The Immortalists begins in 1969 in New York’s Lower East Side. We meet the gold children - Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya. The children have learned that there is a fortune teller in town and they make their way to visit her. They each go in one at a time and come out forever changed. She told each of them the day that they would die.

The story is then broken into 4 parts. Each part focuses on one of the children. Some of the children grow up and go far away, some stay close, some stay attached strongly to their Jewish heritage, some rebel.

Each character, Simon, Daniel, Klara, and Varya are so beautifully developed. You feel like you know them. You care about them.

You watch as each character creates their life and how much it has been influenced by them being told the day they are going to die. Rather or not they believe the prophecy, it still impacts them and how they live their lives. Along the way, several issues are covered, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic as well as animals in labs for research.

I really enjoyed this book, though parts of it were sad and some even made me flinch. The story is well written and the characters very well developed.

I received an ARC of the book.

Loved the concept of a group of siblings who learn the supposed date of their death, but I didn't love the writing. A lot of the story elements were cliche.

This is the story of four siblings who learn the date of their deaths from a fortune teller they visit when they are children. Knowing the date they will die affects how each child lives their life as well as the relationships they have with each other. The book tells the story of each character, one at a time, as they near the date of their death.
The writing is beautiful and although the author deals with hard topics and terrible, sad things happen to these characters, the reader is left feeling hopeful at the end.

If you could know the date of your death, would you want to?

When my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer ten years ago, I met with a genetic counselor to assess my personal risk. Leading up to the decision, my husband and I discussed all angles of my choice and it brought on some very deep discussions. From the very beginning, there was no question in my mind that I would have the test taken – I wanted to be hypervigilant with my body because I believe that the sooner you recognize there could be a problem, the better. However, my husband, if given the same choice, was adamant that he wouldn’t want to know. He said he would refuse to take any kind of test that would tell him his chances of getting certain diseases or illnesses. While that thought process personally baffles me, I don’t begrudge him his choice.

While learning your liklihood of getting various diseases is not the same as knowing the exact date of your death, this book made me ponder what my choice would be if put in the same situation as Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon. If you’d have asked me in my younger years, I’m sure my answer would have unequivocally been, “YES!”, but as I’ve gotten older, I think I might resist the temptation.

As the children find out, knowing the date of your death could quite possibly change the very way you chose to live. This book is magical in every single way – from the psychic who makes these predictions to Benjamin’s writing. I was enraptured by the whole story from the very first line.

While the book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I found it to be such an enjoyable read and was so disappointed when it ended. I wanted to follow the siblings on their journey’s forever. I haven’t read Bejamin’s first novel, The Anatomy of Dreams, but I plan on getting my hands on a copy soon.

This was my first read of 2018 and it set the bar high. If this is setting the tone for the rest of the year, I’m excited!!

This book’s publishing date is Tuesday, January 9th. Be sure to pre-order or plan a trip to the bookstore so you can see what the buzz is all about!

This was a powerful story, which starts off in NYC in 1969, the Gold children, Varya 13, Daniel 11, Klara 9 and Simon 7, have heard from people about a traveling psychic who can predict the day of your death, and they all sneak out to see if they can find her.
A story of an interesting family all so diverse in their wants in life and how they end up living their lives.
As the children grow they move to different places to live, and pursue their passions. Simon, moves to live a life no one knew about and studies dance.
His sister Karla has always wanted to be a magician, Daniel becomes a Doctor and Varya, a longevity specialist. Wherever they are, they always have on their minds, what they were told by the psychic.
This book was one that was hard to put down, as I became invested in each of their lives. It was also one that kept me a bit on edge, thinking about what it would be like to have the information they did. Would you believe it as destiny or would you think it was just the ramblings of an old woman, and how would your actions play into it.
This is a book well worth reading, and which will make you think about life.
I would like to thank NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the ARC of this book.

This book is gorgeous, really. It's sad in the way that life is sad, and brings that rush of emotion that you feel when realising that yeah, we're all just another human beings.

I loved the way that the characters embraced magic as a real possibility, and then how they diverged from there. I loved Simon, and the depiction of his life in San Francisco was truly delightful. And also... well.

