Pretty harrowing exploration of a family and the mutual and dynamic effect a prediction has on their lives.

Please be aware that the book contains incidences of homophobia, characters dealing with mental health issues (including OCD and anxiety), suicide, and cruelty towards animals (scientific research).

I am often disappointed in the literary fiction I read. Particularly with recent books, there often seems to be such a focus on showing the shades of grey or the misery inherent in life that I end up finding all the characters unpleasant and find it difficult to care about how things might end up. The Immortalists is absolutely not one of those books. In fact, I loved it so much that I bought a copy for my mum for her birthday - she's a big reader as well, but I don't often read things I think she might enjoy (she's not much into SFF or, you know, lesbian romance!), so I was really happy to read something I could rec to her.

I was intrigued by the premise - knowing, from a young age, when you're going to die - and when I read the first section, where the siblings visit the psychic and discover the apparent dates of their deaths, I was concerned about the fantasy elements, and if they would either overtake the novel or become swallowed within it. But Benjamin does a brilliant job of balancing the two parts of the story - the mystical and the everyday - and weaving the fantastical elements into our own world.

Each of the siblings has their own section, and each is their own, incredibly distinct person. The Immortalists shows beautifully how people can emerge so differently from the same upbringing. The prophecy from the psychic has also affected each of them very differently, and Benjamin shows this in how much each sibling thinks about the prophecy - for some, it's often in their thoughts and for others, it seems to rarely cross their minds. They pursue very different paths - Simon seeks love and acceptance, Katya is trying to find magic in the world, Daniel wants a steady and stable life, and Varya is searching for the secret to a longer life - but they're all haunted by the knowledge they've been given.

Often, when a story focuses on a group of people, I find that I prefer one or two over the others, and this can somewhat lessen my reading enjoyment. But with The Immortalists, I was fascinated by each of the Gold siblings and really enjoyed each of their sections. By focusing on each separately, Benjamin is able to look at life in different locations and different times, with the siblings' disparate experiences tied together, however loosely, by family and the mystical information they received as children.

If you're looking for literary fiction that takes an intriguing question and uses it to examine how people live their lives and how differently people can react to the same situation, you should definitely give The Immortalists a try.

Really enjoyable and gripping book about how one day can change the fortunes of four siblings forever. It begs the question, if you knew when you were going to die would you be more reckless? Fantastic book.

No review - did not finish.
Didn’t like the style / start of the novel. Couldn’t make myself continue - sorry!

The writing is consistently tremendous. The content? ... well, I don't know. It belies a young person writing literature after having learned of the world mainly from headlines. The characters are the biggest problem and Benjamin's bizarre immaturity the other.

The story idea is great even if the setting is rather Hollywood and shallow. Four children of various ages -- the oldest 13 -- are told the date of their deaths. What happens next? Each character gets their own section and their own years.

With four characters it's hard enough to love all of them but I loved only one - Klara and by extension her daughter and Raj. The rest were, to use a word that reviewers have used a lot with this book, underwhelming. Pathetic even, really.

Varya, I couldn't stand even though I felt sorry for her being introduced as a sexualised girl at 13 and maybe that was meant to mirror her sexless life later -- she was ultimately stunted at the original visit -- but I can't help but think that Benjamin herself probably thinks more like a man in order to see this girl with her 'palm-sized breasts' at this age. It's a horrendous description to add to such a young person because you are left with the image of someone's hands on this little girl. It was an exploitative beginning, manipulative even. I can't tell if it was deliberate, though.

There's no life-changing hero's narrative in this story except for those who get their life lessons from Hollywood and scripted TV.

There's also an odd sense of balancing events in the background occasionally. We hear about the British Mandate being lifted off of Israel, which is a recurring motif about having somewhere to call 'home' but we never hear about the Palestinians, the many UN resolutions against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine and of the daily torture and killings of the Palestinian people. Their home is destroyed so someone else gets to have one. The only criticism of Israel that is presented in the book is the support of Iraq and that it's now a satellite of the US and incredibly powerful. The latter can be dismissed, the former was never brought up and could not be dismissed.

