They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

They Both Die at the End Review

They both die at the end I believe is set in modern contemporary time except there is this company called the death cast they call you on the day that you are supposed to die.

and tell you that somewhere within the next 24 hours you will die so the book primarily follows two teenage boys. one of them is 17 about to turn 18 and the other one has just turned 18 or has already turned 18.

so you’ve got Matteo and Rufus and their two boys they do not know each other they both sign up for this app called last friend. which essentially is an app where people who are dying can connect either with someone else that’s dying or with someone who’s not dying but would like to spend that person’s last day with them helping them kind of you know have a great last day on earth kind of thing.

a bon voyage going away friend we’re just kind of depressed. anyway these two boys both sign up for the app again they don’t know each other but they both sign up for the app and they meet through this app and decide to spend their last day together.

it was great it was great it sounds like a super simple plot and it really is. it’s a very simple plot with a really big infinite philosophical question if you will and that is essentially what would you do with your last day on earth if you knew it was your last day on earth. so these two boys spend the day together that’s really all the book is it’s written in the span of one day it is mostly told in first-person though it does jump to third-person every now and then. but it’s told through the perspective primarily through the perspective of Rufus and Matteo these two boys.

and so things that I loved because liked is just not enough. I really really loved a lot that we were able to follow a Latin to Latin protagonists I feel like that’s not really done very often not often enough usually if you see a person of color there you know a side character maybe even a side main character but the protagonist the main protagonist is always typically white I don’t know female or male which one is more which one is more common.

but it was really refreshing to see a story told through the perspective of two people of color and one of them is Cuban that would be Rufus. I’m Cuban so I love that and then Mateo is Puerto Rican I just loved it and also they were LGBT youths which again is something that I don’t I don’t think.

we see enough of I am of the opinion that we should have diversity in our novels. because we have diversity in our world and if the purpose of a good novel is for us to be able to identify with characters then we need to have characters that have aspects of them that even ever that everybody can identify with even just a piece of them.  

so we follow these two boys on their last day and the long and short of it is that they fall in love. you know a lot of people might argue that this was insta-love and I think I would agree typically I don’t enjoy that.

however in this context because of the subject matter and because of their circumstances it works and it doesn’t feel like insta-love because like I said it does take place in the span of a day um so they really don’t have much time. there’s there’s no time there is literally no time um but it’s very gradual and it’s very very much with the stakes in mind we could die at any moment but it’s very much a natural progression at least I felt it was.

so what else I really loved these two boys voices you know a lot of times in Y a literature it not so much that the voices sound identical but the voices tend to sound kind of the same almost like you can tell it was the same writer that wrote these two characters in this case and not every why a novel does that I’m not saying that every Y novel every other Y novel does that but there are some where you can absolutely tell that these are not two separate people these this is the same writer that wrote two different people.

it’s the same voice however in in this story though you can really see the separation between these two characters just in the way that they speak in the way that they phrase things and that was something that really caught my attention. that I just I really enjoyed because I really did feel like I was following two perspectives you know these two boys. something I thought was a really interesting choice by Adam Silveira one of the boy’s father is essentially in a coma throughout the whole novel and there’s no telling when really he’ll wake up.

and it just it was really interesting to see you know where you have Matteo who knows that he’s going to die at any moment. and then you have his father who may very well die but he has infinite moments we don’t really know when it’s gonna happen if it’s going to happen he might wake up he might not.

I just thought that was a really interesting juxtaposition where you have the older male who there’s a chance that he might die but it’s not it’s not yet certain and meanwhile you have this 18 year old boy who has his entire life ahead of him that is absolutely undeniably going to die by the end of this novel there’s there’s no sidestepping it at all. I just thought that was a really interesting choice on Adam silver as part and then you have on the other hand you have Rufus whose family he witnessed their death.

his mother his father and his older sister if I’m not mistaken so his family’s day has come because they got the phone call as what it’s often referred to it’s the phone call they got the phone call and he witnessed their death. and then so you have him already knowing what’s coming and what is absolutely inevitable. but still trying to live in the moment and really just live his life what little that he has left.

I think this novel touched on a lot of questions that kind of resonates with a lot of people I mean I think everyone at some point in their lives have either been asked or posited the question you know if I had one day left to live what would I do with that day. and it’s just and not just that but you know I I mean I can speak from personal experience when I was you know 17 18 19.

