Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - They Both Die at the End

TW: this book mentions death, grief, suicide, mental health, terrorism and gun crime (latter four rather minor)

Now… whilst this book’s title is a massive spoiler in that ‘they both [do in fact] die at the end’ and death is a recurring theme throughout, it is more about life. It is certainly sad in places, heart wrenching and emotional but for me it’s primarily uplifting and impactful.

When I started, I was honestly quite unimpressed and didn’t jam well with the characters. This was partly because of the hype surrounding it specifically on BookTok and BookTube so I guess I was expecting a wow moment. Additionally, I didn’t see the realistic-ness of the books concept and character’s idiolect which I personally felt rather forced and I just felt I didn’t like them at first. But alas… I began to fall IN LOVE with them. They’re just lovely people.

The book follows two teenagers, Mateo and Rufus, who are alerted (via Death-Cast (DC)) at midnight they’re going to die within the next 24 hours. They both don’t have that many relationships, the former’s mum died at birth so was raised by his dad who’s in a coma but does have a bestfriend and goddaughter (who’s father died recently and alerted via DC) and the latter lost his parents and sister (also DC alerted) so was placed in a foster home where he gained a found family of three others. Mateo is basically a loner as such and afraid of the outside world restricted by the opinions of strangers (ooh who does that remind me of?? Of yh… me) and Rufus planned a funeral with his friends but this is sabotaged so he too is left alone. They then decide to download the Last Fried app which is basically a more depressing (in my case anyways) version of Bumble BFF where deckers (people who will die in 24hrs) and ‘normal’ people can meet and spend the day together… to have a last friend for the day. They both then talk on the app and decide to meet in person.

I feel like I’m explaining in too much detail but anyhow… they meet and we follow them on their last day. They both get to know each other and a great friendship (or more??) blooms. This is both a bittersweet journey as it’s so lovely seeing them live and learn to live, love, laugh (cliche… but it’s a cliche for a reason no??) again but also we know they’re going to die. This is especially prominent in the train scene when they’re making up their past and future - just very heart warming and breaking all together. I don’t want to give away anymore details as possible spoilers but I would so recommend this book as it’s rather varied and interesting what they do actually get up to and the messages shared. Rufus also documents this on instagram in full colour instead of his usual monochrome photography - I really liked this sorta-metaphor of brining colour and life back to his outlook… amazing.

There are also peripheral characters who we come across and see their POV via a 3rd person account as opposed the the 1st person chapters from Mateo and Rufus which interchange. These are good but I do find them slightly irrelevant and undeveloped but at the end of the day I guess they are just peripheral not the main characters but Yhh I’m slightly on the fence on this inclusion but certainly not enough to negate my opinion on the book.

Another point (I’m nearly done) is that I do have a soft spot (bias some may say) for queer characters and I did really LOVE the love blossoming between Mateo and Rufus. It was just so beautiful and innocent - exceptionally done in my opinion. I also found these queer sprinklings rather limited but done very well and relatable/realistic. I don’t know what more to say but I just really really really appreciated them and it made my depressed heart sing.

My final takes from this book. Go out and live your life. Yes be careful and have common sense on certain things (ie don’t walk across the road when cars are driving fast or into a gang or whatever) but take the opportunities given to you. Don’t always second guess yourselves. Don’t dwell on the possible (and very irrelevant) opinions of others. Sing, dance, tell the one you love you love them, tell the people who matter they matter. Tell yourself you are worthy and capable of living, of loving, of being loved. Because you are. Live as if today is your last day… who knows if it isn’t - we don’t have Death-Cast in our timeline… for better or worse. This is what I’m choosing to take from this book and what I believe we’re meant to. Yes there is certainly death and grief and negative elements to the book but threading it’s way throughout is the notion of life. The fact we’re only given one and we’re here to live it, not wast it. So yhhh, I’m done preaching and philosophising. Read the book if you want, don’t if you don’t.

Content Warnings

kate_mare's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

_rae6021's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Slow paced but speeds up 2/3 of the way through

Content Warnings

dare08's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I just finished this book and I didn't want to lol. The title says it all we all know what's going to happen, but somehow while you're reading you don't want it to. I found myself putting the book down and not wanting to come back because I didn't want it to end. But here I am crying on a delayed train because I just finished it and I didn't want it to end.
This is a good read for those dealing with death and grief but please read when you feel you're ready.
I'd say it's helped me release some of my own trauma surrounded death and grief and im really grateful.

Content Warnings

snazz07's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

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