Tag Archive for: aberry

The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee

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Miye Lee’s THE DALLERGUT DREAM DEPARTMENT STORE imagines a world that our subconscious minds visit while we sleep. We do not remember this world when we wake up, but it is where we purchase our dreams every night.

The novel is set almost exclusively in this dream world. The main character, Penny, has just been hired at the Dallergut Dream Department Store – the most famous dream store in the world. She has some basic knowledge of dream production and sales, as do most citizens of this world. Penny is curious and diligent, and eager to get to work.

Dallergut himself is somewhat eccentric. He is the top name in dream sales and has personal relationships with many of the dream artists, but he also seems to be scatterbrained and flighty. His office is a mess, that Penny wants to clean up, but his ability to match dreams to dreamers is uncanny.

Each floor of Dallergut’s department store is dedicated to a different type of dreaming. From the generic dreams of hanging out with friends on the second floor to the dreams of swimming through the ocean as a whale – an extremely popular dream available only by special order.

Dreams are created by artists, who craft them much as an author does a novel. Dream artists usually specialize in a specific type of dream, even nightmares. There are many dream artists in the world, but the most famous are the Big Five, who the world treats as celebrities and Dallergut knows personally.

In this world, dreams manifest as small boxes. These boxes fill the various shelves of the department store where our unconscious selves can purchase them. Dream world citizens are also able to buy the dreams. They experience them as we do, the only difference is that they are aware of where the dreams come from.

Generally the dream world is very like our own: there are food vendors on the sidewalk, Penny lives in an apartment building, even the store is outwardly very normal. But there are also magical creatures roaming the streets, ready to give pajamas and robes to visitors from our world who arrive without them. Their world also trades in emotions distilled from the dream visitors.

When a person from our world buys a dream, they agree to a payment plan that will collect some of their feelings upon waking. These emotions can then be taken by the dream world citizens to feel calm or excited — or they can be taken to the bank and converted into money.

Each chapter of this relatively short novel explorers a different type of dreaming. There are brief glimpses into our world to show how the things we dream can affect our real lives.

It is easy to get lost in the world that Lee has built. Her deep interest in dreams is explored both in her author’s note at the beginning of the book and in the translator’s note at the end.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

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The unnamed narrator of Jean Kyoung Frazier’s PIZZA GIRL is an eighteen-year-old pregnant woman working as a delivery driver for a local pizza restaurant. She feels unmoored from her life – overwhelmed and directionless – and unable to connect to the child growing inside her. Until she meets Jenny Hauser.

Jenny is also feeling overwhelmed by her life. Her family just moved to Los Angeles for her husband’s job, and her small son refuses to eat anything until his parents move him back to Bismarck. Jenny is convinced that if she can find his favorite pepperoni and pickle pizza, he will learn to love their new home.

The narrator answers the phone when Jenny calls in and finds herself unable to say no to the odd request. When she makes the delivery, she gets drawn into Jenny’s life.

The pepperoni pickle pizza order becomes a regular Wednesday tradition. The narrator jumps for the phone all evening, hoping to intercept the call. When they discuss the narrator’s pregnancy, Jenny invites her to a young mothers support group. The narrator goes along, but the more time she spends with Jenny Hauser, the more she obsesses over the other woman.

She drives out of her way to cruise by the Hausers’ home. She imagines what their life would be like if she and Jenny ran away from Los Angeles together: starting a new life with the two of them and Jenny’s son.

The narrator neglects all the other people in her life. She comes home late at night with no explanation. She begins sneaking out to the shed while everyone else is asleep. She can’t seem to care about her life or her unborn baby.

Her mother and her boyfriend, Billy, are both excited about the baby. Billy wants to plan their future – he is even considering skipping out on his college scholarship so that he can take care of their new family.

Some of the narrator’s angst stems from their baby derailing the hopes that she and Billy had for the future. She is also afraid that they will grow to be too much like her own small, struggling family and, specifically, that she is too much like her deceased father.

When the narrator was young, she used to regularly bring her father home from drunken nights out. He was cruel to her and her mother, although her mother has many fond memories of him – things that the narrator doesn’t remember. He also used to sneak out to spend time alone in the shed. As the novel progresses, the narrator finds herself slipping right into the role he left behind.

