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They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera — Book Review & Summary

BLURB

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.

 

They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera
Front cover of They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

GENRE: YA Romance, Contemporary, LGBT

STARS: 3 Stars

EMOTIONAL IMPACT: 4 Stars

STANDALONE

PUBLISHED: September’2017

 They Both Die At the End has won Lincoln Award (2020) & Goodreads Choice Award Nominee.

CONVINCING YOU TO READ THIS IN 6 WORDS: Cute Romance, Different Setting, Emotional Roller Coaster,                                                                                              Multiple POVs, Message-oriented & helps to believe again.

Maybe it’s better to have gotten it right and been happy for one day instead of living a lifetime of wrongs.”

SUMMARY:

Reading They Both Die At the End by Adam Silvera is a wholesome experience. While you connect with the story, there is a new story playing in your mind. While set in the same world, there is a small change. Here, you get a phone call when you are about to die. The call won’t specify how you will die or when exactly you will- just the fact that within the next 24 hours you will die.

They Both Die At the End story takes us on a journey with Mateo and Rufus, two among others who receive their death call. They connect with each other on an app designed where Deckers, people who got their death calls, can connect. And they meet for the first time for their final adventure. The whole day, they try to live forgetting about their death. And somehow, despite their different personalities and differences, they manage to live a day worthy of being their last. The whole day, they try to be cautious, not ready to die yet and hoping that the day would not end. But along with all this, the new meets, the adventures, the run from fights, they had one more task to accomplish- saying goodbye to people they care for.

***

“I’ve spent years living safely to secure a longer life, and look where that’s gotten me. I’m at the finish line but I never ran the race.”

MY THOUGHTS

I am an emotional fool, okay? Crying over books is something I do on regular basis. While I did shed a few tears at the end of this book, it wasn’t because of this book. This book wasn’t as heart-wrenching as I expected? And probably that was my problem with this book. I had seen the cover and I was so excited to read this. I had so many expectations and this story didn’t reach them? Adam Silvera wrote a beautiful book, I am not denying that. But… I didn’t love it.

I loved how their differences complemented each other. From Mateo’s anxiety and fear to leave his home after receiving the call to Rufus’ contrast outgoing personality, I enjoyed how all the emotions were portrayed. Along with them, I liked that there were small sneak- peaks into different people’s life. I loved that. There is a constant thought that I wonder which is how we affect other people’s life even when we don’t realise it. Like in how many people’s background photos we are part of? Or how many people saw us on a metro and thought about us?

They both die at the end, according to me is more about the message rather than their story. Even if we live 100 years, when you are about to die, you will want to live a little more. You will want to talk with that someone, you will want to hold your dear ones closer and hug them tight, you will want to tell them how much you love them or how much proud you are of them. And that message, that want to tell someone had me in tears for a while.

The small disturbing notion that I had was how for their last day, they had to go out and enjoy. That is not the aim of the story but it felt like it? Not everyone wants to go out for an epic adventure before they die. Here, there was a balance in their adventure and spending time with their loved ones (I loved it).

This book is a perfect read for anyone who would want to believe in life and want to live again, along with contemporary and romance readers.

“I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows.”

*** SPOILER ***

I read somewhere how if the call that Mateo received wasn’t for him but for his father and I can’t help but think it would have been an interesting twist. It would be more heart-wrenching, at least for me. I cannot help but think how Mateo would feel guilt and despair at the end of the day when Rufus dies and he doesn’t. And when he is still trying to come to terms with this, he receives a call stating that his father died. I guess it would be a big turning point in his life. And I would have loved it more.

THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END is being adopted to be turned into TV series.

“But no matter what choices we make – solo or together – our finish line remains the same … No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end.”

You can read my review of the Captive Prince Series here.

 

krina

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