he goes along with her mother’s wishes. On the way to church, Addie runs into the woods and prays for someone, or something, to save her.
A demon hears her and comes to grant her wish: she can have freedom in exchange for her soul. She can relinquish her soul at any time just by calling to him. Within hours of making the pact, Addie learns that her wish for freedom is not at all what she had in mind. However, she is determined to find a way to survive within the parameters of her curse. It isn’t until hundreds of years later (!!!) that Addie meets someone else who can see past her curse.
The book flips back and forth between Addie’s present (2014 NYC) and her past. Most of her past focuses on the anniversary of her curse when she is visited by the demon, which she has named Luc. He is both her tormentor and also the only person who knows who she is. While she hates him for what he did to her, she craves his attention as he is the only one who knows the real her.
Yes, it is messed up. But it is also damn compelling.
It reminds me of the show Russian Doll in that the protagonist knows what’s really going on but no one else does.
The real star of the story is the curse itself. As soon as Addie thinks she knows how to get around it, the curse or Luc sets her back again.
This was a fun read. Even though it dragged in some places, I was invested enough to ignore the bits of history tossed in for the sake of deepening Addie’s story.