PIZZA GIRL is a short and intense novel. The narrator jumps around to different points in her life, revealing new information as the book progresses.  It’s difficult to be on her side, because she makes such terrible decisions, but I still wanted her to succeed. I wanted her to find a way to be content with life she already had.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

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A halt to her archeological dig and the vague mention from her brother that something seems off with their mother send Sam Montgomery across the country to her mother’s house in North Carolina.

The house on Lammergeier Lane was never her favorite place to be. It used to belong to Sam’s grandmother, Gran Mae – a harsh woman with exacting standards. When Sam was very young, her family lived with her grandmother briefly. Sam only has limited memories of that time, all unpleasant.

Her grandmother had strict rules for their behavior, requiring that they appear “nice and normal,” like a sitcom family. She used to threaten her grandchildren with stories of underground children who would come for them if they misbehaved. Her only joy came from her meticulously kept rose bushes.

When Sam arrives at her mother’s home, Edith does seem off. Her usually peppy mother is jumping at shadows, they now have to pray before dinner, and Edith will not hear a word against Gran Mae – who has been dead for many years.

The house itself is also different. When Edith moved in, she repainted all of the rooms and redecorated the house to match her own warm, chaotic style. Sam notices immediately that the house looks almost exactly the way it did when her grandmother was still alive: white-walled and sterile, devoid of all personal touches from her mother. There is also a large vulture living on the mailbox.

Stress about her mother’s condition and an inexplicable swarm of ladybugs in her bedroom have Sam on edge. She is not sleeping well, and she has been having strange dreams about someone whispering in her ear.

Determined to help her mother, Sam begins poking into her own family history. She discovers that her great-grandfather was a notorious “sorcerer” in his day, with correspondents with whom he discussed creating human life through magic.

Sam cannot imagine her straight-laced grandmother having anything to do with these fantastical beliefs. In fact, when she was alive, Gran Mae had a feud with a neighbor that she only referred to as “that old witch.”

The neighbor, a lovely woman named Gail, has befriended Edith since she moved back to town. Afraid that her mother may be developing dementia, Sam goes to Gail, hoping to get some insight into her mother’s condition.

Instead, Gail assures Sam that magic is real, her mother is perfectly in control of her faculties, and something evil is inhabiting her grandmother’s house.

A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher is a horror novel with a modern Southern Gothic flair. The atmosphere is perfect for a haunted house story. Much of the suspense is drawn from the reader knowing that there really is a malevolent presence in the house, while Sam steadfastly refuses to believe it.

Sam is certain that there is a mundane answer to her mother’s distress right up until the moment her grandmother’s ghost appears at their dining room table.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel

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One year ago, author and paleobiologist Sal Drake died in a car crash on a winding mountain road in Italy. He left behind a wife – Jane – and two teenage daughters, Eve and Vera. Each of them has been struggling with this loss in her own way.

Vera, barely thirteen, longs for stability and a sense of home. She wants to keep the remains of her family as close as possible, ideally at home in California.

Eve, fifteen, also wants to stay in California. She wants a normal teenage life, full of rebellion and bad decisions.

Jane, who had spent her life as her husband’s research assistant and editor, is now pursuing her own graduate degree in paleobiology. Unfortunately for her daughters, that means spending their summer on a research trip in Siberia.

Jane’s professor is heading to the extreme North to study mammoth fossils. Their lab has been working with mammoth DNA, hoping to eventually edit the DNA of an elephant to give it mammoth-like qualities. They create and observe embryos of these “cold-adapted elephants,” hoping to one day grow a full-fledged almost-mammoth.

While avoiding the scientists, Eve and Vera discover the mummified remains of a baby woolly mammoth. They bring their prize back to the cabin, where their discovery quickly becomes the professor’s success – he will take the credit, in the same way that their mother’s work will be seen as an extension of his efforts.

Back in California, with their mummified mammoth safely preserved and being studied, Jane and her daughters find themselves invited to a celebratory banquet. There they meet Helen – a wealthy, enigmatic woman who understands the female condition that has led them to this place.

What starts as an offhand comment from Vera, leads to Jane and her daughters traveling to Helen’s home in Italy. With a stolen disc of mammoth embryos in a cooler.