This idea could have been amazing. What a shame.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin was published January 9, 2018 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I put in a request to read it because the cover was beautiful and there was something engaging about the outline. I am so glad I did. This is a book that is going to stay with me for a long time.
Set in the USA (predominantly New York and San Francisco) it follows a group of siblings for around 4 decades. Their stories follow on like a tag team, which was very well done. It is beautifully written, with none of the tough and difficult subjects avoided. I felt for every one of the children we met in the first chapter, their lives so tragically and sadly impacted on by the events of just one day. Each of the main characters was so compelling, along with the supporting cast. I cared for them all.
Despite the difficulties and sadness the book is uplifting and exciting, I thoroughly recommend it. Thank you Chloe Benjamin and netgalley, I loved The Immortalists.

What if you could find out the date you were going to die? Would it help you live your life, enjoy every day to fullest? Or would it be a literal death sentence, waiting for the day to come? How much would knowing affect your life choices? What if knowing you were going to die made you make some risky decisions? What if everything you did to avoid your fate was what led you to your death?

These were some of the questions I was pondering whilst reading this book. It was a thought-provoking read, but I felt the stories became less interesting with each subsequent sibling, and I really didn't care for the final story about the poor monkeys in the research facility. There are also some rather graphic sexual situations in the book. These are not an issue for me but some people prefer to be warned ahead of time. Overall, this one goes in the "OK, but I wouldn't reread" pile.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers, Headline/Tinder Press, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

The four young Gold siblings know that there is way to find out the day they're going to die, so they go together to ask the fortune teller and they all get their answer. How does knowing your future affect how you live your present? The Golds are about to find out.

I did like the premise of this book and I did really like the characters very much - having children with very disparate personalities myself it was interesting to see how the Golds related to each other and what effect their relationships had on how they dealt with their "death dates". I thought the relationships in the book were very interesting and very well written and this was definitely a real strength.

The structure of the book was also good - I like the way that the author focussed on the characters individually and this allowed us to get to know them well as their date of death approached.

Unfortunately, I do think the beginning of the book is spoiled by the graphic sexual descriptions. I have no problem with the characters having sex or talking about sex but I don't think the detail was necessary and I think it detracted from the story. I found this particularly to be the case because it was almost exclusively focussed on Simon's story and did not appear later in the book, which made it appear gratuitous and detracting from the important details of Simon's life and why he might well be expectedto die young at that time.

All in all, I liked this book but I didn't love it and I wouldn't recommend it in case other readers are more easily offended than me. I think that's a real shame as there is definitely a lot to commend the idea and the story but not enough to overcome this issue, I'm afraid.

I started this book thinking it was going to go down a particular plot path, and was surprised to find it didn't. In fact, I found the whole book surprising. Clever, thought provoking, funny and sad in turn, it was a really fresh and original read. I loved all the characters, and was gripped as their lives played out before me. I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone so I shall merely say that it's very readable and rather unusual and deserves its bestseller status.

Rarely does a book come along that leaves you reeling and thinking so much about life that your brain feels like it will explode. This is a book on many levels: some may just enjoy it as a story of our time with evocative descriptions of 60s New York, late 70s San Fransisco, 80s Vegas etc but for me this book transcended that and has left me re-evaluating my previously held beliefs.
If you know you’re going to have a short life, do you cram so much in that it actually endangers that life - therefore becoming self prophecy; equally if you know you’re going to live a very long life, do you alter your behaviour so you stay as healthy as possible. Then the BIG question is what would I do?
Thank you Chloe Benjamin for this incredible book. I have been telling everyone I meet about it, urging them to read it so we can engage in a conversation about the issues.

Unfortunately I really struggled with this book. I had really high expectations but found myself disappointed at the way the story unfolded, despite the interesting premise. I made myself finish as I loathe to abandon a book but it was a real labour to make it to the end.

