 I finished it. I cried a lot. Hi friends, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're well. And as you can probably already tell by the title of this video, in today's reading vlog, we are gonna be reading The Invisible Life of Adi LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This is like one of the most hyped books on Booktube right now. I think like one of the most hyped books that is coming out this entire year. I have had a really mixed relationship with V.E. Schwab's writing. I loved Vicious. Like it was five stars. One of my favorite books the year that I read it. And I hate adventure. I hate it so much. I mean, all I can do is be honest with my feelings. So I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this, but this is about a girl named Adi who makes a deal with a devil that she can live forever but she won't be remembered by anyone. So as soon as she leaves someone's company, they'll no longer remember her and who she is. And I think it's kind of following her along the length of her life, culminating when she meets someone who does remember her, who remembers her name. And so she's shocked because over 100 years that's never happened. Yeah, that's what I really know going into it. It's so much smaller than I thought it was gonna be. For reference, it's like the size of a paperback, but it is a hardback. So when I found out this was like 500 pages, I thought it was gonna be a massive hardback, but it's actually really diddy. Well, guess what people? I get excited about small things. So I feel like it's actually quite easy to read. And yeah, I'm gonna be reading this over the next two days. So today and tomorrow I have got to read this, which I think is fine. I'm just really excited to give this a go. Hopefully I'll love it. It's been getting like incredible, unbelievable reviews. Like everyone has been obsessed with it. And I really love this edition. I got the Waterstone special edition. So it is signed and I love the edges. They are gold and they're a little bit glittery. They're not quite as glittery as like fairy loot ones, but they are glittery. And we know how I feel about glittery edges. I think every edge should be glittery. I'm really excited to get into it. Hopefully I'm gonna love it. I've heard people say it's beautiful and haunting, which is like, we know that's everything I love, everything I'm obsessed with. So hopefully it will be successful. I'm gonna go and then I'll check in with you. Maybe when I've read the first 100 pages, maybe I'll check in like every 100 pages so that we get a good representation of what I'm thinking of it. ["The Invisible Life of Adi LaRue"] 100 pages into the Invisible Life of Adi LaRue. I have read the first 100 pages. And very conveniently, 100 pages ends on part two. So I've read part one. It's like, they knew I was coming. Like she is very special. And I really, she's special. The way that this is written, this entire first part is Adi's backstory, explaining the situation to us and kind of what leads up to her making the deal with the devil, demon, spirit, God, whatever he is. I don't really know. Going back and forth between that in like 17 something and then her in New York in 2014. And I really like actually the part set in the past when Adi was young and made the deal. I feel like we're not gonna maybe go back to that a lot now. I might be wrong, but like I feel like we're now gonna move on with the story in this timeline. But I enjoyed the kind of like historical fiction nature of the start of this. And it's definitely written very beautifully. There's been quite a lot of lines where I'm like, oh, I love how that is said. She's about to do what she's about to do. And she's about to show what the girls shoulda did. It's a book that's definitely taking its time. You can tell I think that V.E. Schwab is a really prolific writer and has written loads of books because sometimes I think when you are reading a debut, there's this feeling of rushing, perhaps a more commercial way of writing, like keeping the pace really fast and like getting into the conflict straight away. And that's not necessarily what this does. It really takes this first 100 pages to take its time with you and say everything that it wants to say with you. And like, it doesn't care what you think of that. You know what I mean? I think only a seasoned writer will have the balls to do that. I am really enjoying it. I feel like it's been putting me to sleep a bit though and like not in a bad way, but like it just feels like the kind of book you should read as you're falling asleep at night. It's got that kind of like magical, comforting, cozy quality to it. Basically the way that the people like forgetting her works is that even if they like go into another room, cross a door threshold, they forget her. All right. She left the door of this bookshop stealing a book and the guy who works there followed her out and was like, you've got to pay for that. And remembered who she was. But she's like, hang on, hang on, this can't be right. That's suspicious. That's weird. And then it's just ended there. So I think he's going to play a big part in it, but I think I need to wake up a bit. It got me feeling a bit sleepy. So I'm going to organize my book cart. I don't have a bookshelf here at this flat. So I just have like piles of books