The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
The book sets off from a well-defined premise–what happens if you’re told the day you’re going to die. That sort of thing always concerns me–that you end up with characters created to serve an idea, rather than real people. I get shades of that in this book as well as pockets of over-research, and dialogue that puts the book’s subtext too much on the page. Also, characters voicing known political debates in ways that just aren’t original or interesting (Zionism, anyone?)
Still, I enjoyed this. I liked the Simon and Varya sections the best; theirs felt more believable as reactions to the prophecy. But in the end I like my books to be less concept-driven.
Amy P. Knight 