This was one of those books that I thought about the whole time I was reading it: when I was walking home from uni; in lectures; in the shower. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And yet, strangely, I kept putting it down when I was reading it (or stopping myself from picking it up again) because I knew that the quicker I read it the quicker I would finish it and then it would be over! And I wanted to stay with the characters for longer; particularly Simon and Klara, who I became very attached to.
I spent the whole book wondering how the ending would be dealt with, wondering what would happen – and I loved it. It wasn’t what I expected, but in the best way. What constitutes a life? What decisions do we really have? Is everything just planned out for us – or do we make our own choices? These (and many more) are questions and issues that Benjamin opened up without trying to answer for us. I’m still considering them now, days after coming to the end of it. One of the things I really appreciated was that although the focus was on family and life and death, Benjamin didn’t shy away from social and political issues of the times – in fact, these were major points and constituted important parts of the plot.
Overall: heartbreaking. Heartwarming. Would absolutely recommend – I can see why this book is going to be such a big one in 2018.

Chloe Benjamin's epic The Immortalists has us considering some of the most fundamental and complex questions about life and how we live it. It is thought provoking as it asks does knowledge of our mortality make us live our life to the utmost or makes us fearful, guilty, and seek to outwit death? It is 1969 and in Manhattan, New York, the 4 Jewish Gold children seek a light hearted encounter with a gypsy psychic, who tells each of them their prophecies and their date of death. They cannot break free of this knowledge which shapes their futures for the following five decades. This is a story of family, loss, secrets, regrets, sibling relationships, death and above all else, about life.

The lives of each of the children is followed to the last moments in their lives. Klara and Simon are close as siblings, Simon cannot wait to leave home, this culminates in the two of them escaping to San Francisco. The prophecies determine that they live life to the max and at the edge. The gay Simon embarks on a search for love, plunging into life with abandon, displaying a reckless disregard for his own safety in his actions, ignoring all warnings. Klara pursues her obsession for magic, ignited by her grandmother, as she becomes a magician, The Immortalist, playing with ideas of reality. Daniel and Varya are resentful at how they have been left behind with their mother. Daniel becomes a miitary medic whilst Varya seeks the answers to living longer as a researcher. Their lives are considerably more stable but more strewn with guilt and fear.

Benjamin writes in beautiful vibrant prose, creating a compelling and philosophical narrative that draws in the reader effortlessly. The debate as to whether our lives can be foretold, our destiny written in the stars, or can we be architects of our future, determining the paths we choose to take, is the raison d'etre for this novel. Do we burn brightly in the lives we live in the full knowledge we are going to die, or do we allow ourselves to fall prey to our insecurities, guilt, and fear as the consequent possibilities that life offers shrink? There are the inevitable questions of how this has an impact on how religion and country can come to be viewed. This is a profoundly moving book, although uneven on occasion, with disturbed and complicated characters pushed into confronting their mortality from a young age. I much preferred Simon and Klara to Daniel and Varya as they exuded a greater hold on my imagination. This is a perfect read for those wanting to explore ideas and concepts through a fascinating and memorable collection of siblings living through a significant and turbulent period of history. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Headline for an ARC.

Oh dear. I really wanted to love this book but I really couldn’t. It started off badly with the describing of a teenage girls body which I didn’t think was necessary and that started and finished it for me. I carried on for another couple of chapters but the describing of every minute detail of the story went on and on and on, to the point of “oh come on get one with it”! It could have a been a brilliant book but not for me sadly.

The Immortalists is the story of four siblings who decide as children to seek out a fortune teller who claims she can tell you the date you will die. It then follows their very different paths through life - studious Varya, dancer Simon, doctor Daniel and magician Klara - as this “knowledge” affects them in different ways. ⠀
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I enjoyed Varya’s story at the end the most, which surprised me, as on paper she is the most mundane. Yet this is where Benjamin reveals herself to be the master of the believable twist. The believable twist is my favourite kind, the sort that surprises you completely without requiring you to suspend rationality. The twist that makes sense, but you can’t predict it. The Immortalists is full of these twists, particularly in the second half of the book, which makes it all the more enjoyable.⠀
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Despite repeated tragedy throughout the novel, the warmth between the characters prevents this from becoming a sad story. Instead, it’s a story that encourages you to live fully and love deeply, however long you’re here for. Aside from the occasional slow point in the plot (Klara’s story dragged a little for me) it’s a wonderful book. ⠀

The Immortalists touches upon a profound dilemma – if you could find out in advance the date upon which you were going to die, would you? And in finding out, would you then try to avoid that fate? Such is the question posed by Benjamin in this brilliant debut novel, and it creates a thought-provoking read that I found difficult to put down. Of course, there’s the question of self-fulfilling prophecy here – if they hadn’t been given their dates, would they have done things differently? And would it have made any difference? Like I said, there’s lots to think about here.