Helen’s husband is a retired veterinarian, and their estate is home to hundreds of animals – including an adult female elephant. Against all odds, they successfully impregnate the elephant. Actually keeping a secret baby woolly mammoth alive comes with its own challenges.

And the more time the family stays with Helen and her husband, the less they are sure they can trust them.

THE LAST ANIMAL by Ramona Ausubel has the bones of a science fiction thriller – rogue scientist resurrects extinct animal with the help of wealthy people with too much time on their hands – but the heart of a domestic drama.

The struggles the three women are facing are very internal. Jane is trying to keep the baby mammoth alive, but what she is really struggling with is her own future. She is not sure she has the drive to keep working to be a scientist when she feels so worn down by the loss of her husband.

Vera and Eve are both desperate for their mother’s love. They feel set adrift in their own grief, which they express in very different ways. Both sisters feel that their mother has abandoned them for this new creature that she has brought into the world.

Pearl, the baby mammoth, is a creature out of time. No one knows how to care for her; her elephant mother rejects her and has to be removed. She longs for a world that no longer exists.

Ausubel’s lyrical prose accentuates the depth of all this grief, while her quick pacing keeps the plot moving forward. THE LAST ANIMAL is a globe-spanning, high-stakes story with a deep heart.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

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Natasha Pulley’s THE KINGDOMS opens in an alternate London – one controlled by the French following their victory in the Napoleonic Wars. The city has been repurposed as a hub for industry. Written English has been outlawed and French citizens own most of the remaining homes and businesses.

In this other London, Joe Tournier discovers himself on a train platform with no idea how he got there. He is diagnosed with a common case of epileptic amnesia.

People all over the country have been experiencing flashes of false memory and remembering people who never existed. But the arrival of a postcard convinces Joe that his visions of a different life are real.

When Joe visits the lighthouse depicted on the postcard, he is captured by an old vessel from the defunct British Navy – captained by an unstable man named Missouri Kite.

Kite explains that the lighthouse is near a portal in time, and Joe has been transported to the past. Recently, a ship passed through this portal and was captured by the French Navy. Most of the crew was taken prisoner; the French used the crew’s knowledge of their own past to turn the tide of the war and defeat the British – leading to the French-controlled England that Joe came from.

It is Kite’s plan to use Joe’s expertise as an engineer to change history again and return control of England to the British.

Kite knows that history has been altered because one man – Jem Castlereagh – escaped from the captured ship and was picked up by the British. Kite was on the ship that saved him, and he and Jem became close.

During his stay on the ship, Joe is not told much about Jem – except that Kite killed him.

As Joe learns more about his captors and their desperate bid to save the British Empire, he develops a sense of belonging that he does not understand. He cannot reconcile his knowledge of what Kite has done with his overwhelming sense of loyalty to the insane man. On top of that struggle, he knows that helping defeat the French will destroy the family that he left behind in the future.

There is a lot to process in THE KINGDOMS; it is both a straightforward alternate history, told like historical fiction, and a deeply interior look at loss and trauma.

Pulley does not shy away from gruesome depictions of battle. Kite’s ship – crewed by women and children alongside what remains of the Navy – charges through a French blockade to rejoin the British command fleet.

During the battle, Joe is helping in the infirmary where Kite’s no-nonsense sister, Agatha, holds court. In the midst of the battle, she is shot down with no warning, and afterward Kite barely reacts to the news that his sister was killed.

Kite’s life has been full of violence and struggle. Like Joe, I found myself unable to hate Kite despite his frequent threats of violence and his open admission that he is a murderer. Beneath that, he is surprisingly soft-hearted.

The novel is a whirlwind of interesting characters and memorable scenes. It was something a little outside-the-box for me, but I am glad that I gave it a try.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Arch-conspirator by Veronica Roth

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In ARCH-CONSPIRATOR, Veronica Roth puts a futuristic spin on Sophocles’ Antigone. Roth transfers the ancient Greek tragedy to the last city on Earth, which stands as the lone haven in a desolate wasteland created by humanity.

The city is ruled over by Antigone’s uncle Kreon, the High Commander, a militant man obsessed with order and maintaining the status quo. Kreon took the throne after a riot – that he instigated – killed the former High Commander, Antigone’s father Oedipus.