The reflection on immigration and the importance of family was also quite touching. I wasn't expecting to see this thread, but the pressures of being many generations in were quite touching. Mental illness was also portrayed with more intensity than I would have guessed.

I wish there had been more talking about the whole prediction, and I was wholly unimpressed with the way that Daniel went down, but on the whole, this was solid. And Ruby's character tied everything beautifully together.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In many ways, The Immortalists is an adult version of They Both Die at the End. Both explore the idea of fate versus choice. Both deal with the idea of living your life knowing when your last day is. Unfortunately, as good as Chloe Benjamin's novel is, I do think Adam Silvera did it better.

The thing is, The Immortalists is a well-written novel. The Gold children each deal with the knowledge of their death date in different ways, with a wide variety of success and tragedy. Simon's story is particularly poignant and inspiring. No matter how you react to each of the siblings, however, Ms. Benjamin gets you to react. You care enough to feel for these four children and the lives they lead. Their deaths, while not unexpected, are still tragic in the fact that they happen if not how. You want the psychic to be wrong and hope the kids can beat back any demons that haunt them. It is an emotional novel that questions the idea of fate versus choice.

In spite of all that emotional goodness, I am left feeling rather unsatisfied. One could debate for days whether each of the siblings would have acted in the same way had they never learned about their death date and therefore knowing this information contributed to their demise. It makes for a fascinating but ultimately unsatisfactory discussion because there are no definitive answers to either point. Regardless if there was, this is not the point of the story. The story is about family and about living a genuine life. The thing is that no one really learns these lessons. The siblings part ways early on in the novel and remain apart from one another if not completely estranged in some form. As for living a genuine life, well, that too may be up for debate. This all makes me question whether the learning lessons are more for readers rather than the characters, which I find somewhat disappointing. The Immortalists then becomes a 352-page lecture, albeit a well-told one.

I suspect my feelings about The Immortalists would be different had I not read Adam Silver's latest masterpiece a few short months ago. In his story, the focus is two characters and one day, allowing readers a greater opportunity to get to know them and to experience their last day alongside them. Ms. Benjamin has us as silent witnesses versus silent participants. Not only that but by keeping the focus to one day, we see the difference it makes when one truly lives their life without fear and without worry. Ms. Benjamin's version, by occurring over five decades, makes this more nebulous, and we don't necessarily see the Gold siblings living without fear or worry. We see them, for the most part, as adults worried about the same things as every other adult.

For me, The Immortalists is good but it cannot be as good as Adam Silvera's novel. This is not only because I read it first but also because I remain more impressed with how he told his story, with his characterization, and the method by which he laid out his theme. Ms. Benjamin's novel suffers from uneven characters, a theme which makes no sense in the context of the story, and from the feeling of repetitiveness that comes with having recently read a more impressive and memorable similar story.

The Gold siblings learn about the fortune teller on Hester Street in the summer of 1969. All 4 of them gathered up their allowances and savings to learn the day they are going to die. The idea is initiated by the second oldest, Daniel, and he leads them through New York City's Lower East Side toward the mystical woman's apartment. Once they have each been inside and consulted with the rishika, the feelings range from distraught to stony. For the next 50 years and the rest of the book, we learn the fate of the Gold siblings one at a time and whether the fortune teller was right. Or will the Gold siblings make choices based on the prophesy they were each given?

"And what if I change?" It seems impossible that Varya's future is already inside her like an actress just offstage waiting decades to leave the wings.
"Then you'd be special. 'Cause most people don't."
pg. 16

The aspect that stuck with me so fiercely throughout the novel was the connection the Golds had with each other. Even during times where they aren't as close they used to be or would like to be, Benjamin tells us through the characters' thoughts that they still think of each other often and long for their company. She describes the pain they feel because of their separation.

Unfortunately, this kind of connection is something that is hard to understand if you don't have siblings. This relationship is different from any other in the world. You are eternally connected as family. Your siblings are the only people who will be with you from birth to grave. Your childhood experiences can affect you through the rest of your life and consequently, your siblings are sometimes the only people who you feel every truly understand you. In the case of the Golds, this is true in that they experienced their trip to the fortune teller together and no one else understands the affect this has on their future decisions. Even within the siblings, certain characters band together based on the similarities in their fortunes. The lucky ones cannot understand why the ones who aren't as lucky make decisions with an attitude that screams "What do I have to lose?" This sibling connection is evident in each story through the rest of the novel and it made me long for my own siblings by the time I was finished reading.

