2 1/2 stars. To be honest, while reading the book, I had a lot of mixed feelings. It sometimes grabbed my attention better, made me curious, feel for characters more. Other times, I was a bit bored, detached and couldn't followthe story so well. Overall, I think the feeling of being underwhelmed is dominant as opposed to recommending this book heavily to a friend.

It is a literary fiction that is told from the lenses of 4 siblings in different sections. I must also say I expected a bit of fantastical elements in the book from the description, and that's not the case. So, I wanted to let you know. The book starts with 4 siblings (Varya, Klara, Daniel and Simon) going to a fortuneteller and learning the dates of their deaths in 1960s New York City. Then we move to rest of the lives of each sibling from their narration and see how this experience affects their lives and what they choose to do. I thought the book started really interesting and I was really attracted with the synopsis. But, the plot continued as a character and psychology driven, rather than including elements of this prophecies or anything related to magic.
After I understood the content of the book, I was also OK, because I like character driven books and getting deep into their worlds and perspectives. There's also a lot of family dynamics going on. So, it hooked me back thinking I will learn more about these 4 siblings and how this prophecy affected the direction of their lives.

However, the issue continued when characters still didn't grab me strongly. You know sometimes when you read a book, you feel the same things, move with the character you're reading and share their lives. This strong connection didn't happen. It didn't move me a lot. I was not feeling much for any of the characters.
My favourite story was Daniel's, it was the one that made me more curious and I liked the fact that it got connected to others somehow. And I found Varya's story mind opening to some interesting research world. The writing was not mind blowing, but it was OK. I also want to say, I didn't fee the sexual descriptions were needed at the respective times in the plot. It felt like it was thrown there to create interest. Especially the one at the very beginning with Varya. I really didn't see it coming and why was it there, I will never know.
Last thing I want to say is, the synopsis was quite interesting. But, the real story didn't live up to that standard. It wasn't a perfect flow, and the characters were not very memorable.

4 - 4.5 stars

This book is going straight onto my top reads of 2017 shelf, even though it technically isn't due to be released until next month.

Chloe Benjamin's sophomore novel is a sweeping story of ambition and depth, all encompassing and rich, engaging and brave. The four Gold children, all in the awkward years of preadolescence, visit a fortune teller on Hester Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side who predicts the date of their individual deaths. The novel then spans five decades, visiting each of the siblings as they live with the threat of the date of their extinction, battling over how they should live their lives.

Simon, the youngest and a closeted homosexual, moves to San Francisco, where he can finally be his true self. Klara, initially accompanying Simon to San Francisco, becomes a magician in Las Vegas. Daniel becomes a military doctor, struggling for answers and security in a post-9/11 America, and Varya, the eldest Gold sibling, grapples with anxiety as she lives a life of solitude while also working with primates on a longevity study.

The characters in this book are certainly fully fledged and real. Their internal struggles are painted perfectly and we come to empathise with them completely. There are a string of minor characters here too, but it is the Golds who capture our attention.

Benjamin has written an excellent second novel. A book that is both ambitious yet simple in its story, it is about choice and destiny; fate and faith; reality and illusion. It challenges us to question the line between life and death and urges us to value what is truly real in life. At its heart, The Immortalists is about family and the ties that bind us. A consuming and satisfying read.

What would you live if you knew the exact date when you are going to die? This is the premise of the story of The Immortalists. The four Gold Children goes to visit a fortune teller, where they are told individually the exact date of their deaths. The story then continues individually of each of their lives and how they spend it knowing the inevitable and only when each of them die it goes on to the next child.
I read other people reviews of this book and there have been some mixed reviews. For me personally, I found this book very tough going. I thought the premise of this book was interesting but, it wasn’t the kind of story I thought it would be. I didn’t care for any of the characters and I found the book quite boring in places. 2.5 stars for me.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is about four young siblings who go to visit a fortune teller and are given the dates of their death. The story then follows each one of the siblings to see how this prophecy affects how they live their lives. I really liked the beginning of this book but later on found some of it very hard to read as it took me out of my comfort zone. I would like to thank NetGalley and Headline Publishing for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

2 1/2 stars. I have a lot of mixed feelings about The Immortalists. Though there were parts I enjoyed, I was left feeling underwhelmed and like I'd recommend many other similar books before recommending this one.

You should be aware that this is literary fiction and focuses in depth on the lives of four siblings. The enchanting premise that seems to promise elements of magical realism and the fantastical is a little misleading, as there is very little about prophecies and destiny. Though, personally, this didn't bother me so much. I really enjoy reading about families and the dynamics between them, especially when spread over many years, and I found it interesting to explore how each sibling deals with knowing the date of their death.

It begins with the four siblings visiting a psychic as children, near their home in 1960s New York City. This woman tells them - Simon, Klara, Daniel and Varya - the exact date of their deaths. The book then goes on to consider how this information will affect their lives and the way they live them. The sci-fi/fantasy aspects are waved aside quickly. While there are some brief mentions of fate vs. self-fulfilling prophecy, the author never attempts to offer answers.

This is not a problem. My problem is that there are so many books about families with more memorable characters, fewer predictable plot points, and less trite messages. The classic stuff - East of Eden, Roots, Gone with the Wind, The Thorn Birds and The House of the Spirits, and the more recent stuff - Little Fires Everywhere, This is How It Always Is, Sing, Unburied, Sing and Pachinko.