everywhere that are organized to me, but no one else knows what they mean. And I have my book cart, which is where the majority of my books are. And at the moment it's just kind of organized randomly, but I want to sort it into paperbacks and hardbacks and genre within that. And also I just want to go through all my books because I can't see them all. And so I want to go through them all and just like reacquaint myself with all of my books. So I'm going to do that. And then I will just come and read another hundred pages and then check in with you again. Let's see. Oh no, I'll read part two, because that's to page 192. So I'll read part two. Your whole day is gone. I am now just finished part two of the invisible loopy. There were points just now. I'm not going to lie to you. I was a bit bored. Like just a little bit, not a lot. Not a lot of boredom. Just a little bit. I don't know. I don't know if I love it in the way that I'm hoping I will. I love what it's doing. I love what it's setting out to do. I love like the core of the story, but like I was a little bit bored at times. I was wrong. We do, we are still following Addy in the past. Oh, sorry. I need to stop doing that to my leg because it makes you shake. Ooh. This bitch is shaking the table. The devil would reappear every year to her and now her and Henry have met. He remembers her completely and she's like freaking the fuck out. And I'm so nervous. I'm so, I'm so nervous for what's going to happen. I don't want to feel like good about this because I don't think it's going to be good. Like I don't, I don't think there's a good explanation for this. Like I don't see how the devil just only laps his concentration and had one to slip through the cracks. I don't believe that. I don't see it. I don't see it for me, but okay. Nah, I don't want to trust it at all. The writing is still beautiful. There's still so many like positives to it, but it is strange reading from Victoria Schwab, who is so often this high pace, high plot writer than it's suddenly be the opposite. And I think that's fun as a writer for her to explore those two different things. But for me, I'm like, oh, but I knew that coming into it. I don't know. It's like a four star. Like I'm not hating it. I just wanted this to be a five star from what people were saying. I'm hoping I'm going to cry a lot. My eyes are really bad. I promise I'm not high. I promise I'm not high. Anyway, I am going to go read some more tonight. It is 20 to 10, so I want to get quite early nights. I don't want to read too much more, but I'm going to try and read a little bit more. It's actually not morning. It's one o'clock. I am now 306 pages into the book and I am falling more and more in love with it as time goes on. I think that I'm starting to get it. I'm starting to become more and more connected to the story and to Addy. And I love Henry. I love Henry so much. Henry's the one who remembers her and we've just learned why he's able to remember her and learn more about his backstory. And I love him. He wants to marry me. I love Henry so much. I also love both the main characters and this abye. And I feel like that representation is done really well and like in a really natural way. It's a beautiful story. It's really lovely. And I'm just, I'm so intrigued as to where it's going to go because we're going to get into like kind of the ending and there's not been much conflict necessarily yet. Like in terms of a traditional plot, I mean it doesn't really have a traditional plot. So I'm just intrigued as to where it's going to go now. The thing that I was terrified last night was going to happen. I don't think it's going to happen. Like I think we're fine in that regard. I really love one of Henry's friends. I think that's a really interesting dynamic. And like every time she meets someone that you know is going to forget her every time more and more you're hoping, please don't forget her. You know, obviously Henry hasn't but in all the other aspects all the other people that meet her you're like, please don't. And I really love seeing how she's influenced like art and music and how she's chosen to live and like find ways to create things that put her mark in the world even when she can't necessarily draw something, you know? Cause it disappears straight away. So yeah, just the way that she's coped and managed to live, I love. So I am really enjoying it. I feel like it's the middle section. What have I got to say other than I'm enjoying it? You know what I mean? Am I leaving my bed today? No. Okay. I'm now on page 400 and to be honest with you, I don't feel any type of way. I'm enjoying it. I feel like for me, the thing I'm enjoying most is the writing, like the prose, how beautiful the writing is, but I don't feel particularly connected to Addy, like emotionally. She feels very distant, which is very strange to say for like a character we have spent the whole book with learning about her and everything she's been through without a real plot. So like, I know I've seen everyone crying at the end and like I always cry. So I probably will, but I don't feel that emotionally connected to her. Honey, you've got a big storm coming. I don't know why. Back when I read, I don't want to compare her books, but like, but I'm going to. But back when I read Vicious, I would say I was more emotionally