Cassandra Galindo

https://www.goodreads.com/readsbycass

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Cassandra is Currently Reading

Cassandra Galindo is currently reading

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

by V.E. Schwab

bookshelves: 2021-reads, audiobooks, favorites, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2021

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Cassandra Galindo said: " “What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?” ― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

And what is a powerful book than one that leaves marks behind? This novel came to my reading at almost the perfect time of my life. The themes exp “What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?” ― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

And what is a powerful book than one that leaves marks behind? This novel came to my reading at almost the perfect time of my life. The themes explored about love, self-worth, and discovering our purpose in life hit hard. I found myself crying throughout the book repeatedly, maybe a tad overemotional, but I hadn't read something that captured the mess of the human experience and the desire to be more than what we are at times so well, as V.E. Schwab does.

On a writing level, this book never ceased to amaze me. Granted, I am a tad biased on the poetic third-person close writing style because I listened via audiobook with an enchanting narrator's voice that made even slow passages more engaging than they otherwise would have been to read. However, weak pacing aside (I swear stick out section 1), the book was rich with polished writing elements. Everything from the level of detail that set the foundation for a believable world in which magic does exist— to the strong characterization and mesmerizing settings between Europe and North America was well done. I appreciated that while the novel does center around Addie and the love story plot, it never felt like a SMUT story by any means.

Moreover, the underlying concept of what would one do if they had all the time in the world to live and aren't some horrid supernatural YA monster — is a fascinating one. I appreciated that V.E. Schwab made Addie vulnerable. I loved Addie's vulnerabilities around feeling hunger, pain— that she could bleed before she healed; and that she could come close to death even if not die from it. There is something raw in these choices to humanize an immortal, contextualizing the bigger questions/themes that V.E. Schwab's novel explores about what it means to live with intention and purpose.

I can't entirely hold punches. While this is perhaps my favorite novel of the year so far, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the elements that failed the story. In particular, Luc had so much potential, and I felt for the first time I was reading a well-written three-dimensional villain. So it was a great disappointment to see how the plot handled his story at the end. It felt forced to make him eviler, more manipulative, and without empathetic feeling— essentially, the final choices made by Schwab undermined a fantastically built character and his arc.

Overall, this book surpassed the hype around it and is in my top favorite 10 and so far my favorite read of 2021. I cannot recommend it enough. ...more "

progress:

(page 63 of 447)
— Jul 28, 2025 09:51AM

May 17, 2025 07:09PM · see review

Cassandra’s Notes & Highlights

Book cover for The Kraken's Sacrifice (A Deal With a Demon, #2)

The Kraken's Sacrifice (A Deal With a Demon, #2) by Katee Robert

5 highlights

When you’re at rock bottom, sometimes the only thing to do is keep digging.

Sweet Obsession (Dark Olympus, #8)

by Katee Robert

13 highlights

Cassandra’s Quotes

“In my opinion, a problem derails your life and an inconvenience is not being able to get a nice seat on the un-derailed train.”
― Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking

39 likes

“Happy is one of the many things I'm likely to be over the course of a day and certainly over the course of a lifetime. But I think if you have the expectation that you're going to be happy throughout your life--more to the point, if you have a need to be comfortable all the time--well, among other things, you have the makings of a classic drug addict or alcoholic.”
― Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking

tags: hilariousness

121 likes

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

88761 likes

“I quote fictional characters, because I'm a fictional character myself!”
― Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking

47 likes

“That's most interesting. But I was no more a mind-reader then than today. I
was weeping for an altogether different reason. When I watched you dancing that day, I saw something else. I saw a new world coming rapidly. More
scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a
harsh, cruel world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not
remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go. That is what I saw. It wasn't really you, what you were doing, I know that. But I saw you and it broke my heart. And I've never forgotten.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go