God, I wanted to love this book so badly. But once again, a book with an exciting premise disappoints me.
I can absolutely see why people enjoyed this book — even fell in love with it. Benjamin focuses on the human side of things. She wrote some well-developed characters and does a great job exploring human nature. It is a thoughtful look into how different people — siblings at that — would react to knowing the day they die. Benjamin does a fantastic job exploring death and grief as well.
But nevertheless?
I didn’t enjoy The Immortalists.
I still don’t know how I got through this. Yes, I should absolutely be kinder to myself and start DNF’ng books I’m not enjoying. However, I held out hope that it would be worth it in the end. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
If I had to pick one section I enjoyed? It would have to be Simon’s section which was the first part. But after? It went downhill from there. I’m sure that there are readers who think the opposite.
Yes, I agree that the characters were well-developed. I won’t dispute that The Immortalist is an excellent exploration into human nature and human psyche.
However overall? I just could not get into this book. I was both bored and frustrated.
Final Word
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin gets a D with 1.5 stars. While I wish I could give this a higher rating, unfortunately not even well-developed characters can save this book from the boredom and annoyance I felt. I don’t recommend this book.
My copy is going to be donated ASAP. Hopefully whoever picks this book up will enjoy it.
Title: The Immortalists
Author: Chloe Benjamin
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: February 5th, 2019
TW/CW: Suicide, sexual content, death, terminal illness, alcohol use
Synopsis: 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.
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