This book was equal parts intriguing and annoying. Initially I was truly hooked to the pages. The language is lucid and as the story starRating: 3.5/5
This book was equal parts intriguing and annoying. Initially I was truly hooked to the pages. The language is lucid and as the story starts unfolding it holds one's interest well enough to keep turning the pages. But then towards the middle of the book, it becomes way too repetitive. The same storyline (more or less) gets repeated with different characters surrounding the protagonist. The story, in that sense, is quite like Evelyn Hugo herself. There are aspects of the character you'll love and there are some that you'll despise but you'll likely respect the honesty with which she reveals her story. ...more
Synopsis: "Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put their feet. But if you onRating: 4.5/5
Synopsis: "Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put their feet. But if you only walk in other people's steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark."
A girl is born in a little French village at the end of the seventeenth century. As much as she likes the familiar comfort of the village, she also dreams of achieving so much more in her life - dreams of traveling, of exploring new places, she dreams of freedom.
"It is a gap between stones, this village, just wide enough for things to get lost. The kind of place where time slips and blurs, where a month, a year, a life can go missing. Where everyone is born and buried in the same ten-meter plot."
So defying what life had in store for her, she runs away on the day of her wedding and strikes a deal with the good old Darkness in the woods, only she mistook him to be something else - an old God, if there's any difference between the two that is. The deal is simple, Adeline LaRue ends up trading her soul for having as much time as she likes - to live, freely. But the semantics are tricky, so the Darkness plays his twists and though Addie goes on to live a life for centuries, no one she ever meets can remember her after she disappears from their sight.
"I am stronger than your god and older than devil. I am the darkness between stars, and the roots beneath the earth. I am promise, and potential, and when it comes to playing games, I divine the rules, I set the pieces, and I choose when to play."
So begins the adventures of the invisible life of Addie LaRue. A life untethered from any form of bonding, a life of exploring new places, new people, new things and a life of joy and sufferings, of being forgotten and yet remembering it all.
"What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind? When she dies it will be as though she never lived."
But when you live for centuries, you learn to adjust to the curse, so Addie learns. She cannot create anything herself, but she plants ideas in the heads of artists she meets - she becomes a muse, an inspiration. She exists not in the memories of people but in pieces of art they create.
“What she needs are stories. Stories are a way to preserve one's self. To be remembered. And to forget. Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books. Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.�
Until three centuries later, she finds a boy, Henry Strauss, who remembers her. What follows is a story of love (or something resembling it), of longing, of passion and of winning a fight against time, against the darkness itself.
"The vexing thing about time", he says, "is that it is never enough. Perhaps a decade too short, perhaps a moment. But a life always ends too soon."
Thoughts: This book is a wonderful piece of art. That's the easiest way to sum it up. The premise, the words, the execution - everything blends to create something extraordinary and nearly perfect. This is the first V. E. Schwab book that I read and what a treat it has been! I truly savoured every bit of the story, of her prose. The characters are woven with so many layers. They are real, raw and very relatable. The way Schwab gradually builds and plays with the idea and character of Darkness is simply amazing. The only reason for deducting that half star from the rating is that towards the end, things started to seem a bit repetitive. The climax certainly made up for it but personally I'd have preferred for it to be a little more precise. I do recommend this book to every reader, especially those who enjoy fantasy. And I cannot wait to explore more of Schwab's works!
"A story is an idea, wild as a seed, springing up wherever it is planted."...more
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