About V.E. Schwab

Victoria "V.E." Schwab was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and has been building interconnected fantasy worlds since her debut at 22. She writes under V.E. Schwab for adult and crossover fiction and as Victoria Schwab for YA. The distinction matters less than her output, which is staggering: more than twenty books across multiple series, all of them operating in the same moral universe where power corrupts, choice matters, and the villains are often more honest about themselves than the heroes.

Her breakout series Shades of Magic launched in 2015 with A Darker Shade of Magic, a portal fantasy set across four parallel Londons with different levels of magical saturation. It made her a household name in fantasy. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020) pushed her to a different level entirely — a standalone about a woman cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets, told across three hundred years. It's the kind of book that makes readers feel personally invested in the author's career. If you haven't read Schwab, she's one of the few fantasy writers whose entire back catalogue is worth working through.