I loved this so much. I've been thinking about this question for years. Ever since I've watched "Big Fish". And I have no answer. I don't know how would I behave. I do think that I would like to know the date. If it was soon, I would be motivated like Simon. It it was like in my 80s, that would not motivate me to do things. I don't think I would be like Varja. So perhaps the lesson here is to live like I might die tomorrow.

As for the plot, Simon and Clara's were the most interesting.
I find it really funny that there's another gay Simon character.
And Jana, thank you for recommending this book.
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If it's a book about mental health? cool.
If it's a book about mystic forces? cool.
altogether it felt like the author didn't know what they wanted. so many unanswered questions, such a huge plot hole, a lot of potential, however the execution just fell short in each chapter. It felt unrewarding and unsatisfying ( )

I have a lot of mixed feelings about The Immortalists. The premise is intriguing: four young siblings living in NYC in 1969 go to a fortune-teller who tells them when they are going to die. What follows are their life stories up until the moment of their death, so we see how their life choices were affected by the information they got from the fortune teller. Basically, it's the old fate vs. agency story with some family drama in the mix.

This book lacks cohesion. It reads like a series of vignettes only loosely bound by the family ties. The ups and downs in writing were difficult to deal with and I was considering quitting for the majority of the middle part. Some of it was really disappointing to the point of absurdity (the end of Daniel's story).

Things only got better at the end of the final chapter when writing gets much better, but by then it's too late.
Of all the main characters in the book, I only cared for Klara, whose end was not convincing to me. However, the end of the novel was an hommage to Klara in a way, so Benjamin redeemed herself a little bit there.

The story didn't really live up to its premise. It opened a lot of interesting questions, which is fine if you want to discuss this in a book club, but the way it was executed was disappointing.

Overall, for a book that comes with so many trigger warnings, I'd expect more payoff. I was especially taken aback by the anti-Roma sentiment repeated throughout the book by multiple characters, the unnecessarily graphic sex references in the first story that didn't add anything to the narrative, the experiments on animals and the superficial treatment of suicide. ( )

A 3.5 for me - some sections I really enjoyed some fell a bit more flat. I think I’d heard so much about this before reading it that it could never live up to the hype but I did like it and would recommend.

The premise: how would your life turn out if you knew the exact date of your death? It’s really interesting to contemplate. Could that information be real? Would you make yourself succumb to that end date just because you thought it was real? Could you ignore it? Would you tell people? Would you suppress it?

This book explores what happens to four siblings when they receive their death dates as children.



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I am torn by this book, to me, a great number of people love the book yet I found it a bit slow to start. I did enjoy the characters and their interactions with each other. If you step back you are able to almost clearly picture pieces of the life these characters are living.

Chloe Benjamin colors a vivid picture and allows the reader to enjoy the ambiance of the story. I give the book 3 stars. ( )