There's a small level of fantasy or magical realism in this novel but not enough, in my opinion, to label this a fantasy novel. It's just enough to make you even wonder if it's really there. Is the fortune teller real? Does magic really exist? Or is it all coincidence and slight of hand? Benjamin never really gives you a definitive answer and I love that we get to decide for ourselves.

You get sucked into each character's mind during their part of the novel and can't put the novel down until that part is finished. The stories start off so intense and become more calm as you go. The less exciting lives brings down the feelings of uncertainty that novels can end with sometimes. I know some people said they wished they felt like the exciting stories were stronger than the others, but the order they were told left me feeling satisfied by the end.

Mainly, the four stories remind you that the length of your life does not equal quality. This is the idea that I think Benjamin is trying to get across in her novel and she does it well. The Golds have been given the date of their death and live their lives accordingly, whether consciously or unconsciously. You see the difference in their joy and the level of responsibility they take for others and in their own lives.

If you could, would you learn the date of your death? Do you try to live your life to the fullest like this could be your last day on earth? It's an idea that you will be thinking about for a while after you finish.

This is a book I totally got into. I know for some the topic might not be their cup of tea but for me it worked. I enjoyed how each character was presented and their story was told. Hope the author continues writing would be happy to read more.

Based on all of the 4 and 5 star ratings I’m seeing on Goodreads for this book, I think I’m going to be the “unpopular opinion” when it comes to Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists. Let me start off by saying I didn’t hate it – it was a solid read for me and I was able to finish it in just a few days. It just didn’t wow me like I thought it would based on the synopsis, which hooked me as soon as I read it.

The Immortalists begins its journey in New York, the Lower East Side, in 1969. The story follows the Gold siblings – teenagers Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya – as they set out to meet a traveling fortune teller. Rumor has it that this fortune teller has the ability to predict the exact day a person will die, and the Golds can’t resist going to see her to hear what she has to say about each of them.

Armed with this information – if the fortune teller is to be believed – the Gold siblings begin to make their way in the world. They choose not to share their dates with one another, although the youngest, Simon, hints that the fortune teller has said he will die young. The novel then follows the siblings, one by one, over the next five decades, from the moment they each know their date of death until that date actually arrives so that we can see how (or if) knowing that information has any impact on choices they make in life.

My favorite part of The Immortalists is its central question: “Would you live your life any differently if you knew the exact date you would die?” This was the question in the synopsis that initially hooked me. It’s just one of those questions that immediately makes you reflect on your own life and mortality. As soon as I began following these siblings and seeing some of the choices they were making, it really made me think about what I would do if I was armed with the same knowledge they were. Would I do anything differently? Pursue my dreams more aggressively, take more risks, etc. The thought provoking aspect of this book was its biggest asset for me. I could see this being a fantastic book club choice because of the discussion it naturally lends itself to.

I also enjoyed the way the story was presented. In many ways it could be considered an extensive epic history of the Gold family. At the same time, however, because of the way we follow each sibling one at a time, it manages to be an intimate exploration of their individual personal lives as well. I liked that combination.

I think my biggest issue with The Immortalists was with the characters themselves. I just didn’t feel like I really connected with any of them. Even though I was getting an in-depth look at each of their lives, I still somehow felt like an outsider just observing them, almost as if they were a psychology experiment. I’m the kind of reader that really wants to connect with and relate to the characters in a book, so this just made it a little difficult for me to feel completely invested in their lives.
A second issue I had was with the predictability of Simon’s storyline. As I mentioned, he hints that he will die young. He chooses to quit school and move across the country to San Francisco. I don’t want to give away too many details so I’ll just say that we learn he is gay and looking for love. Since much of his story takes place in the early 1980s, based on some rather reckless choices he makes, it became instantly clear to me what was going to happen to him if the fortune teller’s prediction turned out to be true. It was still sad to read, but the predictability took some of the emotional punch out of it for me. Thankfully, the other three siblings had less predictable storylines, but this one was definitely an easy guess for me.

