They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

It’s Pride month and I haven’t read any books for it yet. So I decided to do two. One is Guapa by Saleem Haddad and the other was this one. The month is still young, so I might just pick up another, but until then here’s what I thought of They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

Here’s more about the book

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.

I had to take my time about this one. When I picked up They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, I didn’t really think that the book’s title would suggest the book’s major plot.

The story is about two boys, Mateo and Rufus, who both receive phone calls a little after midnight telling them that sometime in the next 24 hours, they would die. Apparently in this super weird future existence, human beings were able to predict the death of any other person in the world. Then they use this knowledge to tell them when they’re going to die and to prepare for it. So they both went on this app called “Last Friend” that helps you find someone to be with on your last day.

I really took my time with this one. The main reason being is that my number one trigger in life is predicting death, the act of dying, what comes after all of it. It’s a huge trigger and while I’m a big action fan and dudes die in those all the time, it’s mostly the existential thought. If you can catch my drift. Anyway, this was the main reason why I had to take my time with this book. While the book itself was great, I know my triggers.

Anyway, I was getting a lot of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe vibes from this novel. Two boys who aren’t in the best shape of their young life are going to spend a lot of time together and suddenly realize their own feelings for each other. The only difference is well, everyone dies at the end.

However, this was still a unique story to me. It stands apart from Aristotle and Dante. The reason for that is a part of this story felt like it was about Mateo and Rufus, but there was another part of this story. The book’s main storyline of Mateo and Rufus felt like you a multi-plotted braid all interweaving and braiding around each other. Mateo and Rufus’s chapters would be the deepening of their relationship while the other stories in this book are about the things happening around them.

I really found this writing really interesting that way. It was almost like watching a dream of two boys who were falling in love and the actions that surround them. Very interesting and unique to me.

The last thing I can think to say about this book is that it was cute! It was cute and sad and quite existential, but in the end it was like watching an epic romantic drama. Perhaps a modern West Side Story? I mean, there were gangs…

PS: I’m waiting until the end to include this because it’s not affecting my review in any way. I have some questions…

If there was a way for humans to predict the death of any person (similar book plot line of The Last Equation of Isaac Severty), wouldn’t you be able to predict things like a war or mass murder?
I get that maybe you can’t change someone’s fate, but couldn’t the death-callers see a huge pattern in the number of people dying in one day?
If you took that pattern, then someone in power would know some great disaster was on the way and then tried to prepare for it in some way?
And if you weren’t able to die at 11:59:59, do you just get a heart attack or an aneurysm?

Sorry, I’m not a fan of predictions or time travel plots because it’s too paradoxical. There’s always one moment where the question is asked about how this could all work out. Or time runs in an endless loop because someone predicted the future that caused the actions of another person. But I don’t ding the author for using them. This is entirely my own opinion.

ebook, 368 pages
HarperTeen (September 5, 2017)
Rating: 4/5
Find They Both Die at the End on Amazon

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