Review: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Title: They Both Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: September 5th 2017
Pages: 373
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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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.

I've been meaning to read Adam Silvera's books, and I absolutely love the title (and concept of this one)--I really hate happy endings (I know, what is wrong with me, but I will take a realistic ending that makes me bawl over a happy ending any day), so I was really excited for this one--this novel promises to break your heart, and it really does not disappoint.

While the emotions and the message were what I was expecting, the worldbuilding ended up being very different from what I'd anticipated. I was expecting this to be speculative fiction set in the future, but this book is actually set in an alternate present (in 2016 or 2017, I forget). At first, I was taken aback by that choice--I thought it was confusing and unrealistic that everything in this society is the same as in ours except that the Death-Cast exists. Especially one conversation between Rufus and Mateo, where they talk about what all will be outdated soon, which is entirely accurate for our present day, felt strange to me--how has this society made no other technological strides, but has managed to develop some kind of technology that can infallibly predict when you will die? Especially because the Death-Cast has existed for almost ten years in this alternate universe, and because society has developed lots of new businesses, such as the Last Friend App and lots of activities designed for Deckers (people living out their last days), it just seemed strange to me that everything else would be exactly the same in this world. After a while, though, I got used to this idea, and I appreciate that this alternate present, more so than a dystopian future setting, allowed Silvera to represent the lives of Latino youth in present-day New York City, in a way that really shaped the story.

Regardless of when exactly the Death-Cast were to happen, though, I wish there had been some more discussion of how exactly these predictions work. I understand that the novel focuses almost exclusively on Mateo and Rufus and is more about how Death-Cast impacts individual lives than about how it works, and it makes sense that we wouldn't know much since the characters themselves don't know how this technology works. But I couldn't help but question the practicalities of this technology. For example, I kept wondering how much receiving that Death-Cast call might impact what you do that day and therefore whether or not you die. The characters continuously mention that Death-Cast is infallible, and that there is absolutely no way to escape death once you receive the call. At the same time, though, there is a scene where one of the characters learns about world history BDC (Before Death-Cast) in school, and is asked to imagine how events such as 9/11 may have played out differently if Death-Cast had already existed, but how that would look like is never explained. If so many people who work in the same place were to receive the call, wouldn't many of them not have gone to work that day? But then, since Death-Cast is infallible, would they just have died some other way instead? While of course Death-Cast can allow you to live your last day to the fullest and can give you a chance to say goodbye, I didn't quite understand how it would impact historical events in any way. Additionally, I found the concept that you always get the call between midnight and 3am kind of strange. I understand the practicalities of this, of course--the Death-Cast employees receive a list of people to call at midnight, and then begin to make their way through the list until they finish at 3am. But, what about the people who die at, say, 1am? They might never be notified, which didn't seem to fit with the way the characters talk about not receiving the call as a surefire way to know you won't die today. While these are just details, I do wish that there had been some more exploration of how choice and fate relate in this universe, and how your choices might impact whether and how you die on a certain day.

Nonetheless, this novel is not so much about constructing a logical alternate universe, and more so about the characters and a message that applies in our universe as well. And all of that, I absolutely loved. I loved the writing and the pacing of the whole novel--the suspense was really well-done, and I was consistently paranoid about how either character could die at any moment. (This novel might not be ideal for anyone who already struggles with death-related anxiety--this same paranoia about Rufus and Mateo dying at any moment reappeared in my dreams for the next couple of nights after finishing this novel.) Even asides from the looming death of the two central characters, this is an emotional read; both Rufus and Mateo's families have tragic stories,  and the flashbacks to their circumstances and their contemporary goodbyes made me tear up throughout the novel. 

I also really loved how, in addition to switching back and forth between Mateo's and Rufus's PoVs, the reader got intermittent chapters from secondary characters or even complete strangers, who later turned out to be vaguely related to the central storylines. Those chapters really demonstrated how all of our stories connect and how seemingly small choices can really make an impact, and worked really well for the novel's message about making the most of our lives while we can.

***This next paragraph is vaguely spoiler-y, although you wouldn't be surprised by this "twist" if you've read Silvera before.***
I still haven't decided what to make of the love story or whether or not I'm sold on it. I was expecting the romance element because I know Silvera usually writes M/M love stories, but if I had come into this novel without those expectations, I think Rufus's and Mateo's first kiss (or Rufus's first suggestions that this might happen) would have taken my by surprise and it would have felt a little random in the context of the rest of the story. Part of me really likes the idea of not a love story, but something that could have been a love story if the two had had the opportunity to know each other for longer. So the elements that framed their relationship in that way, I liked, but some other parts I felt were a little overdone and a little too insta-love-y. Although I guess even those parts aren't unrealistic, since both characters know they are going to die and this is their only/last chance at love. Another part of me, though, just doesn't see Rufus and Mateo together in that way; to me, Rufus seemed like more of a big brother to Mateo before the romantic element to their relationship was introduced. It might just be my own heteronormativity that didn't allow me to see these two as romantic partners for one another (I think most people would have expected romance from a YA novel with the same concept about a boy and a girl), but I just didn't see them as compatible. I also think it could have been really cool for this novel to center a friendship between two queer boys (Rufus identifies as bisexual, and I've seen lots of other people label Mateo as gay, but I don't remember Mateo ever actually identifying as anything?). Despite all of this, I don't really mind the romantic storyline because it feels realistic, under the circumstances.

While I did have a lot of questions, I really loved this book. If you're looking for a thought-provoking  tearjerker with a unique concept, you should definitely check out They Both Die at the End. I will definitely be reading Silvera's other novels!