The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
by V. E. Schwab
Contents
Part One: The Gods That Answer After Dark — Chapter VIII
Overview
On the morning of her forced wedding to the widower Roger, Adeline realizes Villon’s “duty” will erase her life into the same narrow fate as every other woman in the village. She escapes the procession by pretending to fetch a gift and, aided by Estele stopping her father from following, flees into the woods. With nothing left to offer, Adeline buries her wooden ring and begs any listening power to save her, but the night closes in without an answer.
Summary
In Villon-sur-Sarthe in 1714, Adeline reflects on how the village swallows time and choice, and how she once wanted to live free and untethered, “like a tree.” That hope collapses when Roger, recently widowed after his wife Pauline dies in childbirth, begins looking for a new wife to raise his three children. Adeline refuses him, but learns her refusal has no power against the village’s needs and her parents’ insistence on duty and “mercy.”
On the night before the wedding, Adeline lies awake and thinks of running, then turns to prayer instead. Having already tried to bargain with the land—giving away possessions to river and field—Adeline fears the old gods Estele warned her about, so she prays to her mother’s God, even briefly wishing for Roger’s death before recoiling in guilt. Before dawn, Adeline slips into the field and begs the world to answer her, but receives only wind and silence.
As the day drags toward the ceremony, Adeline’s mother scolds her and speaks of marriage and children as if they will cure her restlessness. Adeline watches other women’s worn-down lives in the village and feels her own future narrowing into the same shape. When Adeline’s mother braids her hair and dresses her for the wedding, Adeline grips the old wooden ring on a cord around her neck, and her mother orders her to remove it before the ceremony.
When the church bell tolls and Adeline is led toward the village square, she realizes that entering the church will mean the end of any “elsewhere” and the end of being remembered even by herself. Desperate, Adeline claims she left a gift for her husband in the house and turns back. Her father tries to follow, but Estele intervenes, insisting Adeline must be treated as a grown woman, giving Adeline the opening she needs.
Adeline bolts through the house, climbs out a window, and runs across the field into the woods. There, with no other tokens left to offer, Adeline pulls the wooden ring from her neck and plunges it into the mossy earth, promising she will do anything if someone will help her escape. She prays and begs for an answer as evening turns to night, but the forest remains unnaturally quiet and gives nothing back.
Who Appears
- Adeline (Addie) LaRueYoung woman forced into marriage; flees into the woods and begs supernatural help.
- EsteleOlder woman who understands Adeline’s longing; blocks Jean from following, enabling the escape.
- RogerWidestower seeking a new wife for his children; the man Adeline is coerced to marry.
- Adeline's motherEnforces village duty; scolds Adeline and prepares her for the wedding.
- Jean (Adeline's father)Reluctant but firm; tries to manage Adeline, then lets her go back alone.
- PaulineRoger’s deceased wife; her death in childbirth sets the forced marriage in motion.
- IsabelleVillage woman and mother; serves as a bleak example of how marriage exhausts women.