The Immortalists
Author: Chloe Benjamin
Published by: Tinder Press
Pages: 404
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?
It’s 1969, and holed up in a grimy tenement building in New York’s Lower East Side is a travelling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the date they will die. The four Gold children, too young for what they’re about to hear, sneak out to learn their fortunes.
Such prophecies could be dismissed as trickery and nonsense, yet the Golds bury theirs deep. Over the years that follow they might attempt to ignore, embrace, cheat or defy the ‘knowledge’ given to them that day – but it will shape the course of their lives forever.
My thoughts:
The Immortalists is an interesting book, and one that included moments that were truly moving and powerful.
The first two sections, which focus on Simon and Klara, are much stronger than those that focus on Daniel and Varya.
Four siblings meet a psychic who tells them exactly when they will die. It then influences how they choose to live their lives.The premise of this book immediately drew me in and I couldn’t wait to find out how knowing about the timings of their death would shape each sibling. The family drama and characters’ journeys are really at the heart of this story. The book is divided up into four parts, one dedicated to the journey of each of the four siblings.
I definitely felt that the beginning of the novel was the best part. I enjoyed the story of the siblings growing up together in New York and how they eventually ended up visiting the mystic. Following on from that in the first section of the book, Simon ends up going to San Francisco with his sister Klara, and we are told his story. Simon was a complex character and I found him very intriguing. Parts of his journey were truly moving and powerful, which held my attention closely through most of the initial one hundred or so pages. I didn’t like the way his story ended though, and felt that what happened to him was predictable and very sad.
Even though I preferred her character early on, Klara’s section of the book was so drawn out. As the story reached her death, the details and circumstances felt really vague. I thought, particularly with her personality and strong interest in magic, that she might at least try to disprove the mystic’s prophecy. The next section dealt with Daniel and this part was more difficult to engage with. His section felt a little rushed. The way in which he died and all the events around it were just bizarre and felt kind of silly. The last section dealt with the sister Varya. She was a compelling character with OCD and was a science researcher, but by this point I honestly was just finding the entire book so relentlessy downbeat, I didn’t really care. It’s definitely a slow burning story where you follow each of the characters throughout their struggles.
I feel at the very most, all I can give is a three star rating to The Immortalists. It had such a great premise and started so strongly, but this one was hopeless and gloomy throughout, plus I didn’t care enough about any of the lead characters. The inevitable death of each character, and their story endings, especially, seemed lazy. I couldn’t fully believe in the characters at that point.
In conclusion I feel disappointed as for me the book just didn’t live up to its premise. The way the story is told about one sibling after anotherseemed interesting at first, but eventually ended up feeling quite disjointed, and the lack of connection between them made it harder to stay engaged. In my opinion, Simon and Varya’s were the two stronger stories, but suffered from feeling extremely slow and ambiguous at times. Simon’s, in particular was frustratingly predictable. Despite this, I still slightly preferred thefirst two sections, which focus on Simon and Klara, and felt that overall they were still much stronger than those parts dealing with Daniel and Varya.
The Immortalists wasn’t the book I thought it could be. The synopsis sounded great, but all in all, the book felt sluggish and unremarkable. Ultimately it amounted to a fairly dull domestic fiction about a family, and did not explore the themes of the original premise enough in my opinion.
Overall reaction:
Published by: Tinder Press
Pages: 404
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?
It’s 1969, and holed up in a grimy tenement building in New York’s Lower East Side is a travelling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the date they will die. The four Gold children, too young for what they’re about to hear, sneak out to learn their fortunes.
Such prophecies could be dismissed as trickery and nonsense, yet the Golds bury theirs deep. Over the years that follow they might attempt to ignore, embrace, cheat or defy the ‘knowledge’ given to them that day – but it will shape the course of their lives forever.
My thoughts:
The Immortalists is an interesting book, and one that included moments that were truly moving and powerful.
The first two sections, which focus on Simon and Klara, are much stronger than those that focus on Daniel and Varya.
Four siblings meet a psychic who tells them exactly when they will die. It then influences how they choose to live their lives.The premise of this book immediately drew me in and I couldn’t wait to find out how knowing about the timings of their death would shape each sibling. The family drama and characters’ journeys are really at the heart of this story. The book is divided up into four parts, one dedicated to the journey of each of the four siblings.
I definitely felt that the beginning of the novel was the best part. I enjoyed the story of the siblings growing up together in New York and how they eventually ended up visiting the mystic. Following on from that in the first section of the book, Simon ends up going to San Francisco with his sister Klara, and we are told his story. Simon was a complex character and I found him very intriguing. Parts of his journey were truly moving and powerful, which held my attention closely through most of the initial one hundred or so pages. I didn’t like the way his story ended though, and felt that what happened to him was predictable and very sad.
Even though I preferred her character early on, Klara’s section of the book was so drawn out. As the story reached her death, the details and circumstances felt really vague. I thought, particularly with her personality and strong interest in magic, that she might at least try to disprove the mystic’s prophecy. The next section dealt with Daniel and this part was more difficult to engage with. His section felt a little rushed. The way in which he died and all the events around it were just bizarre and felt kind of silly. The last section dealt with the sister Varya. She was a compelling character with OCD and was a science researcher, but by this point I honestly was just finding the entire book so relentlessy downbeat, I didn’t really care. It’s definitely a slow burning story where you follow each of the characters throughout their struggles.
I feel at the very most, all I can give is a three star rating to The Immortalists. It had such a great premise and started so strongly, but this one was hopeless and gloomy throughout, plus I didn’t care enough about any of the lead characters. The inevitable death of each character, and their story endings, especially, seemed lazy. I couldn’t fully believe in the characters at that point.
In conclusion I feel disappointed as for me the book just didn’t live up to its premise. The way the story is told about one sibling after anotherseemed interesting at first, but eventually ended up feeling quite disjointed, and the lack of connection between them made it harder to stay engaged. In my opinion, Simon and Varya’s were the two stronger stories, but suffered from feeling extremely slow and ambiguous at times. Simon’s, in particular was frustratingly predictable. Despite this, I still slightly preferred thefirst two sections, which focus on Simon and Klara, and felt that overall they were still much stronger than those parts dealing with Daniel and Varya.
The Immortalists wasn’t the book I thought it could be. The synopsis sounded great, but all in all, the book felt sluggish and unremarkable. Ultimately it amounted to a fairly dull domestic fiction about a family, and did not explore the themes of the original premise enough in my opinion.
Overall reaction:
