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A review by tanyamariereads
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
3.0
Unpopular opinion: this is one instance where judging a book by its cover was a bad idea. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin was my third read for this year and it was underwhelming to say the least. The story starts with four siblings making a trip to a psychic that's rumored to "accurately" predict the date of anyone's death. The rest of the book is broken into four parts, each part dedicated to one sibling and it focuses on their life and the impact of the psychic's prediction.
I did like the overall theme of free will vs. fate and magic/faith vs. science, but I feel like Chloe Benjamin didn't fully explore those themes throughout the novel. I found the main characters to be incredibly self indulgent which also made it hard for me to love this novel. She used too many stereotypes to define some of her characters and that left a bad taste in my mouth, and also made the story line far too predictable.
I had high expectations since the summary of the book seemed to hold so much promise, especially with magical realism, but it under delivered in the end.
I did like the overall theme of free will vs. fate and magic/faith vs. science, but I feel like Chloe Benjamin didn't fully explore those themes throughout the novel. I found the main characters to be incredibly self indulgent which also made it hard for me to love this novel. She used too many stereotypes to define some of her characters and that left a bad taste in my mouth, and also made the story line far too predictable.
I had high expectations since the summary of the book seemed to hold so much promise, especially with magical realism, but it under delivered in the end.