A final issue I had was with the story of Varya, primarily because it features some pretty horrifying animal experimentation that I wish I hadn’t read about. I found it so disturbing that it made it hard to make it to the end of the book. There is an author’s note at the end to address the experimentation, which I was very grateful for, but it was just still so jarring to read about.

While I wish The Immortalists has been a better read for me, it still has a lot of good points and I’m sure plenty of others will love it. Even with the issues I had with it, I was still pleased that it was such a thought-provoking read overall. I predict that it will become a book club favorite this year!

unfortunately, I was doing my finals and I couldn't read it before it was archived
but the title and the cover are amazing

This book is getting so much love, but for me? DNF. It was so slow (glacially slow) at the start, with no reason to care about the characters, and then as we moved forward into the modern era, the POVs started to shift and, well, I just couldn't.

ARC provided by publisher.

I would give this a rating of a 3.5 If you could know the exact day of your death, would you want to find out? If you did find out, would this information affect the choices you make? If they did would these choices lead to your death no matter what changes you make? These questions are the focus of the Immortalists. We follow 4 siblings who, after meeting with a woman who foresees death, learns of the day of their deaths. We follow their lives and how this information affects and shapes their choices. It was an interesting concept about the concept of fate. Were they fated for these deaths the whole time or did knowing this information cause them to make decisions that ended their lives? Do you become resigned to that fact that this is when you're going to die and accept it or do you try to do everything you can to change it? I'm still not sure. This was definately a thought-provoking story but was a bit slow at parts, and it took me a lot longer to get through then I would have liked, but overall it was an interesting book.

I recieved an ARC of this novel via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Immortalists is a novel that will make you think about your own mortality. If you knew the date of your death would you run your way to it or would you live your life in a way to avoid it? Each of the Gold children deal with their date in different ways. Simon embraces who he is, love me and love with reckless abandon. Klara is perhaps the most susceptible to the information give by the gypsy and she’s the one that I feel took her date into her own hands. Daniel led a life he was proud of until he got information that made him spin out of control. Varya, the oldest and seemingly the most stable is anything but that.

Family ties us together good or bad and it is the thing that we hold onto the most.

I can see why this novel got all the hype that it has before publication. The storytelling is wonderful as are each of the characters.

In this novel we follow four Gold siblings, Varya, Daniel, Klara and Simon. It is 1969, the Golds are a Jewish American family living in New York. One day the four kids decide to visit a fortune teller who is said to predict the exact day the person will die. At the time they visit her, the youngest, Simon, is only seven years old, next is Clara - nine, Daniel is eleven and and the oldest, Varya is thirteen and a half. The woman sees them one at a time and each of them gets the date of their death. What follows after this are four separate stories in which we follow each individual sibling as they make decisions that ultimately lead to fulfillment of each of their respective prophesies.

Each story is heartbreaking in its own way. Simon lives his life at a neck-breaking speed, fiercely and greedily. Klara seems to be trapped in her own mind where reality and magic blur and make living unbearably frightening and painful. Daniel is rational and methodical, but even he at his core is unable to dismiss the prophesy the fortune teller made and snaps at the very end. Finally, Varya, who was told she would live to be eighty-eight, is wrecked by guilt that she is meant to outlive her siblings and ends up painfully watching as all them one after another slip away.

It appears that the Gold children all believed the prophecy with childhood trust and proceeded to live the rest of their lives in a way that made the prophecy come true. So the novel poses the question: is there such a thing as the gift of fortune telling, or are our deeply rooted beliefs and fears drive us to live in a way that makes fortune telling seem real.

Overall, I gave this book 4 our of 5 stars. It is fast-paced, thought provoking and well-written. Trigger warnings: suicide, explicit sex scenes, animal suffering.

I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say? This book is beyond amazing!! It will make your mind go in a million directions and your heart pound with every emotion. Chloe Benjamin has created a book that will stay with me for a long time. This book deserves all the recognition and rave reviews. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ bright shiny stars from me. What a way to start my reading for 2018! This book releases January 9th so make sure you get a copy. This is a MUST read.

