They Both Die at the End

“When someone puts their journey out there for you to watch, you pay attention- even if you know they'll die at the end”

I have not read an Adam Silvera book before. Now I can say I have. Everyone says his books are tearjerkers and never what you expect. The same can be said about this book. I was expecting a story about two teens on their last day alive, but this book was so much more than that.

Going into this book, the title itself is a spoiler, but not really. You do not know if Adam is actually going to kill off both Rufus and Mateo or if they both someone beat DeathCast and somehow survive. The concept of this book is farfetched and ridiculous since there is no way to predict everyone's death with enough accuracy to call them at midnight on their last day. But Adam takes this concept further by looking at the repercussions of knowing you are going to die and how you will spend your last day.

This book is filled with so many discussions on what it means to truly live and be in the moment. Our cast of characters come from a variety of situations and have their own views on what it means to live and how they have dealt with loss. While this book definitely has a strong focus on death and how cruel it can be when someone dies too soon (granted you could say every death is too soon), there were so many other points about living life to the fullest so you do not regret anything.

I really loved a lot of the stylist choices made throughout this book. First off the book takes place on September 5th, 2017 which is also publication day which was a nice touch. I also loved that we always knew what time it was. It was like watching 24 and knowing that there was only “x” hours left before End Day was over. Finally, I really enjoyed all the extra characters we got to follow and how their chapters always started by telling us whether or not they had gotten the call that morning that they were going to die. All the characters were deeply intertwined and I loved seeing how all the characters connected at some point in the story.

This was a story about life, love, friendships, death, and finding who you truly are amid the chaos of the world whether you know it is your last day or not.

Thanks to the publisher for an early copy of this