A magical romance between a boy cursed with invisibility and the one girl who can see him, by New York Times bestselling authors Andrea Cremer and David Levithan.
Stephen is used to invisibility. He was born that way. Invisible. Cursed.
Elizabeth sometimes wishes for invisibility. When you’re invisible, no one can hurt you. So when her mother decides to move the family to New York City, Elizabeth is thrilled. It’s easy to blend in there.
Then Stephen and Elizabeth meet. To Stephen’s amazement, she can see him. And to Elizabeth’s amazement, she wants him to be able to see her—all of her. But as the two become closer, an invisible world gets in their way—a world of grudges and misfortunes, spells and curses. And once they’re thrust into this world, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how deep they’re going to go—because the answer could mean the difference between love and death.
From the critically acclaimed and bestselling authors Andrea Cremer, who wrote the Nightshade series, and David Levithan, who wrote Every Day and co-wrote Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist with Rachel Cohen and Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green, as well as many other novels, comes a remarkable story about the unseen elements of attraction, the mortal risks of making yourself known, and the invisible desires that live within us all.
Praise for INVISIBILITY
* " Levithan and Cremer again prove themselves masters of their craft. The inventive, enrapturing story that follows involves spellseekers and a curse-casting grandfather, but Stephen’s and Elizabeth’s journey is largely about redemption, self-acceptance, and love. Cremer and Levithan make Stephen’s invisibility something every reader can relate to, and therein lies the magic." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A must-read for both the realist and the romantic!" --Teen Vogue
"This dynamic duo has crafted a magical NYC love story that brings everything wonderful from their previous books into a novel that packs the adventure and plot twists of the Curse Workers series with a story that celebrates the joy of being honest and truly VISIBLE to another person." --Justine Magazine
"[An] enigmatic mash-up of fantasy and romance set in contemporary real-world Manhattan. The collaboration of Levithan and Cremer creates a seamless narrative." --Booklist
“An interesting tale with plenty to offer, thought-provoking and entertaining all in one. “—TOR.com
“I hear David Levithan—his soulfulness, his tenderness, his yearning, his love—when I read this book. I hear Andrea Cremer—her careful and credible world building, her necessary specificity, her other-worldly imagination. It's a potent combination in a story about a Manhattan boy whom no one in the world can see.” --Beth Kephart, author of Small Damages
“Once in a while, along comes a book like this one, written by two great authors, with a fun premise and nice execution, and I don't feel like I need to cover my enjoyment of it with a cough and a sheepish grin. So thanks for that, Andrea Cremer and David Levithan!” --ForeverYA
“Invisibility is a novel that is both beautifully romantic and magical while hosting a storyline that is wickely dark and frightening.” --Tales of the Ravenous Reader
“Invisibility is a fascinating and unusual take on a modern love story with a whimsical, timeless romance vibe.” --The Compulsive Reader
"The characters are also so effortlessly likable." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"Cremer and Levithan craft a tale of love and magic in their first collaborative effort." --School Library Journal
"A fast-paced supernatural thriller that will surely leave readers wanting more.[A] love child of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Levithan’s Every Day." --Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Starts off well but then goes off the rails
By Alan A. Elsner
The first couple of chapters of this book are kind of magical. We meet 16-year-old Stephen, the invisible boy, living alone in an apartment in New York City - the boy who cannot even see himself. His living mother has died and his estranged father send money to keep him in food and pays the rent. Stephen roams the city, watching people who cannot see him, listening to conversations, feeling that he barely exists. And then, a new family moves into the apartment and the daughter Elizabeth, who is also 16, can see Stephen.A budding romance ensues, and Stephen is eventually forced to tell Elizabeth about his predicament, especially after her brother Laurie, who can't see Stephen catches them talking to one another. That's when the book jumps the shark. Instead of a sweet romance and interesting meditation on what it means to be human, we dive into a secret world of "cursecasters" and "spellseekers." It turns out that Stephen was victim of a curse cast by his very very evil grandfather against his mother for some vaguely-explained reason. And now the three set out on a quest to reverse the curse and make Stephen a real boy again.The more we delve into this nonsense, the more convoluted and tiresome the book becomes. It's good versus evil and will end in a showdown that may be exciting for some but didn't do anything for me.Obviously a book like this demands a large degree of suspended disbelief. But even the world of superheroes needs some kind of internal logic to make it work and this had none. And the characters are 16 going on 32. There's nothing childish or teenlike about them. They are so preternaturally mature and wise.I have enjoyed other books by David Levithan with various collaborators. I thought I'd enjoy this one too but demons and devils are not my cup of tea and this was a mistake.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.Flat Characters and Instalove
By Christina (A Reader of Fictions)
