Four young siblings learn of a special 'seer' in their neighborhood, an old woman who can tell them their future, specifically to impart to them the day they will die. Each child hears this date alone, and must live with the consequences of knowing their future and thus the story begins. As the tale unfolds, we follow each of the four children in singularity: Simon, a young gay man, as he heads to San Francisco in the early 1980's; Klara, a free spirit who dreams of becoming a magician; Daniel, the oldest boy in their Jewish family, working towards 'normalcy;' and Varya, the eldest child, career biologist, with deeper secrets than anyone ever knew. This is a strange yet extraordinarily compelling book. Often, I did not care for the characters - their habits, their life choices, their relationships. Yet I could not put this book down. It brings up provocative themes and ideas: how would one live their life if their day of death was foretold? Do we owe it to ourselves to fulfill our life's dream? Or do we owe loyalty to our families? Is being selfish wrong or is it fulfilling our passion? The Immortalists would be an incredibly provocative choice for a book club, eliciting some fascinating and powerful conversation.

This was an outstanding book! I can't think of a single way that this book could've been better.

In "The Immortalists," Chloe Benjamin tells the story of the four Gold siblings who visit their neighborhood fortune teller. During this visit, the dates in which the siblings will die are revealed. Later when a personal tragedy occurs, this information steers the Gold children down various paths of coping.

With expertly written characters, Benjamin draws readers into the story, exploring the themes of fate and family dynamics and creating an unputdownable novel. At times, the book was slightly predictable but I attribute this to effective foreshadowing.

I highly recommend this novel.

How would you live your life if you knew the exact timing of your death?

The Gold children are living in New York and are bored to death! When they hear of a mysterious woman, who can tell you things. Mysterious things. Such as when you are going to die. 

Knowing changes them all. Four siblings who shape their futures on the word of a palm reader. The youngest off to San Francisco to live life the way he wants. Along with him goes Klara who dreams of being a magician or illusionist. While Daniel studies to become a doctor and Varya becomes a scientist pushing the boundaries between science and immortality. 

This book was nothing like I expected. It is so many small stories rolled into one big story. There are the individual stories of each member of the family along with the story of them as siblings. It's about science, religion, family, dreams and the reality of life.  About what is expected of us as family while remaining true to our own dreams and hopes.

Excellent Book!

Netgalley/January 9th 2018 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

Review to come at end of dec with cross posted link

This was my first ever arc from Netgalley, which might have affected the way I tore through the book. I was really excited to read it, and most of it was pretty exciting to read. The four sections, one for each sibling, works well for the book because each sibling's story comes up in every section. It wasn't disjointed — it didn't feel like a book of short stories, which is what I was afraid of.

Another reviewer mentioned finding the second half more boring (I'm paraphrasing) from the first, and I also expected that by the summaries of what each child ends up doing. A dancer in San Francisco and a traveling magician sure sound like more interesting lives to read about than a doctor and a scientists. Daniel's ending did have some issues for me. I had to read the last few pages a few times to understand what was going on and it still came out of nowhere. I'd hoped to get more info than "my brother got mixed up into a bad situation" about it later. With that said, I flew through Daniel's and Vanya's chapters. [And I thought the decision to end the book before her death, thus leaving us hanging about how much truth was in the "gypsy's" prediction, was a good one. (hide spoiler)]

From page one (or just reading the description on Goodreads), you know this book centers around the question, "If I knew when I would die, how would it affect my life?" As has already been noted by many, each sibling handles the prediction differently, but it ultimately changes all of their lives. [ So in the end, you can decide for yourself if she can truly tell the future or she's a crazy old lady, and it doesn't really matter anyway. I'm just glad I don't know of any around here to find out for myself.

What would you do if you knew the day you would die? How would your life change or would it at all? This story tracks the life of 4 siblings from the day they found out in 1969 and into the rest of their lives.

This book gives a very interesting look into humanity and how certain knowledge can change and impact lives. I really found myself connecting to different parts of each of the four siblings and felt like each of them had very real and human reactions. This book was very interesting and gave me a lot to think about while I was reading it.

I received this book via NetGalley after I requested it, and I had requested it because of extremely high ratings on Goodreads. Unfortunately, I did not end up aligning myself with all those reviews. 

