**Thank you to Putnam for my free final copy in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.**
If you could know the date of your death, would you want to?
When my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer ten years ago, I met with a genetic counselor to assess my personal risk. Leading up to the decision, my husband and I discussed all angles of my choice and it brought on some very deep discussions. From the very beginning, there was no question in my mind that I would have the test taken – I wanted to be hypervigilant with my body because I believe that the sooner you recognize there could be a problem, the better. However, my husband, if given the same choice, was adamant that he wouldn’t want to know. He said he would refuse to take any kind of test that would tell him his chances of getting certain diseases or illnesses. While that thought process personally baffles me, I don’t begrudge him his choice.
While learning your liklihood of getting various diseases is not the same as knowing the exact date of your death, this book made me ponder what my choice would be if put in the same situation as Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon. If you’d have asked me in my younger years, I’m sure my answer would have unequivocally been, “YES!”, but as I’ve gotten older, I think I might resist the temptation.
As the children find out, knowing the date of your death could quite possibly change the very way you chose to live. This book is magical in every single way – from the psychic who makes these predictions to Benjamin’s writing. I was enraptured by the whole story from the very first line.
While the book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I found it to be such an enjoyable read and was so disappointed when it ended. I wanted to follow the siblings on their journey’s forever. I haven’t read Bejamin’s first novel, The Anatomy of Dreams, but I plan on getting my hands on a copy soon.
This was my first read of 2018 and it set the bar high. If this is setting the tone for the rest of the year, I’m excited!!
This book’s publishing date is Tuesday, January 9th. Be sure to pre-order or plan a trip to the bookstore so you can see what the buzz is all about!
Happiest When Reading 
So excited for this one!
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It’s a good one!
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So many people are loving this one. Unfortunately, I’m in the minority. I was completely engrossed in certain parts (Simon’s story), but kept zoning out in others. And I didn’t care about the last part b/c that character had been virtually absent from the story until then.
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Interesting! I loved Simon’s story as well! And I liked Varya’s Becca I felt it connected the bigger picture – the primates and longevity studies to the book’s overall theme of how we are always trying to outsmart death. I didn’t really connect at all with Daniel’s story and Klara’s was ok to me. I liked her more with her interactions in Simon’s story. There are definitely some holes in the story; honestly, Varya’s portion brought it back to full circle for me.
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