Antigone and her siblings are set apart from the population not because their father was deposed and replaced as High Commander, but because their parents chose to have them independently. In this future, children are created using the ichor stored in the Archive, a gene bank containing the cells from generations of the dead.

It is considered unnatural to have biological children. Those children are looked down upon as being soulless, because the soul lives in a person’s ichor and is passed down to the next generation when new life is created.

Humanity is kept in check by Kreon’s marshal rule as well as this strict pseudo-religious dedication to humanity’s future.

After taking the throne, Kreon allowed Antigone and her siblings to live in the High Commander’s residence with his family. Over the years, the four of them integrated themselves into these new lives with varying levels of success.

Antigone grew stoic and stubborn. She has since been unwillingly betrothed to Kreon’s son, Haemon.

Antigone’s twin, Polyneikes, has chafed against his uncle’s rule. He has joined a group of revolutionaries from the city who seek to overthrow Kreon.

Ismene, their sister, abides by Kreon’s rules, for the most part. She is quieter and meeker than the twins, but she does rebel in her own ways.

Their brother, Eteocles, has assimilated almost completely into the new High Commander’s regime. He has become a member of Kreon’s personal guard.

As the book opens, Antigone joins Polyneikes at a café in the city. Her brother alludes to dangerous plans he has for that evening. He ends their conversation by giving Antigone and Extractor – the metal instrument used to harvest ichor from the dead. Polyneikes makes Antigone promise that she will use it on him if things go badly.

Late that night, Antigone and Ismene hear a fight taking place in the courtyard of the High Commander’s residence. When they arrive at the scene, they find Polyneikes and Eteocles, who have shot and killed one another. One brother on his way to kill Kreon and the other protecting him.

Kreon labels Polyneikes a traitor and decrees that his body is not to be touched – or Extracted for the Archive – as a warning against insurrection. To honor her brother’s wishes, Antigone has twenty-four hours from his death to get to him and use the stolen Extractor.

Veronica Roth’s novella is a quick but intense read. She narrates chapters from many of her key characters, allowing readers a glimpse at the inner turmoil faced by each of them. Alongside this story of revenge and familial love, ARCH-CONSPIRATOR also offers a variety of perspectives on life at the end of the world.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang

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In the large port city of Canton, a young boy is dying of cholera. His mother succumbed to the same disease days before, and he is almost glad that he will soon be joining her. As he lays in bed thinking about his short life, a stranger enters his house. The man holds out a bar of silver, speaks two words – one in French and one in English – and the boy begins to heal.

This is the opening scene of R. F. Kuang’s BABEL: AN ARCANE HISTORY. Set in the 1800s, BABEL presents a world at the height of the British Empire where magic is a tradable good. By using the language gaps in translated words, scholars are able to produce magical effects with engraved silver bars.

The boy is whisked back to England where he becomes the ward of this man, Professor Lovell. He is asked to choose a name that will help him assimilate into British society. He chooses Robin Swift, in honor of his favorite author, Jonathan Swift.

For the next few years, Robin is taught Latin and ancient Greek. He also learns that Professor Lovell has always been an influence in his life. Robin – whose family was extremely poor – grew up with an inexplicable British governess who taught him English. A governess hired by the professor.

Professor Lovell keeps Robin at arm’s length. His goal is to prepare Robin for the rigorous language training he will receive at Babel, the college in Oxford dedicated to producing magical silver.

Babel is the world’s center for translation and, by extension, magic. Students who graduate will most likely remain at Babel to continue translations or to maintain the networks of silver around the world.

The more unique the languages a person can translate are, the more important they are to Babel’s organization. Robin has the potential to be very valuable, because there are currently only two Asian-language translators at Babel – one of whom is Professor Lovell.

Robin and his fellow students are initially enchanted by the college. The four of them have all experienced hardship, but they find solidarity and companionship in each other.

However, as their studies progress, they learn more about the unfair system they are supporting. Their group is torn apart by their responses to Babel’s insular, England-first philosophy.

Similar to our world’s industrial revolution, this world is in the midst of a magical revolution. Laborers are forced out of their jobs as magic allows machines to work more efficiently. Countries are being left behind as the richer nations purchase their silver. And gifted linguists are taken away from their homelands to support Babel’s growing demand.

