The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue

You know that feeling when you read a book and instantly recognise the writer as someone you need in your life. Let me introduce @christinasweeneybaird aka my new favourite author and kindred spirit/new best mate. When I devoured her debut, The End of Men, in a single sitting I had to message her and we haven’t stopped talking since! A lawyer by day, when I asked how she found the time to write, she responded “I’m a witch with a time-turner” and from that moment she stole my heart. 

If you haven’t read The End of Men I implore you to immediately order, I read it in April and it’s still on my mind many books later. Everyone I have demanded read this has come back astonished, it is so accomplished – the girl is a BORN writer. Gut-wrenching, tragic and hopeful, at times laugh out loud hilarious and completely brilliant, it’s one of the highlights of my year (check out our IGTV review). I rearranged the windows in my local @waterstones to include it, such is the strength of my adoration. Thank you @fluerrr@boroughpress for offering to send me this book and inadvertently starting this friendship! Still waiting for that publicist wage which I will accept in drinks. Our IGTV Review of Addie Larue is also up for viewing ~ Chaya.

Christina’s review: “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was the first book I read this year and I loved it so much, for a while, I worried it had ruined all other books for me. Addie is a young woman in 18th century rural France who prays to the Gods after dark. She offers up her soul. What does she gain? Immortality. What does she lose? The ability to be remembered, by anyone. This is a combination of magical realism and historical fiction that I truly think most people would enjoy. 

You see Addie in different countries and times across history, you see her fall in love, you see her heart break, and you see her seek to understand what it means to matter. Who are you if no one remembers you? If you loved The Time Traveller’s Wife or The Binding, this is a similar vibe I think. I hope it brings you joy on a beach (probably a UK one!), on a rainy summer evening or as you eke it out before bed, one chapter at a time.”