If you knew the date of your death, what would you do? It was so interesting to see how the siblings lived their lives after hearing the date of their death. When our time is short we are fearless and when it's long we live in fear. An interesting and thought-provoking concept. I personally find this to be very true. When I was facing my cancer diagnosis I was determined to live life to its fullest and each day was a gift. Often times we need to be reminded of our mortality so that we remember to LIVE.

I loved each siblings section of the book and how different they were. I especially enjoyed Klara's character. There is something about magic that fascinates me. “Some magicians say that magic shatters your worldview. But I think magic holds the world together. It’s dark matter; it’s the glue of reality, the putty that fills the holes between everything we know to be true. And it  takes magic to reveal how inadequate”—she puts the cup down—“reality”—she makes a fist—“is.” Each of the characters in this book are so complex. The author clearly spent a ton of time researching and I really appreciated it.

This book surprised me in all the best ways. I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The premise of knowing the date of your own death in very intriguing yet not the most interesting point in the book. It took me a few pages for each of the siblings sections to get into it. Each of the children seemed boring, immature, whiny, emotionally unavailable, etc for the first few pages of their stories. Yet as I got into the section I really enjoyed getting into the character. I really was disappointed when I started Varya's section yet she was the most interesting. The author did a great job with the characters voices, allowing the reader to really understand what there struggles were.

Sorry to say I just didn't care for this book. At about halfway, I was racing to finish, but then the story just fell flat for me. I originally thought the premise was interesting but the story was depressing and somewhat boring. I don't understand what all the hype surrounding this book is about.

The beginning was explosive and I liked this book a lot almost till the end, but there was a not so good third and last part that made me change my evaluation of the book in its wholeness. I still consider this novel a very good one, but it seemed to me a story that didn't keep up with the expectations it has created in the first part of the book, but is just my evaluation and doesn't have necessarily be true for other readers.

L'inizio mi ha preso tantissimo e il libro mi é piaciuto moltissimo e poi molto quasi fino alla fine, ma la terza e l'ultima parte hanno in parte cambiato il mio giudizio sul libro nel suo insieme. Penso ancora che sia un bel romanzo, ma in qualche modo non ha tenuto fede alle aspettative create nella prima parte del romanzo stesso, ma questa é solo la mia opinione e non quella degli altri lettori.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

Four siblings in 1960s New York find out that an old woman can tell them the exact dates of their deaths.

It’s a simple premise. Kids seek out a fortune-telling lady who can predict the date someone will die. Being naive children who don’t think through the implications, they get their answers.

And their lives change forever in the wake of the five-minute fortunes they each received.

The siblings’ predicted lifespans vary from tragically short to long and protracted. One embraces life’s pleasures. Another is a frustrating exercise in missed opportunities. All four of them have the shadow of the woman’s prediction darkening their paths.

The Immortalists raises several questions related to fate and knowing too much. Here are four things to ponder. While central to the story, they also serve as interesting hypotheticals to ask ourselves.

1
If you could know the exact day you’ll die, would you want that knowledge?

2
If you knew your date of death, would it affect the way you live?

3
Would you see a prediction as a changeable suggestion, or immovable fate?

Say, for example, you’re predicted to die young. So you live with reckless abandon, indulging in vices and risky behavior, sucking the marrow out of life. Are you making the most of the time you have? Or are you, in fact, hurtling toward you own death? By living dangerously, did you turn the prediction into a self-fulfilling prophecy? Would you have died young anyway?

4
Would knowing your date of death change the way you love?

Think about the caution someone feels after heartbreak. In the wake of healing the battered and lovelorn heart, they may tiptoe into new relationships with care and reservation.

If you know when you or a loved one would die, would you hold yourself back, knowing it will all go away? You know it will hurt like hell when it happens. Do you keep at least some of that love to yourself?

The answers to the first two questions for the characters in The Immortalists are yes and yes. Yes, they want to know when they'll die. Yes, the knowledge alters their paths dramatically.

The third and fourth questions, though, take more pondering. Benjamin masterfully raises these questions through the narrative, leaving us to wonder about them still after finishing the book. Did they create their own fates?