But an organization is working against Babel, stealing their silver and converting linguists to the cause. They are attempting to expose what is at stake if the college is allowed to remain the hub of all of the world’s magic.

Throughout the book, Robin is drawn deeper into this underground revolution. He becomes convinced that something drastic must be done to shake Babel’s foundation.

BABEL is a dense book, full of footnotes both real and fictional. The pace is rapid, keeping readers engaged through linguistics classes, arguments with Professor Lovell, and clandestine meetings with agents of the resistance.

At over 500 pages, the book is a commitment, but it is never dry. R. F. Kuang’s world building skills are excellent, and her magic system is incredibly unique. I will be thinking about BABEL for a long time to come.

 

Review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

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The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

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Amina al-Sirafi used to be a pirate. She sailed the Indian Ocean on her ship, the Marawati, with a dedicated and close-knit crew. She was a fearsome warrior and an ingenious captain. But now, she’s retired.

For ten years she has been living in a dilapidated house by the ocean with her mother and young daughter. Amina stays isolated to avoid being recognized as the famed sea captain. She loves being a mother, and she loves the quiet life she has been able to provide for her family.

Her retirement is interrupted by the arrival of a noblewoman, Salima al-Hilli. The older woman reveals that her son used to be a member of Amina’s crew – before his death – and offers Amina a fortune to track down her granddaughter.

Dunya al-Hilli was kidnapped by a band of mercenaries led by Falco Palamenestra, a Fankish captain with unusual powers. As Amina looks into the teenager’s disappearance, it becomes clear that there is more to the story than Salima is willing to tell her.

Before she sets out to track down Dunya and Falco, Amina has to gather her crew back together, track down the Marawati — which she has left in the care of her former first mate, and find out where Falco is heading.

As the crew investigates, they discover what Falco is searching for: the Moon of Saba, a legendary artifact that is said to contain a supernatural being. Amina also discovers that Dunya was far from a kidnapping victim. She is a self-taught supernatural scholar who willingly went with Falco to find the Moon.

Amina has a history with the supernatural. She knows that Falco and Dunya are already in over their heads. And though she is only interested in stopping Falco, a misguided teenager with an adventurous streak deserves to be saved.

Shannon Chakraborty’s THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SIRAFI is a high-seas heist full of memorable characters. None more extraordinary than Amina herself.

Amina is a strong, resourceful woman dedicated to getting back home to her family. But the more time she spends at sea, the harder it is to think about giving it up again. Her struggle between her love of the ocean and her love for her daughter plays out internally as she rides the waves, fights sea monsters, and argues with her estranged demonic husband.

The book is written as if Amina is dictating it like an old fish story. Her wry personality comes through every anecdote. This first-person narration allows Amina to keep some important details to herself as the journey progresses. Some readers may feel like they missed a previous book from the number of allusions she makes to the last adventure of the Marawati – the one that led to the death of Dunya’s father and Amina’s retirement.

The in-fiction writer is a scribe dedicated to recording the crew’s adventures, because – despite her protests – Amina is becoming a legend.

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Review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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For as long as she can remember, Alex Stern has been able to see ghosts. For most of her life it has been an inconvenience at best, but now it has gotten her a fresh start in life and a free ride to one of the most prestigious colleges in the world.

Last summer Alex woke up in a hospital bed after surviving a horrific attack at her home. There she is visited by Dean Elliot Sandow; he knows about her ability to see ghosts and he wants to offer her a position in one of the nine houses, secret societies on Yale’s campus.

Eight of the houses are essentially fraternities, run by the children of the rich and powerful – who were themselves members of these houses. Within these groups, members perform magical rituals: some predict the future, others change themselves into animals. In one Alex witnesses a famous musician undergoing a ritual to sing more beautifully.

The ninth house, Lethe, serves as a watchdog for these other houses. Lethe makes sure their rituals do not get out of hand and that the societies do not reveal themselves to the general public. Alex’s abilities will make her a valuable asset in this group.

All of the members have their own part to play within Lethe. Alex is an apprentice member, working under the direction of Darlington – Daniel Arlington – an upperclassman known and respected around campus. Darlington went missing earlier in the year when Alex saw him pulled into a portal to hell. Alex is driven to bring him back, despite everyone telling her that he is dead.

