Review by Kirkus Book Review
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab's era-spanning follow-up toThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020). In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife--even a wealthy one--is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she's found trying to kiss her best friend. She's despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow--who has a secret connection to Maria's widow from centuries earlier--appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she's brave enough. In 2019, Alice's memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn't meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice's flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines. A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
