This was so much fun.
This book was the biggest chunk of my readathon and honestly, no regrets. I put off reading it for so long because the reviews are truly all over the place. My favorite Goodreads reviewer gave it 3 stars, my favorite Booktoker gave it 4, and two other reviewers I follow both initially gave it 3 stars then bumped it down to 1. Also, given that I didn't like This Savage Song, I was worried I just might not be a Schwab fan. But now I might have to reconsider, because for once, the hype is justified.
The writing in this is absolutely beautiful. It's slow, but it never felt like it was dragging. Schwab does a fantastic job describing Addie's pain at being forgotten time and time again, and yet that stubbornness to never let the darkness win. I'm not usually a fan of character studies, but I suppose that's what this is. It doesn't have the typical exposition-building-climax-resolution plot structure; it's more like a portrait of Addie's life in 2014 with flashbacks throughout her life. Maybe Henry isn't the biggest standout of love interests, but I don't think he needed to be because I wouldn't say their love story is the focus of the novel.