It is not extremely rare for me to like certain books that the rest of world does, mostly because I like an element of triumph in my books. This book is a story about four siblings who set out to find a fortune- teller who could tell you the day on which you would die. Once this information is received, they react to it in different ways. Either because of the information they have been provided or their inherent traits, each choose different ways to lead life and cope with what adversity throws at them. There is a thread of despair that is threaded through all the narrations told by each sibling in turn. This mood is what threw me off. How and where they end up is the crux of the tale.

A delicious, fat, intelligent, tearjerker of a family saga spanning the lives and deaths of four Jewish siblings. The writing is better than that sentence suggests. Benjamin surprises often with the originality and deft weave of her material.. Yes, there are predictable moments and implausible ones too, but overall this is a smashing indulgence of a story. Congrats.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. It will draw you in from the start.

Imagine going to a woman who can tell you when you will die. When four young siblings go to visit this woman, their lives will change forever.

The rest of the story you will follow them on their lives path. I found their stories to be amazing as it was hard to put this one down.

The Immoritalist was very well written, although I found some of the siblings stories to start off slow, what they turned into was worth the weight.

I look forward to reading work from Chloe Benjamin in the future.

As always, thank you NetGalley for the advanced read! They are truly appreciated!

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

What would you do if as a child someone told you the day you were going to die? Would it empower you to live life to the fullest? Would that knowledge drive you to despair? Would you believe what you’ve heard or scoff at the chance you were told the truth? The four Gold children went to the old woman out of curiosity. None of them realized how that information would affect them. The fear that it would instill, the overwhelming nature of such information. In turn they each reacted differently, but none of them ever forgot the date they were told. Each of them held that date in their mind and lived. Until that day finally came.

This book was so incredibly well written. I was intrigued from the prologue and couldn’t stop reading. Simon, Klara, Daniel and Varya were all extremely well developed characters with differing passions, temperament and goals. And each of them were affected in different ways by the woman who revealed the most damning information one can ever receive. I thought Benjamin did an amazing job in creating these characters and sculpting their lives. Each journey was so believable and utterly heartbreaking.

The Immortalists was a beautiful story about family and about how we choose to live our lives. I’m not sure how I would react to knowing the date of my death or how that knowledge would affect my life. But I understood the choices the different characters made after learning their own. Benjamin, with her well written characters and beautiful storytelling, created a novel that allows you to get swept away on those imaginings while seeing how life unfolds differently for everyone. I can’t wait to see what else Benjamin has in store.

Thought provoking, multi-layered, drenched with feeling -- alive on nearly every page.

In 1969 in New York City, four siblings walk to Hester Street. Varya at thirteen is the eldest. Daniel is eleven, Klara is nine, and Simon is the youngest at seven. Daniel is leading the way. They pass their father's tailor shop but continue on to an old apartment building. They seek a woman who tells fortunes. She can even tell you the day you will die.

Each child must go into the woman's apartment alone. Each child leaves altered, never to be the same.

Klara is the first to enter the fortune teller's apartment. Next came Daniel, then Simon, and last of all Varya. "What if I change," Varya asks, upset by what she learns. "Then you'd be special. 'Cause most people don't."

In The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin offers readers a book with big ideas that also reads like butter, an addictive story that lures one on into deeper waters. Each sibling's history is revealed with its impact upon the others. Are the choices they make a reflection of what they believe will come? 

Simon and Klara are the risk-takers who leave home for San Francisco. Simon embraces an open life as a gay man, becoming a dancer in a gay club. Klara is obsessed with the grandmother, a performer whose specialty was hanging suspended in midair from a rope which she held in her teeth. Klara pursues magic and performance, imitating her grandmother's famous act.

Daniel and Varya take no risks. Daniel leads a solid life as a military doctor and family man. Varya becomes a researcher in longevity, struggling with obsessive disorder, especially about health.

In her struggle to overcome her losses and fears, Varya learns that the power of words can change the past, and the future, and the present.

This book is going to make a big splash.

I will warn that Simon's story, the first to be revealed, includes descriptions of gay sex and the pre-AIDS San Francisco gay scene. Varya's story includes lab animal testing; Benjamin's research into animal testing moved her and she offers a link to the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance.

