October 17, 2022
Perhaps never have I been so enthralled by a book that I actually put it down because I don’t want it to be over. With Addie, I did this on four separate occasions. V. E. Schwab has devised a tale so heartbreakingly beautiful, so painfully alluring, that it hurts as much to read as it does to put away. She juxtaposes all of life’s contradictions: the loud violence of strange men with the quieter violence of a kind soul, the magic of impermanence with the devastation of endings. Her language is somehow both timeless and contemporary, intertwining 21st century life and language with a gift for prose that feels ancient and beautiful. Her characters are also a study in opposites. Addie feels like such a vibrant and full character, with varied likes, dislikes, opinions, and beliefs about people and the world.
Yet she also remains a palimpsest of sorts (to use one of Schwab’s favored words), wanting nothing more desperately than to experience the world, to let it write upon her even as she laments that she cannot write upon it in return. She fills herself with sights, smells, tastes, people, but never so much that she loses her sense of character.
Schwab’s sense of pacing, too, feels at odds with itself, and yet in perfect balance. Her frequent use of time-skips and her ability to let go of whatever moment she is in to jump into the next keep the book moving, while at the same time she is able to bring the action screeching to a halt, and spend pages delving into the emotional and psychological implications of her narrative. She navigates inevitability brilliantly, stretching a week, a day, a moment, until it becomes physically painful, and only then gently guiding you forward to the next moment as if carefully easing a taut muscle into repose, even as the tears begin to fall. Where Schwab pulls away from the rest, though, is in her ending. While many authors might drag out a resolution too long, and many others might pull out the rug too soon, leaving the reader by turns either bored or unfulfilled, Schwab splits the difference. I don’t know that I’ve ever read another author who so thoroughly understands how to give the reader precisely what and how much they need at the end of a book. This will be at the top of my recommendations list for the foreseeable future.
9/10
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