Invisibility isn't necessarily a bad book, but it's certainly not what I was hoping for, and will likely only please those who have not yet tired of the standard paranormal romance formula and tropes.My mistake, and I will admit it was mine alone, was that I assumed Invisibility would be something like Levithan's Every Day. Admittedly, I have yet to read that book, but the premise blows my mind, and, based on friends' reviews and recommendation, I will love it. In that book, I understand that Levithan takes a sort of metaphysical and philosophical look at a unique way of existing, and uses that to reflect on sexuality and love. With Invisibility, I hoped for something similar. What I wanted was the tale of an invisible boy, born that way for no rhyme or reason, and how he comes to find meaning in his existence. Again, this was solely my mental creation. If you had similar hopes, quash them, because Invisibility is just a paranormal romance of magic and curses.To give Cremer and Levithan their dues, the world building for the magic is unique, if strange. They did at least expend the effort to come up with something a bit out of the box. The curses, especially, are very cool, and some of them legitimately freaked me out, so that was well done. Unfortunately, their hearts weren't in that aspect of the book, so the world is uncovered and explained through a series of chapter-long infodumps. The teens go to an adult, ask for information, and receive and infodump. Then they go to another adult and repeat the process. It's a dulling way to receive information.All of that could easily have been saved with well-done characters, though, since characters are where my true love lies as a reader anyway. Sadly, Stephen and Elizabeth are static, with no motivations except the ones given to them by their romance. Elizabeth does have a second motivation in protecting her mother and brother, but, when push comes to shove, she always chooses Stephen over them, so that hardly counts to me.When two authors team up to write a novel in dual perspectives, I generally assume that they both take a perspective to write. Thus, I'm excited to read books composed in this way, because I love dual perspective done well, and it should be so easy for two separate authors to create two distinct perspectives. Somehow, though, I found that I had a lot of trouble distinguishing whether I was reading an Elizabeth chapter or a Stephen chapter until one of their names was said.Perhaps, though, Elizabeth and Stephen are so indistinguishable because they lack individual interests and personalities. Very little effort is expended to make them feel like real people. Stephen, for example, has been on his own since his mother's death, but he apparently does nothing but order food to eat, angst, and people-watch. Though he has absolutely no one to talk to, he has no solitary hobbies to do while alone in his apartment. Um, Stephen, may I suggest the internet? I'm in my home alone right now, but, if I break from writing this review, I can go on Twitter and talk to any number of friends. Though no one can see him, he could make a network on the internet, where no one can see your physical form anyway, unless you choose to share a photo. Or, Stephen, how about reading? No wonder he's so miserable, since he doesn't ever do anything.Then there's Elizabeth, who Cremer and Levithan really tried to make cool and nerdy. Her dream in life is to be a comic book writer and illustrator, both because doing just one is lame to her. Awesome, right? I should totally love this girl. And yet. For all her supposed love of comics, her interest in comic books has been added solely as a plot device by which she can realize her own special powers, which she has been secretly using to create the world in her comic book. When her brother, Laurie, introduces her to another comic book fan, she shows no interest in ever talking to him about them. When the group ends up going several times to a really awesome comic book shop with tons of special editions, Elizabeth never once stops to peruse the selection. Yeah, she's dealing with some serious stuff, but there is no universe where I would be able to walk through a bookstore without noting titles as I walked through or trailing my fingers along the spines. Don't try to connect to nerds with such a shallow attempt, because we do see through that.The only characters I liked and cared about at all were Laurie, Elizabeth's brother, and Sean, a boy in the building Laurie is crushing on. After her parents' divorce, their mother moved the three of them to New York City to escape homophobia so severe that Laurie was hospitalized with multiple broken bones. The father basically blamed Laurie for provoking the attack, so the dad's obviously scum. Briefly, Laurie is a real plot point with a burgeoning romance, but we never get to find out how that's going for him, and he becomes just a pawn to be manipulated by the bad guy. Even then, Laurie's still more useful than Stephen. Laurie gets things done.Worst of all is the romance. First off, we have the invisible, personality-less boy and the pretending-to-be-a-nerd girl. Shock of shocks, she is the only person in the whole wide world who can see him! They touch and feel things. Their connection is made of magic and wondrousness and they fall in love in an unclear amount of time. However, their romance cannot have gone on for long, since she's still a ways from school starting and summer is not that long. Hello, instalove.It gets better, though! Without establishing any real emotional connection between these two, which would be difficult, since they don't actually have personalities, they declare their love and begin arguing about who gets to die for the other one. Is anyone else sick of reading books about teens who are desperate to sacrifice themselves for someone they've only known for a month? Going back to what I mentioned earlier, Elizabeth is already willing to save Stephen's life over that of her brother's when forced to choose, though, obviously, she'll manage to save both. No, girl, your brother comes first, not the invisible kid you've known for a month or less. Also, and here's where things really crossed the line, Cremer and Levithan never offer a convincing excuse for why Laurie can see Stephen, since her own powers don't explain anything. It was a convenient way to make them feel like they must have some mystical connection.The ending did manage to surprise me just a bit, so I will give some credit for that. Cremer and Levithan didn't go for the obvious, easy ending that I'd predicted, so I will applaud them for finally stepping outside of the box, though I would have been grateful if it had happened 340 pages sooner.If paranormal romances relying heavily on baseless instalove still work for you, by all means procure a copy of Invisibility. If, on the other hand, you were hoping for something deep and meaningful along the lines of Levithan's Every Day, you might want to spare yourself the disappointment.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Enjoyed it!
