By V. E. Schwab
Goodreads Synopsis
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. ” (Goodreads)
My Take
Character Connection 
This beautiful story is truly a stunning character study. You travel through not only decades but through centuries with our title character and others, though their time on the page is more fleeting, leave an equally strong impression. The reader is drawn into the characters lives, thoughts, secrets, and deep emotions. While the story is certainly more fantasy than reality – you become deeply invested in each character’s life as you read.
Twisty-Turns
I’ll be honest and say this is TOTALLY outside of my usual murder-death-kill genre. I would classify it as Historical Fantasy. It’s less “world-building fantasy” and more magical realism interwoven with a character study. While there are not any thriller-level twists, there were definitely a few times that I was forced to keep reading because I just had to know how something would play out. There were more than a few times that I thought the story would veer one way and it ended heading in a different direction.
Psych-Links
Again, being outside my typical murderino genre, deep psychological disorders are not necessarily present. However, this story does delve into deep questions of immortality, freedom, and the meaningfulness of leaving a lasting legacy on the world.
Cine-ability
I would watch this today. I do think it would play out better as a series due to the time jumps and flashbacks. I would love to see the differing time period shifts, famous historical cameos, and all around beauty this story gives us both visually and emotionally. Here’s how I envision the casting:
The Merry Murderino’s Overall Rating
It’s rare that I give something out of my preferred genre the coveted 5-stars – but here it is. I picked up this book from my BOTM subscription after it was chosen as one of the Top 5 Books of 2020 by my fellow bibliophiles. After seeing several friends read and rate it very highly I knew I had to give it a try or risk serious FOMO! I loved enjoying this as a buddy read with my friend (and High School ELA teacher) Marissa. Being able to chat about characters and scenes or ask questions and make predictions while reading at the same time was super fun! If anyone wants to read a book with me – let me know! In the meantime – pick this one up and ENJOY!
Wanna read this book? Get it from Amazon right HERE
The Merry Murderino 