Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Immortalists

This book was randomly picked up from a charity shop. I'm unfamiliar with Benjamin or her previous works but loved the idea of this books premise.

We follow 4 siblings who, in childhood, are each told the day they will die. We follow each sibling through their life stages and until their subsequent death.

MILD SPOILERS:
The premise? GREAT!
The set up? Amazing! Having them siblings could add so much nuance and mystery.
The execution? Lacking.
Me and my reading buddy, who I unfortunately dragged into reading this with me, felt like the pacing was this books weakest aspect. You're following 4 siblings and so expect their life's to intertwine, their deaths to have vast and meaningful impacts. Instead, each character section takes place YEARS after the previous siblings death. This not only jars the reader out of the setting and characters we were just following, but also makes the previous chapters lack any true influence on the narrative going forward.

The story would often pick up narrative threads in a sibling's life, such as Kara being able to hear her death brothers knocks on walls. These threads influence the character we're following in interesting ways and just as their narrative is ending you expect these threads to continue, develop, change. But no. They're dropped entirely and never mentioned again.
This happens MORE THAN ONCE, and by the end of the book, me and my reading buddy wondered what was even the point?

I've rated this 2.5 as I did find myself connecting and enjoying individual POVs, I just didn't enjoy how they were worked together.

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parttimehippie's review

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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desiderium_incarnate's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Simon, Klara, Daniel und Varya -
das Leben der vier Geschwister wird in diesem Buch nacheinander dargestellt. Alles beginnt mit dem Tag, an dem sie ihren Todestag erfahren. Eine einschneidende Erfahrung für die Kinder damals, die sie ihr ganzes Leben begleitet. Es werden glaubhaft dynamische Familienbande gezeigt, der Einfluss von Religion und Spiritualität auf das Leben wird behandelt und Sexualität und mentale Gesundheit wird angesprochen. Dir zentrale Diskussion jedoch, die ebenfalls gen Ende sehr elegant direkt in den Text eingewoben wird, ist, Leben vs. Überleben. Wie verhält man sich im Angesicht seines eigenen Ablebens? Geht man lieber auf Nummer sicher und versucht die Zukunft doch noch etwas zu beeinflussen oder nimmt man die Zeit, die man hat und macht das beste draus? Lieber im Jetzt leben oder im Potential der Zukunft?

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jarnbooks's review

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emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I liked this book. Not initially, I hated the first 100 pages because of the EXPLICIT descriptions of sex but I enjoyed the character. The story of the Gold siblings makes you think about if you want to live or survive and how much time we really have to do it. Each sibling has their own story to tell that each give a different lesson in a different time period that makes them feel real. There were some character decisions that I thought were a little quick but it adds to the story in the moment. There is a character for everyone to have some relation to. Each character is so strong in their passions and it’s genuinely interesting to see how each of the siblings go about their lives and the time they have left.

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