C.G Wren

https://www.goodreads.com/readsbycass

C.G’s Bookshelves

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C.G is Currently Reading

C.G Wren is currently reading

Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)

by Diana Wynne Jones

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jan 28, 2026 03:46PM

C.G Wren is currently reading

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology

by Shane Hawk (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(page 200 of 400)
— Nov 18, 2025 05:30AM

Oct 19, 2025 09:10PM

C.G Wren 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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C.G Wren 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

C.G’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

C.G’s Quotes

“All she had ever wanted, all she had ever lived for, was the inverse of this perverse imprisonment. To command her own life. To command her own body, to decide to whom it was given and when.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

6 likes

“This was a place stitched together by resistance, by acts of defiance by people who could not or would not go gently down the path the world had decided was inevitable…”
― Sangu Mandanna, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

6 likes

“Some people simply weren’t winter people. Sera, on the other hand, was the most winter person to ever winter. No matter how tedious it was to keep the firewood topped up and keep casting the heat spells, no matter how annoying the inconsistent hot water and temperamental boiler, this was her time.”
― Sangu Mandanna, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

4 likes

“This is the life I wanted. This life of contentment and unexpected excitement, of little everyday joys, where I don’t just get to be myself but also get to be embraced as myself. It’s miraculous.”
― Sangu Mandanna, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

3 likes

“He was not seeing things. The moonlight on her hair and skin was real, so, too, were the shadows cast by her cheekbones. He could see the lines of taut skin at the edges of those massive sockets, waxen and tight. Her lips pulled back from teeth in a snarl. The glint of spittle on her teeth was real. Invisible hands yanked her shoulders back, one at a time; she jerked and shuddered.”
― Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz

2 likes

More of C.G’s quotes…