The Immortalists - a novel by Chloe Benjamin

Thank you, Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book --- as people who follow me know, I do not regurgitate what the book is about as that is usually evident from the title and book jacket and what the description from the top of the page where my reviews end up (Amazon, Goodreads, etc.) HOWEVER … as this is the first fiction book that I have reviewed that is not necessarily obvious or self-explanatory from the title do here is what was provided by the publisher!

From the Publisher --- If you were told the date of your death, how would it shape your present?

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. Their 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 seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality

Lately, I have not been reading much, if any, fiction. This book may get me back into fiction!!! The family at the core of this book is, well, even more interesting than mine. You wonder what their "death dates: are and you read from there to find out how that date shaped their lives. found myself engrossed in Simon's life (and death) in San Francisco and then I was angered at Klara and her naming her magic act "The Immortalist" after seeing Simon reach his mortality. I won't comment on Klara's death as it annoyed me to no end. Daniel took a while to interest me and Vanya engrossed me. **Warning** her section has a lot to do with lab animals and their torture --- the author kindly leaves an information section at the end of the book about how you can look into stopping that.

I stayed up until 3 am to finish this book ... Chloe Benjamin, you are amazing to do have done that to me! (I am currently curing that too-late-bedtime-headache with a pot of coffee! This book was gripping and strange and weird and totally enjoyable! Write some more books as you got and #frickingawebooks tag.