By Amanda Welling
First Impressions: Invisibility caught my eye (no pun intended) right away because of the authors. I've loved pretty much everything that Andrea Cremer and David Levithan have written, and I was excited to see them collaborate. The cover is eye-catching and I was curious how the whole dating an invisible boy thing was going to play out. I had a lot of questions going into this book. I was most curious about why Stephen is invisible, not to mention, how that worked for him growing up. I was also curious about the contemporary themes of this novel and the allegories it could show. It's the type of story that has a lot of potential to be great and I was hoping the authors could pull it off.First 50 Pages: I had a difficult time putting this book down once I started reading it. I pretty much flew through the entire thing in about 3 hours and it left me with a serious book hangover. The beginning of the story hooked me in just because it was so original. For real, it is an unique storyline and I can't compare it to anything else I've read before. Before I realized it, I was halfway through the book. There is no lag time or boring bits and it's a beautiful combination of magic, romance, contemporary issues, and a hint of danger. Everything flowed and weaved together so well. I'm always nervous when I read a story written by two or more authors because sometimes you can tell who wrote what. I'm happy to say that isn't the case with Invisibility.Characters & Plot: However, this story is told from multiple POV's, which may not be for everyone. We get to see Stephen's story and Elizabeth's story. I didn't feel disconnected because of this, unlike some other books with similar formats. In fact, I think it actually enhanced the plot quite a bit and I don't think I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did, had it of been written from the viewpoint of just one of the characters.The characters were extremely enjoyable and to me, realistic. Both Stephen and Elizabeth have personality flaws which makes them so much more believable. Elizabeth is a girl who just moved to New York City and is excited to be there because she wants to blend in. She's had a difficult past and her family is trying to pull themselves together and start fresh in the city. She meets Stephen almost right away while unpacking their new apartment and Stephen is shocked that she can see him because he is invisble. Nobody has ever seen him before, not even his mother (that answered one burning question I had before I started reading).Elizabeth has trust issues and is insecure, but she has her strong points and she really grows as a character throughout the story. She is kind of unpredictable while trying to make herself a whole new life. I'm not sure everyone will love her, but I did. Her flaws might be a turn-off for some people, but I just thought she seemed so real.Stephen on the other hand has been in a shell because of his condition. He latches onto Elizabeth, understandably, and when they first connected I thought, "Oh no. Here comes the insta-love!" But it wasn't like that. Their relationship develops over the course of the story much more than I thought it would. Invisibility also has some really well-developed side characters that make the book that much more interesting. I especially loved Laurie.I don't want to go into the whole magical aspect of this book or it will ruin it for you. It was complex, but easy to follow because of the way the authors' laid it out piece by piece. This is part where the danger and suspense come into play and makes the story all the more entertaining. All I can say is, "Curses! Hexes! Oh my!" I think that the book wraps up nicely, but I still have some unanswered, burning questions. I'm really hoping for a companion novel of some sort.Final Thoughts: I loved this book. I needed a good book like this to bring me out of a reading slump and it sure did the job. It was original, fast-paced, has great flawed characters, and is intense with gooey magic galore. I hope you will love it as much as I did! Very highly recommended!
