By Maria Antokas
Every once in a while, a book sends you down a literary rabbit hole.
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That happened to me recently while reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. If you haven’t encountered it yet, Addie is a young woman in eighteenth-century France who makes a desperate bargain with a dark god. The catch? She gets to live indefinitely, but everyone she meets forgets her the moment she leaves their sight. Three hundred years later, she’s still wandering the world, collecting experiences, watching history unfold, and wondering whether immortality is really the gift she thought it would be.
What surprised me most wasn’t the fantasy element. It was the writing. Schwab fills the novel with observations about loneliness, identity, love, art, memory, and what it means to leave a mark on the world. It’s one of those rare books that keeps handing you little insights when you least expect them. The story itself is fascinating, but the emotional truths tucked between the pages are what have kept me turning “just one more chapter” long past bedtime.
Naturally, after spending several hundred pages admiring Schwab’s storytelling, I started looking at what else she had been working on. That’s when I stumbled across The Ending Writes Itself. At first, I was confused. The book is credited to Evelyn Clarke, a debut mystery writer. Except Evelyn Clarke isn’t actually a real person. She’s a fictional author created by Cat Clarke and V.E. Schwab, who teamed up to write the novel together.
Now you’ve got my attention.
A mystery written by two accomplished storytellers hiding behind a fictional author? That’s either a brilliant marketing stunt, a clever literary experiment, or both. Either way, it immediately landed on my reading list.
The premise sounds deliciously bookish, and the collaboration itself is enough to make me curious. Add in the fact that one of the minds behind it is the same writer currently keeping me awake far later than any responsible adult should be, and I’m sold. While I can’t personally recommend The Ending Writes Itself just yet, I can tell you this: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has made me eager to read absolutely anything V.E. Schwab touches. If this collaboration with Cat Clarke is even half as inventive, I suspect I’ll be adding another favorite to my shelves very soon.
One of the unexpected things about Addie LaRue is how often it makes you stop and think. Schwab slips observations about life, memory, purpose, and the desire to be remembered into the story so effortlessly that I found myself wanting to save many of them. That’s why I’m also recommending a reading journal this week. Some books entertain you for a few days. Others leave you with thoughts and passages that linger long after you’ve turned the final page. Addie LaRue feels very much like the latter.
Bookaholic Pick
Reading Journal for Book Lovers
A perfect place to record favorite quotes, memorable characters, plot twists, and the books that stay with you long after you’ve finished them.
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