The structure is straightforward – the novel is split into four sections, with each section following a different character. It progresses chronologically – where one ends, the next one starts – and in this way the reader comes to know each of the siblings in detail, whilst also catching glimpses of the others through their siblings’ eyes. I liked how different each section was. Whilst related, the four Gold children lead diverse lives that bear little resemblance to each other – they have their own hopes and aspirations and they follow their own dreams. Because of the chronological nature, it also means that we see the different characters at different stages of their lives – the final section’s character is in their forties / fifties when we get to them. (I’m trying desperately not to use gender specific pronouns to discuss this novel, as I don’t want to give any hints that might spoil it by revealing any kind of order, or dates etc.) For me, this kept the novel completely fresh, with none of the repetition that you might see in a cast of characters growing up.

Whilst being very different, I become extremely attached to each of the characters, and I was torn between wanting to know whether their prophecies were true and how they might come about, but also wanting them all to go on to lead long lives. Each of them faces ups and downs throughout their lives, and this is at least partly what made them so realistic and endearing. I also feel that Gertie – the Gold matriarch – deserves a special mention. Whilst not one of the points of view in the novel, she is present throughout, and she is a wonderful character seen only through the somewhat biased eyes of her children. I didn’t fully appreciate her role until later in the novel, and whilst she is a secondary character, she is definitely noteworthy.

Whilst the novel might seem predictable given its nature, there were some surprises thrown in along the way and it didn’t end as I expected it to, and I liked the way in which Benjamin chose to finish the novel. It may sound gloomy with its preoccupation of death, but I didn’t find this to be the case at all, and I felt that there was much within the pages that was hopeful and uplifting, and I think that there is a message of living life to the full.

The Immortalists is published by Tinder Press, and is available now in eBook, and will be released in hardback on 8 March. Many thanks to the publisher for allowing me to review and review this title in advance of its publication via Netgalley.

Four siblings, all under 13, visit a fortune teller who tells them the date of their death. Each of them reacts in a different way to this knowledge and seeing how the prediction changes their lives is enthralling. Benjamin cleverly weaves the story of America, immigrants and the family together to create a real page turner.

During the summer of 1969 four siblings visit a fortune teller/psychic and are each told the date on which they will supposedly die. What follows is the story of how the prophecies shape the lives and experiences of each of the four.

A bittersweet story about family and life and death. A good read.

The Immortalists is a sweeping novel about four siblings and their lives with and without each other. In New York City in the late 1960s, the four Gold children visit a woman who it is promised will tell them each the date of their death. The siblings—aged seven to thirteen—must then deal with what they’ve each been told. They’re all very different and they choose to live their lives in different ways, but everything seems irrevocably changed by what they found out from that fortune teller.

The narrative follows each sibling through a chunk of time, whilst filling in details about the others: Simon, the youngest, who leaves home for San Francisco to find love and acceptance; Klara, the unstable magician; Daniel, who becomes an army doctor; and Varya, the oldest, who shields herself with science. In many ways—its setting, cast of related characters, depiction of major time periods such as the AIDS crisis and post-9/11 America—it is very typical of an American novel with an epic yet personal scope, and it isn’t difficult to see connections to many other books. However, there is something about the conceit of being told as a child when you will die along with the varied and sometimes unsteady relationships between the siblings that makes The Immortalists better than another rehashing of a similar theme.

It is easy to say that The Immortalists is a book about living rather than a book about dying. However, maybe, as the title suggests, it is also a book about both knowing you aren’t immortal, and wondering if you could be. This is a novel for those who like getting deeply involved with characters, whilst also knowing that their time with them has to come to an end.

There is nothing greater in reading than reading a book you never want to end. This will most certainly feature in my top books of 2018.
The story of four siblings who as children visit a fortune teller / palm reader who tells them each the exact day they will die.

This day shapes the rest of their lives. Does having this information alter the way you live your life, is there any truth to it? What does it do to the relationships with each other?

Told from each of the 4children as they live their lives across the years it is truly an epic tale.

Will be recommending far and wide