Review: They Both Die at the End

Title: They Both Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 and to live a lifetime in a single day.

Review:

There has been a lot of hype about this book, and it didn’t disappoint me. 

The characters are instantly loveable. They have both suffered a lot, with the loss of their families. Even when Rufus makes mistakes, I was still rooting for him. 

The idea of finding out the day you die is a fascinating subject. It’s hard to decide if you would want to know. It’s intriguing to learn about your future, but it’s scary to know when you’ll die. Even the people in this story who tried to fight it, still ended up dying. You can’t change your fate. 

At the same time, I have to wonder if Death-Cast has a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since people know they will die that day, they don’t stop it when they sense it coming. This happens with Rufus’s family who don’t even try to escape the car crash that eventually kills them. 

There were some other minor characters whose Death-Cast-related stories were also told. At first, I didn’t like how these distract from the main plot. But these glimpses into other lives demonstrate how our lives are so interconnected. 

Even though the ending is given away in the title, I still kept hoping throughout the story that they would beat the odds. This is a very emotional story and I shed a few tears but I loved it. 

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett