The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue vs. The Time Traveller's Wife

Pure, literary gold. Both The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger have done the deed they set out to accomplish in creating a fantastical setting that feels very plausible and highly possible. Upon finishing The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue most recently, I remember setting the book down and wishfully looking out the window. The book found me yearning for such an existence to jump from the pages of the book in my hand, out of the categorized genre of fantasy/science fiction, and into reality as we know it. It felt so real.The only other book that has ever incited such strong feelings of absolute awe and wonderment at how a piece of fiction could feel so authentic, was The Time Traveler's Wife.

To offer a premise of what both stories entail:

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab begins in France, 1714 when a desperate, independent young woman strikes a deal with a devilish character. She is granted eternal life, but at the cost of an obliterated legacy. Everyone who meets her, will forget her the moment she leaves their sight.

Thus commences the incredible tale of Addie LaRue, as she journeys through the years of her immortality, exploring different corners of the world and inadvertently leaving impressions of her existence, like footsteps in the sand, trailing behind her strides.

Hundreds of years after the start of her curse, and several interactions with the being that cursed her, something remarkable happens: Addie encounters a stranger in a bookshop that remembers her. The romance that ensues is as atypical as it is pivotal and memorable, and the ending will leave you reeling.

Vs.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is a wildly original retelling of a tale as old as time itself: boy meets girl. Or rather, girl meets man. Clare is an art student, and Henry is a librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, yet they were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Due to the fact that Henry was born with Chrono-Displacement Disorder, he frequently and uncontrollably finds himself jumping through time, to various moments within his past and future. The inexplicable resetting of his chronological clock takes him to points in his life charged by an emotional prevalence. The results of this disease are ludicrous, outrageous and also incredibly heart-wrenching as the story unravels.

This beautiful love story details how time travel effects Henry and Clare's romance and desires for all the normal things a married couple yearns to obtain: steady jobs, happy relationships amongst friends and family, and children of their own.

As a huge fantasy nut, I have a hearty appreciation for stories of the magical variety that feel as though it is a plausible, realistic plot. Both The Time Traveler's Wife and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue tugged at my heart strings and utterly enthralled me. If you are looking for a book to make you question the confines of what we know reality to be, and jump into an adventure, so alluring, so romantic, and so entrancing that you will not be able to set it down until you have devoured each wonderful chapter until the breath-taking end, these two novels are for you.

Hats off to V.E. Schwab, and Audrey Niffenegger for crafting these grand stories and blessing humanity with the fruits of your creativity. You and your characters will not be soon forgotten...

PSA: If you are looking for more novels in this type of unique reality-warping genre with a spin, check out The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.