I received a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Not my style of book, at all. The reviews made it sound fantastic, but the writing was harsh and depressing. I don't want to spend my time in a world like that.

I will not be reviewing the book as it seems very unfair to base a review on only a portion of the book.

My favorite read of 2017 was this 2018 release. Loved the relationships between the siblings. Loved the opening scene in the city. Was fascinated by the theme of fate versus free will. Took one star off because the 2nd half was not as strong as the first.

When Varya, Daniel, Klara and Simon sneak out of their apartment to see a fortune teller known to predict your date of death, they did not foresee how their lives would be impacted. Simon’s story is told first, the story of a young man, lost and trying to find himself in San Francisco. Klara is next, always wanted to be a magician, but suffering with personality disorders. Daniel, a military doctor, who has not gotten over the fates of his siblings, and tries to find the fortune teller. And finally, Varya, tied up with OCD and her efforts to find the secrets of a long life. An intense story, I was sucked in to this different novel.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 2/5 stars

**REVIEW IS SPOILERISH**

The Immortalists falls into the category of reads where I find myself questioning whether I liked the read or not. The only way to sort out the answer is with a list of likes and dislikes.

Likes:
I like the premise of this read, the idea of the power of suggestion and how it impacts a person throughout his or her life. In this instance, four children, at far to young an age, were told by a gypsy woman the dates of each of their respective deaths which in turn wreaks havoc on their lives from that moment forward. As the children grow into adults, each tries, without much success to forge a path, a life out from under the shadow of a death date.

Dislikes:
Unfortunately, the promise of the premise utterly fell apart as the story unfolded. From the moment the children discover their respective death dates, each travel along a collision course headlong toward what becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. For a time, each of the four siblings find a small measure of happiness – Simon in his dancing and relationship, Klara in her daughter, Daniel in his ability to help others, and Varya in her work – but, it isn’t enough, in the end, to sustain any of them.

The book is broken into four sections, one for each of the siblings and each is sadder, more pathetic than the last. Simon is very much a product of his time and place, Klara is a product of undiagnosed/untreated mental illness, Daniel is a victim of his own obsession, and Varya, well, I’m still not sure what went sideways with her. Ultimately, each of siblings feels helpless in the face of a death sentence and rather than fight, they give in to what they each clearly see as the inevitable. This giving up, the sense of doom and inevitability is the root of my displeasure with this book. None of these siblings ever reached out to anyone for help, sought to help one another, and no one in their lives, apparently, cared enough to encourage them to seek help. Furthermore, each sibling is so caught up in his or her own life and BS, weighed down by old hurts and betrayals, they can’t see a life beyond what they feel is a fixed moment in time. To this end, each, even when in a relationship, becomes so isolated as to become quite hopeless. From page one, it is clear this read there is going to be nothing but waste, waste of talents and more importantly, a waste of lives.

The Bottom Line: The Immortalists is one of those reads I fully expected to like and found very much lacking in the end. In the end, I was very much disappointed by the characters in this book, literally every one of them. All the siblings, all four of them had every opportunity to help themselves and one another yet, none of them took such steps and/or measures. In large part, I stuck with this book because I kept hoping someone would finally pull their head and do the right thing. Though one of the siblings does end up living, it isn’t much of a life and it’s filled with the guilt of knowing how little help was offered and/or given to her siblings. In the end, I found this book tragic in the worst sense possible as well as frustrating beyond belief.

How would you live your life if you knew the time of your death? The Immortalists, tells the story of four siblings whose lives were forever changed by a visit to a fortune teller when they were kids. It is an intriguing concept that never quite comes to fruition. Each of the four children had a story to tell as they led their separate lives but the power of family was muted and never gave it the sharp focus I think it needed. In my opinion, the center of the story should have been Gertie, the matriarch of the family who lost everyone and yet endured.

I enojed this book. The multiple perspectives within the same family made for a robust narrative. I would not use this in my high school classroom. One of the characters actively pursues sexual relationships and some of these are described in detail.

Chloe Benjamin has written an engrossing and deeply moving saga of four close siblings and how their life paths develop and eventually diverge. The characterizations illuminated their separate stories, and even descriptions of the supporting characters contributed freshness and realism. A worthwhile read!