Pages 1-90 (Beginning of Book until End of Part 1)

Welcome to the Taste Test! Be warned that there will be spoilers ahead! This discussion will go from the beginning of the book until the end of Part 1! So roughly about 90 pages depending on your physical read! For those that may be listening to the book I do not have a time stamp but the Part 2 is next week readings. I was going to see if I could find discussion questions that I could answer and you all could comment but there is nothing broken down by parts and I do not want any reminders of the plot so I skipped that and will have to include my own.

As of starting this post I have only read through page 52, meaning I am currently at New York City, March 10th, 2014, XI. and let me tell you I am loving every page of this again. These first 50 pages really set the scene for Addie both in 1714 and 2014 and the writing used for both versions really lend to building a tempo.

But I was right in the First Sip, it really felt like seeing an old friends as I started reading this. Almost like a warm hug!

The Beginning

The way the book opens with that scene of Addie running away from something, just captured my attention. I know the plot and I knew what she was running from but even still, when a story starting in motion like that, I am intrigued. I mean that first chapter really gave us a lot of information.
The Freckles
The Feeling Trapped
The motif of Art
Just from this half a page of writing we are propelled into the mind of Addie and given a format in which to look at her life.

This is followed by the true beginning when Addie wakes up in that apartment with Toby. In this scene we learn a lot, though nothing is quite said outright. We know that Addie lives in the shadows, always being forgotten, jumping from person to place and has this want/need to be remembered, as seen with teaching Toby the song. In this scene we will the emptiness of Addie, the lack of some spark as she goes about her days. This slow trudge of her birthday is paced where we experience a few moments, where Addie reflects and remembers on her past both before and after her deal.

This is in a beautiful contradiction from the chapters where Addie is growing up. The pages read faster, the scene do not last as long, and even the way it is written: “Blink, and the years fall away like leaves”. A clever sentence that anyone could use but it represents how fast life is passing by for Addie and as we learn she hates it. Her life is moving at a speed she cannot grasp, her freedom and desires are slipping as time moves and she is forced to be someone she does not to be. But that younger Addie is built cleverly, we feel her wanderlust, the desire to move and travel and to truly live. It is so relatable as I was reading, I remember when I was younger I just wanted to travel and see so much of the world. I did not think of my future and jobs but seeing how the world is more than what I have seen it as. So reading this desire resonated with me, and made Addie all the more lifelike for me, right from the start.

Then there is 2014 Addie:

“And this is what she settled on, she can go without food (she will not wither). She can go without heat (the cold will not kill her). But a life without art, without wonder, without beautiful things — she would go mad. She has gone mad.
What she needs are stories.
Stories are way to preserve oneself to be remembered. And to forget.”

A woman who wants to experience everything she can. And oh how I feel that along with her. It is the same reason why I read, and write, and do what I can because life is just a one way train ride from Birth to Death and we have to make something in our time between or we risk the chance of being forgotten. But not only that life is hard and challenging and stories can let us take on a different persona and forget momentarily whatever we are going through.

I think this is why I connect with Addie so quickly, I feel connected.

The Deal

So as I said Addie in 2014 feels slower and really giving us moments, such as knowing the two muffin flavors she orders whereas the 1700s Addie is much quicker and it feels like time is running out.

“Finally, the church bell tolls, the same low tone it calls at funerals, and she forces herself to her feet”

I mean come on! Those are her wedding bells but she feels like they are calling her to her own funeral. It’s those small sentences that make a difference in how we see the world and how we can relate to characters and I think V. E. Schwab does a wonderful job at that. As we progress through the scene, we feel hint of desperation but it does not go too deep because this moment is the start and just the ignition point of the flame that Addie becomes, so it makes sense that her deal with the Darkness is quick and messy. Addie does not want the life that she has and she of course will throw it away for a sliver of hope, or freedom, of control.

Second Half

Okay, I just finished the second half of part two and I have so many thoughts and feelings.

Time really does slow down after Addie makes her deal, and time stops. Well I guess it rewrites itself for no one remembers her and there was no sign her parents had a child anymore. Its this point where Addie’s suffering begins, a call forward to later chapter after she was stabbed and learned that hunger, pain, and discomfort is all temporary but the suffering, that cuts deeper and lasts longer. Its the small things, like visiting her father’s studio, seeing her friend one last time, all of it that is what is staying with her. She has not learned all that she has gained but grieving everything she has now lost.

There was a quote that stood out to me and a sign of how Addie is going to be as she continues on her path:

“She waits to the fields, flower buds, brushing her palms, unafraid to crush the plants under foot – they have already straightened in her weight, steps are erased. By the time she reaches the far edge of the field, and the path, and the study green, it looks dull, her eye searching for another source of wonder”

It just shows that her eyes are always going to be moving to the next thing, at least for a little while.

Missing Things

Addie is the missing things. She cannot alter things such as write, or paint, or even spill a glass of wine, but she can make things go missing, such as the book or the wooden bird. She is all made up now of stolen moments, stealing time from strangers whom she speaks with, and it’s funny because she herself already feels that absence of her own presence. I will look forward to learning how she fills that hole within her over the next 300 years.

The last thing I want to talk about is the last chapter in the part. Where we are introduced to Henry! meeting him again has sparked some memories so I won’t ruin anything but I am happy to see him again. Already he feels like an anchor.

But also The Last Word bookstore… and this blog is The Last Page… that is wild. I guess that stuck in my head because four years later this blog came to be!

This part of the book now feels like we have moved away from the background information and are going to build the plot of this story along with starting to provide moments in time that have defined Addie as who she is.

Discussion Questions

Below this you should find a spot for leaving a comment, and it is something that I want to use to have our discussions about the book. I’ll answer to comments and put my own answers in the next Taste Test

• Would you take a deal with the darkness like Addie?
• What are your thoughts on Addie so far?
• How will Henry change the story?
• What does the ring symbolize to you?
• If you could have live during any time period, what would it be?
• How do you think V. E. Schwab intended to write Addie from the beginning? Someone to like, someone to intrigue or something else?