Okay so Wow! However I’ll be honest, there was a moment in the middle where I felt the pacing slowed a bit and I almost gave it four stars. But the ending hit me all in the right places. It was bittersweet, poetic and perfect and It made everything worth it.
I absolutely adored Addie. She’s such a beautifully complex and resilient character, and following her through centuries of solitude, art, love, and loss was unforgettable. Her curse to live forever but be forgotten by everyone she meets is both a nightmare and a kind of tragic poetry. Through her journey, V.E. Schwab explores what it means to exist when you have no footprint, no history, no one who remembers your name. And yet, Addie finds a way to push back against oblivion: through art. Her influence shows up in sketches, songs, stories little echoes of herself scattered across time. It’s subtle, but powerful. She becomes a kind of muse, shaping the world in quiet, invisible ways.