Lethe also has an Oculus, someone dedicated to recording and gathering information, and the Centurion, a member of the local police who can alert them if a crime scene seems magical or cover up something that the houses will deal with on their own.

Initially, Alex feels isolated in this group. Darlington is jealous of her innate ability to see ghosts. Pamela Dawes, the Oculus, seems offended by Alex’s presence. And the Centurion, Detective Turner, suspects that Alex may have been involved in the grisly murder she escaped in California.

Alex herself is difficult to get along with. She actively opposes the polite facade that has kept the balance between the houses and she is disgusted by the rich kids who play with magic without understanding the dangers. Back in California she was a high school dropout with an abusive drug dealer boyfriend. She knows this is an entirely different world, but she refuses to bow to its conventions.

Midway through her first semester, Alex is sent to the scene of a possible homicide. A young woman from New Haven has been found murdered. Detective Turner is eager to turn Alex away, the woman and her boyfriend are known criminals and he is already in custody, but Alex cannot shake the feeling that something is off.

As she follows up on her suspicions, Alex uncovers a string of similar murders going back decades. And if these are some kind of secret ritual gone wrong, Alex is going to get to put a stop to it.

Bardugo is an expert at crafting a satisfying antihero, Alex is a protagonist that the reader cannot entirely trust. She is complicated, secretive, and more likely to punch someone in the gut than walk away. Alex has had a hard life, but she will do anything to protect her friends – whatever the cost.

Leigh Bardugo’s NINTH HOUSE is a bit of a puzzle box. The novel jumps around through time; flashing back to scenes from Alex’s training with Darlington and keeping certain details hidden from the reader until just the right moment. There are layers of mysteries that build over the course of the story. Most of those mysteries are concluded by the end of the book; others are resolved in Hell Bent, the sequel that came out earlier this year.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

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Addie LaRue was born in the wrong time. Her world is too small; she feels trapped by the village she lives in and trapped by the expectations that society has for her. She dreads the inevitability of marriage which will take away the bit of freedom she has managed to create.

When she finds herself on that final threshold – promised to a widower looking for a mother for his children – she cries out, begging to be given a path out of the future her parents and neighbors have planned for her. And someone answers.

A stranger appears, offering exactly what she wants, as long as she is willing to pay. Addie asks for time and for freedom, to belong to no one but herself. She agrees to give up her soul to the stranger, but only when she no longer wants it.

The side effects of her deal become evident almost immediately. Addie heads back home, grateful to have avoided her fate. She is shocked when her mother does not recognize her. Worse yet, as soon as her mother leaves the room she forgets having seen Addie. She disappeared from her mother’s memory as soon as she was out of sight.

Everyone Addie used to know treats her like a stranger, she is now alone in the world. She belongs to no one and she never will.

Three hundred years later, now living in New York City, Addie has managed to build a life for herself on the fringes. She has become an expert at living on only what she can steal.

Then, everything changes. Addie finds herself in a used bookstore, looking for something to pass the time. She makes a selection and walks out the door, knowing that the clerk will forget her as soon as she is out of his view. Until he chases her down to confront her about the theft. When Addie comes back the next day, certain that their interaction was a fluke, he says three words that she thought she would never hear again: “I remember you.”

Addie is confused, delighted, and desperate to form her first real human connection in hundreds of years. She knows that this man, Henry, could be a trap set for her by the stranger, but she cannot walk away from the possibility that he presents.

She tells Henry about everything: the stranger, the deal she made, and its consequences. For three hundred years, her curse has kept people from understanding Addie’s story but Henry listens – and he believes her. Because he made a deal too.

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V. E. Schwab is an unusual novel, to say the least. It jumps back and forth largely between Addie in 1700s France, struggling through the limits of her new life, and Addie in 2010s New York City. The novel is surprisingly optimistic. Despite Addie’s tragic circumstances, she is able to find joy in her invisible life. She is still delighted by the people that she meets and awed by the experiences that she has only had because her life has gone on this long.

On the other hand, Addie and Henry are both keeping secrets – and the stranger has not given up his hopes of collecting the soul of Addie LaRue.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian