From the Bookshelf of Read With Me…

The Immortalists

Chloe Benjamin

Start date: April 1, 2018

Finish date: April 30, 2018

Discussion: APRIL 2018

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 3 topics — 25 comments total

APRIL 2018

Post-Discussion: The Immortalists
By Stephanie · 2 posts · 27 views

last updated May 14, 2018 02:51PM

Check In: The Immortalists
By Stephanie · 17 posts · 19 views

last updated May 02, 2018 09:12AM

showing 1 of 1 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Feb 02, 2018 Lucy Banks rated it it was amazing

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

How would you live your life, if you knew when you were going to die?

For me, the premise of this book was too intriguing to ignore. I dived in, expecting something with supernatural leanings, perhaps rather fantastical. What I got instead was something far richer and more thought-provoking than I could have imagined.

The Immortalists starts with four siblings, walking along a street in New York. Vayra, the eldest, is I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

How would you live your life, if you knew when you were going to die?

For me, the premise of this book was too intriguing to ignore. I dived in, expecting something with supernatural leanings, perhaps rather fantastical. What I got instead was something far richer and more thought-provoking than I could have imagined.

The Immortalists starts with four siblings, walking along a street in New York. Vayra, the eldest, is protective of her three younger brothers and sisters; Daniel, whose idea it was to visit the fortune telling gypsy in the first place, flighty Klara, and the youngest, Simon.

The fortune teller agrees to see them, one at a time; and while in her apartment, they learn the date of their death. So far, so spooky, right?

However, that's where the book ceases to be the eerie novel it might have been, and becomes something else entirely. It's divided into quarters; each focusing on a sibling, and what they did with their lives afterwards. Most importantly, it's an exploration into the choices they make, given the knowledge that they have. One is destined to die young, and thus lives life to the full; and rather recklessly to boot. Another denies her death altogether, until the knowledge overwhelms her and she ends her life. The third tries to track down the fortune teller and kill her, with terrible consequences, and the final sibling lives a closeted life, because they are so frightened of losing the ones they love.

The storyline itself was impressive enough. The quality of writing - even more so. It was well-paced enough to hold my attention, yet engaging enough to make me take my time with it (a rare thing for someone who normally rattles through books at a ferocious rate). The characters are deep, rounded and thoroughly believable - and there are so many other elements that enrich the story further - such as the Jewish mother, the magician, Raj, and his daughter, and the cop whose life is somehow interwoven with theirs.

It's also as much about family ties as it is about death; and brings about a lot of reflection while reading it. So yes, I think it's fair to say that I loved this book to bits - I'll be reading it again in the future, I'm sure! ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Jan 22, 2018 Brooke (Brooke's Books and Brews) rated it liked it

***3.5***

This one fell short for me. I think I just had different expectations and it didn’t live up to them. I would still encourage others to read this book though! It is very well written, the story just couldn’t keep my attention.

8 likes · Like · see review

May 02, 2018 Knight rated it liked it

it wasn't a bad book, but it also wasn't a good book, either. i liked the premise of what would happen if you knew your own death and this story was underwhelming. i expected a little bit more, but it was the complete opposite of what i wanted. i would still recommend the book to others, but i just felt like there should have been more done with the plot. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2019 Shawnda M. rated it liked it

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness--sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness--sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel struggles to maintain security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

Both a dazzling family love story and a sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

This is a very unique story about the life journey of four siblings. It's the perspective from which the story is told that makes this book different, but it also made the reading tedious at times at least for me. Daniel, Varya, Klara,and Simon all have different experiences. Were these due to the the fortune teller letting them know the exact date they would die? Did they set their own demise into action by believing in the predictions, and then how they chose to live their lives after that? How would a normal person act if they knew today was the last few hours of your life left to live?
I found it difficult to bond with any one particular character, and felt sometimes that their stories were either too overly written or not enough went into their portion of the story. I did love how each section started after the previous siblings death that was rather interesting way of continuing into the story. I really enjoyed seeing how the siblings left behind dealt with their deaths.
I guess there's something to be said about the complexity of the characters because they are in fact very complex people but aren't we all.
It wasn't a bad book but I found it a difficult read for me if it was not a book club pick I don't know if I would have chosen it just off the shelf. I won't lie I did have to force myself to get through it in the beginning, but by the end I began to realize the actual message of the book and it really started speaking to me so I zoomed through the pages to see how it was going to end. So what I took from the book was well worth fighting through a few chapters to be able to take such a powerful message away with me. ...more

Like · see review