Stacked Shelves

I wasn’t sure how many stars to give The Immortalists on Good Reads. I liked the book – it was, actually, a good read (see what I did there?). But I didn’t love it. Oddly, I kept thinking that maybe it was over-edited. Sometimes you read a book and think, this really could have used another pass by an editor. This time, I wondered if too much was cut. The book begins with the four Gold children, Varya, Daniel, Klara and Simon (oldest to youngest), visiting a fortuneteller. She gives each of them the date of his or her death. Fast forward (maybe 10 years?) and their father, Saul, dies. Saul’s death provides the catalyst for Klara and Simon to leave New York together and begin living out their destinies. (Klara is 18, but Simon is underage and considered a runaway.) Spoilers ahead. And here I came to my first problem – one that continued throughout the book. Every child talks about missing Saul, yet as readers we hardly knew him. Why was Saul’s death needed t