V. E. Schwab - Reviews

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

V. E. Schwab
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Creative Power, Curses, Diversity, Girl Power, Religious Themes, Thieves, Urban Tales
***+

Description

Since her earliest memories, Adeline LaRue had looked toward the edge of town and wondered what lay beyond. Her first trip to the walled city of Le Mans with her woodcarver father only whets her appetite for new sights and sounds and wonders... but a French country girl in the 1700's can't expect that kind of life, only a husband and children and a small plot in the village cemetery when she's worn down to nothing. Neither the old gods, to whom local eccentric Estele still prays, or the new God in His stone church can help her - until, fleeing a wedding she does not want, Addie encounters a figure of darkness and deceit who offers her the freedom she wants, at a price she does not understand until it is too late.
For three hundred years, Addie has wandered the world as a living ghost. Her bargain grants her eternal life and youth and a crystal-sharp memory to retain it all, yet erases every memory of her in the world, every mark she tries to make. The closing of a door or the passage of sleep wipes her from minds as if she'd never been. She cannot even say her name or tell her story without her tongue betraying her. And all the while, the dark god whom she calls Luc teases her, taunts her, threatens her to surrender her soul to him at last. So she clings to what beauties and wonders she can, finding small cracks in the walls of her curse. Then, in a dusty used book shop in New York City in 2014, she meets Henry - the first person who actually remembers her from one day to the next. Perhaps she has finally found a way out of her ill-advised bargain... or perhaps Henry's curse, like Luc's deviousness, is greater than she imagined...

Review

I went into this with high hopes and good recommendations. Early on, those were well met. Addie is a determined, if impulsive, young woman, born in the wrong time (or at least the wrong social class) to follow the path she craves, willing to take any chance to escape a life that will crush her to nothing... even though she was well warned not to pray to the gods that answer after dark. Luc is an inhuman creature, somewhere between a god and a devil, who finds himself oddly fascinated by his latest catch. Henry is a man who was cursed, in some way, from birth, a boy who feels so much he can barely function without being overwhelmed. As Addie and Henry develop a relationship that seems to defy both of their curses, flashbacks reveal her duels with Luc... duels that, naturally, she tends to lose, save her stubborn determination not to surrender when he calls. Early on, it's an interesting examination of two wounded souls (three, perhaps, if you count Luc; his obsession with Addie is a weakness he does not want to admit), delving into the world of art and how ideas can thrive in various media even when memory is unreliable, set against the backdrop of history.
At some point, though, it settles into a circular pattern of brooding, hurt, and angsty people being broody and hurt and angsty, going through the same motions of the same hurts again and again and again in their lives, punctuated by the odd trip to an underground music club or experimental art exhibit or obscure theatrical performance. Around and around and around again, then back around, and for all that it was decently written, it wasn't progressing the plot, or even deepening the characters, because it was showing me things I already knew, if in a very slightly altered setting, at each pass. Even the best music grows monotonous when it refuses to end. By the time it finally came to the climax, I was more exhausted than truly invested, and the wrap-up... without spoilers, I can't go into specifics, but it felt like it cheapened one character and my investment in them. Possibly that was a result of how I'd grown weary of the seemingly-endless circling and prodding of the same wounds. Or possibly The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue just plain wears out its welcome well before it ends. Overall, it's a decent book, but I found myself thinking I'd have enjoyed it more had there been a little less of it.

A Darker Shade of Magic

The Shades of Magic series, Book 1
V. E. Schwab
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Alternate Earths, Magic Workers, Portal Adventures, Thieves
****

Description

In four worlds, four Londons once stood side by side, accessed through the magic that all shared... but things changed with the fall of Black London, consumed by its own hungry powers. Now the ways between worlds are closed to all but the Antari, blood magicians marked by one pure black eye, of whom only two remain: Holland of White London, and Kell of Red London. (Grey London, in a grey world of soot and machines, knows so little magic its people think the term a lie.) To keep the evil of Black London from spreading, it was declared that nothing may cross between save letters between the royal houses. But Kell has managed to keep a small side business in the three Londons by smuggling trinkets across the borders, a kernel of rebellion against the chains of duty. He never handled anything truly dangerous - until he came into possession of the black stone, a forbidden relic of terrible strength, on a visit to the dangerously power-hungry rulers of White London. He flees with it to Grey London, and into the path of a most determined young woman.
Lila may be a simple street thief and pickpocket, but someday she will be a pirate queen and sail the world. When her nimble fingers lifted the rock from the strange man's pocket, she was disappointed in her take - but soon she learns more than she ever wanted to know about the other Londons, and about the stone's clever, dark powers, and about the man whom she robbed and to whom she soon owes her life. She could have walked away, probably should have walked away, but Lila isn't about to turn her back on the greatest adventure in her life... nor can she turn her back on magic, now that she knows its scent and strength and undeniable existence.
Their alliance was one of reluctant necessity, but it's going to take both Lila and Kell to deal with the trouble unleashed by the black stone, troubles that may see all three Londons go the way of their lost sister city.

Review

I admit that this one took a while to grow on me. The premise is intriguing from the outset, of course - not just two parallel worlds, but four, each with their own charms and dangers - but Kell starts out a bit flat and broody, as does his counterpart Holland. (With Kell's broody nature and the way his hair was described as falling over his eye, part of my mind kept envisioning him as an anime character, an impression that took some time to shake and admittedly never quite vanished.) The people he interacted with, mostly royalty, seemed fairly simple as well, and the cruelty of the siblings in charge of White London bordered on caricatured. As for Lila, she's hardly warm and cuddly herself, and her first interactions with magic aren't necessarily intelligent given her street-honed wits. Eventually, though, I managed to immerse in the tale as the pace picked up. It's a violent and dark story with a high (and somewhat gruesome) body count, fairly fast-paced once it gets its feet under itself, ratcheting to a tense and bloody climax. (There is a noted tendency for characters to be repeatedly beaten, stabbed, thrown, and generally punished to borderline ridiculous extremes, including massive blood loss, without them actually collapsing longer than the paragraph break... but, then, there is just a whiff of old-school pulp action tale underlying the plot, and of course with magic - blood magic in particular - one can't get too hung up on the physical limits of the human body, I suppose. Still, I was almost chuckling now and again toward the end as the characters racked up concussion upon contusion.) Though the story arc wraps up in one volume, threads are left dangling for future adventures... adventures I might consider following if I found the sequels at the right price.