← back to books
book details / updated June 22, 2026

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

by V. E. Schwab

more Fantasy & Romantasy →

Addie LaRue's central conceit (immortality at the cost of being forgotten by everyone she meets) gives Schwab room to wander centuries and art history while keeping a real emotional throughline. It's a slower, more melancholic read than the "fantasy adventure" shelving suggests.

Cover of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab.

why track this in moth

The book jumps between centuries nonlinearly; Moth's notes are useful for keeping track of which era you're in and what Addie has and hasn't told Henry yet.

Book facts

Genre
Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Literary
Publisher
Tom Doherty Associates
Published
October 6, 2020
Pages
448
Reading time
8 hr 54 min · ~21 nights at 25 min/day in Moth
ISBN
9780765387561
Language
en

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER

Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine #1 Library Reads Pick, October 2020 #1 Indie Next Pick, October 2020 BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST, Book of The Month Club

A “Best Of” Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * Bustle * PopSugar * BuzzFeed * Barnes & Noble * Kirkus Reviews * Lambda Literary * Nerdette * The Nerd Daily * Polygon * Library Reads * io9 * Smart Bitches Trashy Books * LiteraryHub * Medium * BookBub * The Mary Sue * Chicago Tribune * NY Daily News * SyFy Wire * Powells.com * Bookish * Book Riot * Library Reads Voter Favorite *

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Also by V. E. Schwab

Shades of Magic A Darker Shade of Magic A Gathering of Shadows A Conjuring of Light

Villains Vicious Vengeful

From the blog