connected to like Victor, for example, than I am to Addy. Addy almost feels more like a concept than a person. But I know that's kind of the point because she says like, I'm an idea. I'm not, I can't be the story. I'm an idea. I just don't feel connected to her. Like I don't, I don't know. I don't know. And I was going to say like, I don't know who she is, but I do. I know exactly who she is and like what her traits are, but I'm reading it more for the writing. Like how sometimes I'll come across a line and be like, oh my God, that's beautiful. I find Henry's story more emotive. Henry's in this way more than I thought he would be. He's like a really main major character and we spent a good section of the chunk I just read learning about his backstory and who he is. And that was interesting. And I wish the devil was a bit more developed because we really only have Addy and Henry. It's like our main, main characters. I don't know. He just seems a bit like caricature, like a bit pantomime-y to me. But I am really enjoying it. Like as a four star, but I just don't love it as much as I think everyone else does but as much as I was hoping to. It's like five o'clock now. And at eight, I'm gonna be on Kayla from Books and Lala. I'm gonna be on her channel talking about Catherine House. Oh, ow, I just hit myself in the nostril with the bell. Oh dear, that's not good. I feel the need to say the F word now. It really got in there. It really got in there. Yeah, we're gonna be talking about Catherine House, which I have got a vlog coming up and me reading this next weekend, but I've already read it. But I really wanna watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tonight. So I'm aiming to finish this in time to do that, but I don't know if I'm gonna be able to. So, but I really wanna watch Buffy because I wanna finish season three of Buffy. Can Tom hear me? I don't think so. I wanna finish season three of Buffy before I start The Haunting of Bly Manor, which came out like yesterday or the day before, which is a sequel or companion series to The Haunting of Hill House, which is I loved, but I wanna finish the season of Buffy that I'm on first. So I really wanna watch Buffy tonight. I really wanna, in terms of getting into his head. I have the mind of a mastermind. What's that? I don't know, but. Yeah, I'm gonna go do some of my thoughts about Catherine House, have dinner, read a bit more of this, do the live, and then I'll come back in and check in with you at the end. Okay, bye. I finished it, but I cried a lot. The ending was the best part of this book. The ending was like so good, so good. The ending was so good, but then I'm really sad. I just wanna know what happens. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna talk to you in the morning when I can think more clearly because like right now this ain't working. Final thoughts on the invisible life of Addie LaRue. I love debt. I love debt a lot. That's right. I think it is just this beautiful, slow story. And like the ending was incredible. The ending was a five star ending, but there were points in the book where I was like, this is maybe a 3.75, so it's, I'm giving it like a solid four. I wouldn't say that Addie is the character that I am most attached to by the end, like at all. I really wouldn't say that. I don't wanna say more than that because I don't wanna spoil anything, but like Addie wasn't the person that I was most attached to. I have something to say, but it's a slight spoiler. So I'll put spoiler in big letters on the screen so you can like skip forward. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry in the relationship between Addie and Henry, but I also think that's kind of the point. They just seemed like kind of best friends to me rather than romantic partners, but I suppose they loved each other for what they gave each other. So I understand that, but the romance itself, it didn't ever really feel like a romance to me. It felt like a companionship, but is that the point? Okay, spoiler's done. I think it's the kind of book that when you wanna be a writer, you read and you're like, oh my God, this is genius. The craft and like the expertise that is in this book as a writer is amazing. It took me a while to realize that, that you wanted to be me. I just kind of wish that it packed a bit more of a punch earlier on, a bit more of a roller coaster with ebbs and flows throughout, rather than just how I ended. Because the ending was incredible, but I keep doing that and I shake you every time I do it. I'm so sorry. I feel like the ending was incredible, but I wish there had been stuff that for me packed that emotional punch throughout, not just at the end. I cried so much. It's been a long time since I cried like that. I cried for like the whole last 50 pages maybe. I really, really loved it. So I'd really recommend picking this up if you haven't already. I think it's gonna be a book a lot of people love this year. Four stars, really enjoyed it. I am a bit disappointed it wasn't a five star. I think when a book is so anticipated and popular, like a lot of people talking about it, you want it to be that five star, but it wasn't quite there for me. But a four star is still a brilliant rating. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you had fun and yeah, I'll see you in another one very soon. Bye.