Our October CC Book Club Selection is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This novel tells the story of a young woman who makes a Faustian bargain: She will receive the gift of immortality, but will be forgotten by everyone she ever meets. Addie’s adventures span hundreds of years, across continents, as she moves through history seeking a way to make her mark on the world.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was on the New York Times best seller list for 37 consecutive weeks, and was nominated for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
“Schwab’s writing is warm and intense, and the passages set in the past often make you feel as if you’re reading by candlelight…The book is an elegant comment on the erasure of women from recorded history, but not a pointed one; you never feel that Addie LaRue is a metaphor. She is a woman fighting literally to be seen while bearing witness to her own life, and I rooted for her throughout.”―New York Times Book Review
“One of the most propulsive, compulsive and captivating novels in recent memory.”―Washington Post
I listened to about half of it awhile ago but it’s so long that it keeps getting returned and then I have to put it on hold again so I finally gave up. I’ll try to get hold of it again - I’d be interested in the discussion because while I overall liked it obviously not enough to finish it and I’m not sure how much there is to discuss beyond some pretty obvious topics about women and Faustian bargains to be freed from societal expectations (though that could be interesting!)
We only have discussions every other month! That gives people time to do their own thing in the interim.
February-April-June-August-October-December
February is always a classic, often (but not always) with a tad of romance – We’ve done Pride and Prejudice, Far from the Madding Crowd, Middlemarch, Persuasion, etc.