ARC Review: The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Drama, Magic Realism

Goodreads  / Amazon.com

I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up The Immortalists thinking it would be a magical realism story which focused on the magical side, especially since it’s classified as fantasy on Goodreads. But really, it’s focused a lot more on the realism side, with small hints of magic here and there, and a gorgeous family epic at its core.

The Immortalists is the story of the Gold family through five decades, starting at 1969, when the four Gold children visit a woman who claims to be a psychic who can tell when a person will die. Each of the four children is more affected by the knowledge of their own dates of death differently, and throw themselves at a chance to live life in their own way before the fateful day arrives.

This story is a lovely, intricate, raw tale of Simon, Klara, Daniel and Varya, telling a bit of their stories as they deal with their doubts whether their date of death is true or just charlatanism. It touches on faith, fate, belief vs. non-belief and the power of thoughts. I found each of the stories very enthralling and I was immediately immersed in them, except for Daniel’s. I also wish Klara’s part had been longer (it was the most magical and she had such an interesting personality), but apart from that, I don’t have much to complain about this novel – it was beautiful, raw and felt so real. It was truly something to see the characters grow as the years pass, and some memories staying frozen or seen through a different character’s point of view.

I hope there had been more magic in it, but that was my own fault for not reading the blurb a lot before picking this up. If you love family epics, you’ll love this story for sure.