I had no idea what I was gonna do with my life and I thought that that made me a failure I thought that my life was over because before it ever begun because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life I didn’t know if I wanted to go to college I didn’t know if I wanted to go to film school.  

um but I was kind of at a loss and you know these kids are right at that age where their future is is literally right in front of them they just they they just need to figure out which way they want to go and then they’re given this information to where doesn’t matter what decision they make for their future they’re they don’t have a future.

and it’s just incredible how that very quickly puts everything into perspective you know when you know that you are undeniably inevitably going to die and you won’t have tomorrow. it just really just makes you laser focused and puts everything into perspective and I really think that Adam Silveira did an amazing a really great job with that the character development was great it was spot-on.

I mean these two boys could not be from different paths and yet at the end they find enough common ground to where they feel connected. and in a very natural and organic way I felt things that I didn’t like you know I really didn’t I really can’t think of any I truly cannot think of anything that I didn’t like um I guess the the fact that they both died at the end. but the way that they dies it’s very poetic.

 I mean it says it in the damn title they both die at the end but I really wasn’t prepared for the poetic and almost lyrical way that Adam Silveira wrote it. and not so much in the words that he chose just in the way that these two kids finally left. um III mean I won’t give I’ve pretty much given a lot of spoilers anyway so this is kind of more of a discussion than it is a review I think um but I as far as what I didn’t like about it I really can’t find anything.

actually one thing I didn’t like about it Peck but that wasn’t that wasn’t something that I didn’t like about the novel because I didn’t like the character I just didn’t like the character he’s an but I think you’re supposed to feel that way um no I mean I don’t think there’s anything that I that I didn’t like about it I really loved the actor that had also gotten the phone call we kind of see a little glimpse of that and then you know that posits the question just because you have all the fame and all the money in the world does that necessarily mean that you’ve been able to live your life to the fullest.

I mean he tackles a lot of really deep really um just just really deep and insightful questions that a lot of people have had I think that’s why I love to this novel so much you know what would you do with your last day if you have all the money and all the fame in the world does that necessary that you’ve lived a great life. he even tackles those near-death experiences that really put everything into focus for you.

the close calls that you have I have had one myself in my past I was in a car accident where everyone should have died and no one did no one even lost a limb or had any permanent damage which is unbelievable.

that’s a lie I do have some nerve damage in here but it’s not I mean I can still I can move I have all my limbs I can walk I can speak sometimes but he just it’s just so packed with all of these really and it’s like deep and soul searching questions that you know it just really gets you to thinking you know and I think that’s why I really liked this novel a lot I did and I think it’s I mean it’s it’s a goldmine for discussion.

so I don’t want to discuss too much.  guys let me know in the comments below have you read this novel if not did this discussion kind of interest you into picking it up well I guess  anyway please let me know your thoughts on this novel if you’ve read it what you know leave them down in the comments below let’s go ahead and discuss this I mean what would you do with your last day on earth if you knew that in the next 24 hours you were going to meet your death.

what would you do with that day who would you spend it with would you stay in one place would you try to see as much of the world as you as you could it’s really one of those deep intense conversations that just really makes you think about what’s important in your life it’s crazy it’s crazy.

so I I mean I’m gonna give this book four out of five stars I really did enjoy it I did not cry at the end which I thought I was going to but maybe because I thought I was going to I was gearing myself up for something just ten times worse than what it actually was subconsciously and that’s why I didn’t cry. but it did touch me it did touch me right here right my go-to song. so you know I really enjoyed and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good why a novel enjoys those deep philosophical pensive questions like that.

and who also appreciates you know fellow LGBTQ you know protagonists and people of color and they’re not in there why novels protagonists of color I should say cuz people of color are basically present in a lot of whitey novels but again mainly is you know side characters villains.

I’ve seen a lot but it’s really nice you know it’s really nice to see a person of colour as a main protagonist and one thing you can truly truly root for even Rufus I mean he has his flaws they both have their flaws they do that neither one of them is a perfect character but even Rufus where he’s really rough around the edges at first you you really warm up to him and you feel for this kid.

I mean I I almost felt like I was you know watching my son’s have their last day together that’s weird because that would make them brothers and they basically fall in love at the end. what I mean to say is that I felt really connected to these two boys and I think you will too if you’d like to get this novel a chance it’s freaking phenomenal.

so I’m gonna go ahead and give it a four out of five.  they both oh they both die at the end by Adam Silveira well that sucks.