Is there an audiobook of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue?

Yes. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Julia Whelan.

How long is the The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue audiobook?

The The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue audiobook runs 17 hr 31 min.

Is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue on Kindle Unlimited?

Yes. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 13, 2026.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab book cover for the Book of the Day fantasy book review

Our score

4.4/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDOctober 2020

Genres

Fiction Fantasy Historical Fiction

Themes

Memory and what it means to be forgottenArt as a way of leaving a mark without creditImmortality as isolation rather than escapeBargains and the fine print of getting what you wish forBeing truly seen by another person

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Name: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Price: 12.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: V. E. Schwab

V. E. Schwab

V. E. Schwab's fantasy novel imagines a curse that grants immortality at the price of being instantly forgotten by everyone she meets, and turns that single rule into a three-hundred-year meditation on memory, art, and being seen.

The Review

Our take

Here's the deal Addie LaRue makes in a moment of panic on her wedding night in 1714: she gets to live forever, and in exchange, the world erases her from its memory the second she's out of sight. Lovers forget her face by morning. Friends forget her name mid-sentence. She can't sign her work, can't leave a paper trail, can't even scratch her initials into a tree without the bark healing itself shut behind her. That's the whole engine of the book, and Schwab is ruthless about running it all the way out. Every scene asks the same question in a new key: what does a life look like when nothing you do sticks?

The answer, it turns out, is that Addie gets very good at leaving a different kind of mark. She can't be remembered, but she can be an idea. Painters who forget the woman in front of them still paint her face for decades without knowing why. Musicians hum a melody she once sang and can't say where it came from. Schwab loves this move, quietly seeding Addie's fingerprints across three centuries of art and culture without ever letting her collect the credit, and it turns the curse into something closer to a strange kind of authorship. You don't remember the artist. You remember what she left in you.

The devil in this arrangement, a character Addie nicknames Luc, is the book's best invention. He shows up again and again across the centuries, half tempter and half the only creature on Earth who actually remembers her, which makes him simultaneously her tormentor and her one real relationship. Their scenes together crackle with a dangerous, centuries-old familiarity, the kind you only get between two people who have run out of new things to hide from each other. When the plot finally gives Addie someone else who can remember her, a bookstore clerk named Henry, the book pivots from a study in loneliness to something closer to a love story, and the collision between those two modes is where the novel takes its biggest risk.

That structural gamble mostly pays off, though the back third does slow to work through Henry's own bargain and its cost, and readers here for pure historical momentum might feel the brakes come on. It's a fair trade for what the book is actually interested in, which isn't plot momentum so much as the accumulated weight of three hundred years of almost-connections. Schwab jumps between 1714 and the present with total confidence, and the historical stretches, revolutionary Paris, a jazz-age speakeasy, wartime New York, never feel like set dressing. They feel like proof of how long a person can go unseen and keep choosing to exist anyway.

Why you should read

Readers who love a single rigorous magic rule pushed to its limit
Fans of centuries-spanning stories like The Time Traveler's Wife
Anyone drawn to slow-burn romance built on real stakes
Readers who want art and history woven into the premise

What to expect

A single curse mechanic explored across three centuries
Alternating timelines from 1714 to the present day
A slower, more introspective back third
A devil-figure who doubles as love interest and antagonist
Historical texture used to deepen theme, not just decorate

By the time Henry remembers her name in that hidden bookstore, the moment lands with the force of three hundred years behind it, not because the twist is clever but because Schwab has made you feel every year of Addie's isolation leading up to it. That's a hard thing for a book about forgetting to pull off: making sure you, the reader, never forget a single page.

Reviewed by Rowan · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.4/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue?: Yes. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Julia Whelan.
Listen to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue audiobook?: The The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue audiobook runs 17 hr 31 min.
Is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue on Kindle Unlimited?: Yes. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 13, 2026.
How much does The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $12.99, Paperback $11.25, Hardcover $10.80. Prices as of August 22, 2026 at 3:45 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue about?: Here's the deal Addie LaRue makes in a moment of panic on her wedding night in 1714: she gets to live forever, and in exchange, the world erases her from its memory the second she's out of sight. Lovers forget her face by morning. Friends forget her name mid-sentence. She can't sign her work…
Is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue worth reading?: We scored The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue 4.4 out of 5. V. E. Schwab's fantasy novel imagines a curse that grants immortality at the price of being instantly forgotten by everyone she meets, and turns that single rule into a three-hundred-year meditation on memory, art, and being seen.