The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Themes

At the beginning of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Addie, the protagonist, sells her soul to Luc, a demonic entity, to escape an undesirable marriage and an unfulfilling life in her 18th-century rural French village. Addie believes that staying in Villon, the rural village where she grew up, will prevent her from living a full life and leaving her mark on the world, and she agrees to sell her soul to…

At the beginning of the novel, Addie LaRue, the novel’s protagonist, sells her soul to Luc, a demonic entity, in exchange for immortality. However, Addie soon learns that her immortality dooms her to a life of invisibility: everyone she meets immediately forgets her, and so Addie is therefore incapable of leaving a mark on the world. For 300 years, Addie lives a lonely and loveless life. She has various sexual relationships and sometimes…

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue explores the intersection between creativity, expression, and meaning. Throughout the novel, Addie struggles to make her mark on the world when a Faustian bargain for immortality comes with one unexpected and exceedingly frustrating caveat: Addie will live an invisible life in which the people she encounters will immediately forget her the moment she leaves the room, and the words she writes will disappear the moment she puts pen to…

When Luc gives Addie immortality in exchange for her soul, he means to trick and trap her. Under their agreement, Addie only has to surrender her soul when she no longer finds immortal life fulfilling and enjoyable. Addie’s invisibility, an unintended price she must pay in exchange for her immorality, is meant to fill her daily existence with enough pain, suffering, and loneliness to expedite Addie’s decision to give up on life and surrender her…