The characters here didn't quite grab me like so many did in the aforementioned books. Some moments that should have been fraught with emotion seemed obvious and manipulative - (view spoiler) The first two stories - that of Simon and Klara - have very little in the way of family dynamics, as Simon's story mostly consists of dancing in a San Francisco gay bar and meeting his new beau, and Klara's takes her to Vegas to be a magician. Secondary characters roam into these first two perspectives, but none of them make much of an impact.

The second two stories are better. Daniel becomes a doctor in the military and his job leads him to discover something about the psychic who predicted the siblings' deaths. Though my favourite was the last - Varya's. She is now a longevity scientist doing experiments on monkeys. I thought her perspective was well-researched and thought-provoking, and it was easy to imagine someone becoming obsessed with aging when they know their own expiration date.

The writing is just okay, which maybe contributes to making the characters less memorable. Benjamin also occasionally falls prey to the - increasingly more common in modern fiction - random sexual references. This is something that always baffles me and it's not easy to explain because it's not about sex, exactly. It's like there'll be a scene where a character is washing the dishes and the author will suddenly mention his penis hanging limp between his legs. His penis has nothing to do with anything in that scene - the poor dude is just washing some dishes! - and yet, there it is. Here, the author introduces thirteen-year-old Varya by the "dark patch of fur between her legs" in the second sentence of the book. I just... why?

Overall, though, this is a mixed bag of interesting ideas, steps in the right direction that halt too quickly, and a somewhat pedestrian account of the characters' lives. I felt like The Immortalists struggled to live up to its premise.

Where do you start with this book ? It wasn't as I expected it to be in that the somewhat unusual idea of the 4 children finding out their death dates at the start of the book led us into a family drama told through the eyes of each child as they grow up and head towards their destiny.I thought it might be more spooky dooky , I think I just made that word up but in reality it was a fairly straight forward story, and not my usual genre.it made a change from the usual thrillers Sci Fi etc that I read but maybe lacked excitement.I liked the way the book was divided into 4 stories and we followed each persons life I wish they had interacted more really as the stories seemed quite separate in one way.It was well written but lacked punch and I think it was over long I wanted to like it more than I did.I need to read something that grabs me now in a way that this book sadly didn't. I wouldn't actually put anyone off from reading it, I just felt it lacked some thing and that is a shame.Thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for an ARC.I would give this book 3 and a half stars if I could.

I think that the idea of the story was a lot more fascinating than the story itself. I was a little underwhelmed unfortunately. I wanted to know more about the fortune teller and the concept of the dates, however, after the characters found out their dates it was just about each sibling’s life which was nothing special or different.
I didn’t like any of the characters and just didn’t care about them. Having said that, you do want to keep turning the pages because the writing itself is great. People have loved this book so please do give it a chance as I might be in the minority. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this.

Great premise, but left me underwhelmed as a novel

Have we reached a point where for a book to be regarded as ‘literary fiction’ all that is required is that it’s not genre fiction? I ask because this comes accompanied with lots of hype and buzz but personally I found it both underwhelming and eminently forgettable.

The fascinating premise asks questions about how we would live if we knew with certainty the date of our death – but this big theme gets shoved aside for what are more or less four consecutive mini stories of the four siblings who have consulted a woman who claims to know when they will die.

The first story is clichéd and obvious – Simon’s gay and promiscuous, it’s San Francisco at the start of the ‘80s – no points for guessing what ends his young life. The second story of Klara the magician takes a different approach to the issue of predestination but much of the story is taken up with magic tricks and showmanship - one of my personal pet hates in fiction.

Daniel’s story finally starts to capitalise on the family dynamics and the effects of the prophecies but it shades away into handy meetings and an unbelievably melodramatic climax. His life as a medical doctor, prominent in the blurb, is also a red herring: he might as well be an accountant for all the effect it has on his story. And Varya’s story takes us into another direction again with her research into the ageing process. The latter is researched well but fails to ignite a novel which struggles to deal with its own premise.

Throughout the writing is serviceable but has nothing distinctive or particularly stylish about it, and I found the stories about the siblings frequently a bit superficial and shallow. Daniel starts to probe questions of religion as a way to give shape to a life and what happens when religious belief is rejected – but considering that it’s 2006 and the existentialists had already faced up to the loss of faith and the personal responsibility that ensues for living a life of secular value, it hardly feels fresh or novel.

Overall, there’s a great premise that kicks off this book – but what follows doesn’t do it justice. The guiding idea gets lost or submerged, and when it emerges it's only to be treated in desultory fashion. I hoped the story of the Gold siblings would tackles issues in both an intellectual and emotive way but, for me, this was a bit of mildly pleasant puff.

2.5 stars.

I'm sorry I won't be writing a review as I abandoned the book unread beyond the first few chapters (see my comment in Opinions above).

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Chloe Benjamin for my ARC of The Immortalists.

In 1969 a mysterious woman arrives in New York, rumour has it that she can fortell the date of your death. 13 year old Varya goes to see her with her three younger siblings; Daniel, Klara and Simon. What they hear precedes the events which follow. What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?


Simon runs away to San Francisco for a wild life of dancing, sex and a free life. Klara pursues her dreams to become a successful magician, Daniel continues medical school to become a doctor and Varya turns her studies to science. But each sibling is strongly influenced by the predictions the woman made.

The story follows each of the children in their adult lives as their predicted dates of death grow closer. It is a story of family, not just the love shared between family but the dislike, the disapproval of others decisions, the selfishness, the selflessness and the actions which lead to consequences beyond others control. It is an interesting insight into the siblings interior lives and it reads like a Man Booker Prize nominee Book. I hope that makes sense!
Thoroughly engaging, exploring several topics, something that will stay with me for a long time.