Book Review :: They Both Die at the End, by Adam Silvera

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
ISBN: 0062740695
Published by HarperCollins
on 2017-09-05
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 373
Format: Audio
Goodreads

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.

Last updated on 12 August 2021

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The Story: They Both Die at the End

Mateo and Rufus got the call. They were going to die today. With no more than 24 hours to live (and likely less than that), they have two choices: hide away so the world can’t kill them, or live for a whole day like the world wouldn’t dare.

Despite their backgrounds, their lives, their stories, they both end up downloading the Last Friend app, an app that allows you to connect with your ‘last friend’ online and hangout for the day together. Most of the people on the app are crazies, but when the two teens meet each other, their days truly begin. There’s a lot to do: Mateo needs to see his father in the hospital, visit his best friend and her daughter for the last time, and not do anything reckless. Rufus needs to keep one step ahead of the police, his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend who dobbed him in, and try to get in touch with his two best friends who seem to have disappeared.

“You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk.”

As they two boys live throughout the day, there’s tears and laughter, strangers and friends, and strangers becoming friends. There are stories shared and thoughts processed, words spoken in love and those in anger. It’s a mix of a day, but when it comes to an end, and death comes for them both, they die having spent the day in the best way possible: with friends, with loved ones, with each other.

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My thoughts on They Both Die at the End

Despite the spoiler being in the title – they really do both die at the end – it was still really heartbreaking reading the story and knowing what the end would be. Somehow, even though I knew, it was painful and had I not been concentrating on the road (I listened to the audio book) at the time, there might have been tears.

I obviously hadn’t read the synopsis of They Both Die at the End in a long time because I was very surprised at the almost sci-fi nature of the story. Death-Cast calls members of society to let them know that ‘they’re going to die today’. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you’ve done; when you get the call, you can’t stop it. It’s not like a secret society where men and women in black suits and sunglasses come and literally murder you, it’s more that at some point in the next 24 hours (midnight to midnight) a piano might fall on your head, you might get hit by a bus, or drown in the swimming pool or bath or deep puddle. You might get murdered, but it’s more likely your death with be more on the accident side of things than the latter.

“People have their time stamps on how long you should know someone before earning the right to say it, but I wouldn’t like to you no matter how little time we have. People waste time and wait for the right moment and we don’t have that luxury. If we had our entire lives ahead of us I bet you’d get tired of me telling you how much I love you because I’m positive that’s the path we were heading on. But because we’re about to die, I want to say it as many times as I want–I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”

With that concept in mind, the story follows Mateo and Rufus, alternating chapters, as they tentatively meet for the first time (having met on the app, Last Friend), as they figure out if they can trust each other, as they journey around the city on the metro, visiting friends and family, saying their last goodbyes etc. Their friendship grows over the course of the day, and at the end they’re the cutest wee couple you’ve read in a long while.

They Both Die at the End was a really enjoyable (but heartbreaking) story, and I got got really engrossed in the tale, so much so that on my solo road trip down the country there were sections of the road I didn’t remember when I drove back, purely because I was so engaged with the book (don’t worry, I was super safe on the road!). I must read more of Adam Silvera’s books, because if they’re anything like this one (and What If It’s Us, which he co-wrote with Becky Albertalli) then they’re bound to be good!

Have you read They Both Die at the End? What did you think?