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mwreadings's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Genuinely the only book to make me cry so far. The characters are so loveable and I enjoyed every second of reading this book. It’s an easy read and I’m sure that it can be done in one sitting so it’s the perfect holiday book. It’s adorable and heartbreaking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Grief
artexnh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Car accident, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
jessreadingg's review against another edition
reflective
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? It's complicated
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
Moderate: Car accident and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Chronic illness
i don’t understand the hype this book got i had to proper push through to finish it. the plot was extremely slow paced and i kept on getting bored. everytime the pace would pick up it would slow right back down again although i love the use of the song “american pie” reminded me of black widow if you know you know ;)crystallis's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Cancer, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
gewrgia_lightwood's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Car accident
Minor: Mass/school shootings
lastingliterature's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.0
I truly don’t know how to rate this book.
On one hand, I loved the boys and the message; however, on the other hand, there were some problems with the storyline that kept me a bit distant from full emotional attachment. Let’s break it down.
Things I liked:
-The relationships!
-I like that Mateo and Rufus’s relationship was drawn out very slowly and built over a true connection. It didn’t feel like they got together simply because they were dying or because they were the only ones around
-The friendships with the Plutos and Lidia. Beautiful.
-The representation! Mateo is gay and Puerto-Rican and Rufus is bisexual and Cuban-American. There is also rep. with the foster care system, which you don’t see all too often in YA.
-Interlocking storyline. I always like stories where people’s lives interweave.
-The ending. I won’t spoil anything, but I really like how it played out and wasn’t as predictable.
-The title. Some didn’t like how it “spoils” but is going to happen or they imagine they will get out of it somehow, but I loved knowing what was inevitably happen but had to work to find out how it would.
Things I didn’t like:
-No explanation for any of the fantasy/sci-fi elements. No reason was ever given for how or why they know when people are going to die. Everyone in the book just accepts it and doesn’t care about if a person should have the choice over knowing
-The Necro app (enough said)
-The whole Peck storyline. It seemed too forced and easy for me.
-Choppy at times. With all of the extra characters added, sometimes I felt it dragged.
-Emotional attachment. I can’t narrow it down fully, but I just wasn’t *that* emotionally involved in this one. It made me sad to read the ending, but I didn’t tear up and I didn’t have one of those glorious book hangovers that I was expecting.
This is a book that will stay with me. The themes are endless with this one—living life to the fullest, the true value in friendship, the beauty of connection with another human, life is short, etc., etc. It really puts things into perspective.
Maybe I will change this rating, but for now:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
On one hand, I loved the boys and the message; however, on the other hand, there were some problems with the storyline that kept me a bit distant from full emotional attachment. Let’s break it down.
Things I liked:
-The relationships!
-I like that Mateo and Rufus’s relationship was drawn out very slowly and built over a true connection. It didn’t feel like they got together simply because they were dying or because they were the only ones around
-The friendships with the Plutos and Lidia. Beautiful.
-The representation! Mateo is gay and Puerto-Rican and Rufus is bisexual and Cuban-American. There is also rep. with the foster care system, which you don’t see all too often in YA.
-Interlocking storyline. I always like stories where people’s lives interweave.
-The ending. I won’t spoil anything, but I really like how it played out and wasn’t as predictable.
-The title. Some didn’t like how it “spoils” but is going to happen or they imagine they will get out of it somehow, but I loved knowing what was inevitably happen but had to work to find out how it would.
Things I didn’t like:
-No explanation for any of the fantasy/sci-fi elements. No reason was ever given for how or why they know when people are going to die. Everyone in the book just accepts it and doesn’t care about if a person should have the choice over knowing
-The Necro app (enough said)
-The whole Peck storyline. It seemed too forced and easy for me.
-Choppy at times. With all of the extra characters added, sometimes I felt it dragged.
-Emotional attachment. I can’t narrow it down fully, but I just wasn’t *that* emotionally involved in this one. It made me sad to read the ending, but I didn’t tear up and I didn’t have one of those glorious book hangovers that I was expecting.
This is a book that will stay with me. The themes are endless with this one—living life to the fullest, the true value in friendship, the beauty of connection with another human, life is short, etc., etc. It really puts things into perspective.
Maybe I will change this rating, but for now:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Medical content, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Sexual content
lousreadings's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
5.0
This book was a storm of feelings. There was love, friendship, grieve, fear, anger, excitement, joy and gratitude and so much more. The message, to live life as long as we can and take chances not caring too much about what others will think and what bad could happen, it's so beautiful. The characters are very realistic, they are shown with diverse facettes. They are shown sad, happy, afraid and angry and with every situation it seems like the reader knows them better. It's like being with them. Maybe that's why the reader feels so much, because it feels like we know them. Because we saw them in their worst moments and we loved them even more. The whole story happens in one day, less than 24 hours, and still it feels like so much more. For me it's a masterpiece.
This end caused the hardest cry ever. The titel told me "they both die at the end" and everywhere in this book I read that they don't have a lot of time left and that they will die. I should've known, that there is no way out. But these two characters, Mateo and Rufus, were so loveable, that I couldn't do anything but hope. Hope, that they will be the first people to survive the altert. Hope, that these beautiful relationship will have a future. They were so wonderful together and they taught each other how to be the best version of themselves. I just wished so hard, that they could've lived a little longer. There were so many incidents that they survived that this end was just horrible. They survived the explosion and they survived the fight. But then Mateo has to die making a tea?! I just cried like half an hour and I still have tears in my eyes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I read this book expecting a story where two people die at the end. What I got was a tender, heartfelt, and sometimes exhilarating story about two guys connecting when they're almost out of time, sharing their friends and their last moments.
I really like the narrative structure. The first part of the book stayed with the two MCs for a while, letting me really get to know them as characters and get a sense of the setting. Then, once they were established as MCs, it slowly introduces snippets from other characters' perspectives to give context, sometimes to get in the head of someone the MC's interacted with (or someone who knows someone they interacted with). It helped to ground their experiences and create this feeling of many people living their lives with all these connections, but always returning to the MCs and their growing bonds with each other. There were only a few places in this snippet of the world which were important, but even with these few locations and small selection of characters it made it feel big. They had time to visit places and return to a few key ones as things changed throughout the day, or sometimes only the reader was the one revisiting when the second glance was through another character's eyes. Many of the characters grew or changed in this one day. Not everyone, obviously, a mass epiphany or everyone becoming great overnight would have broken immersion, but enough for it to feel like a book where most people became a little bit better for having gone though this day, for having known each other. The way the central conceit was incorporated into the rest of the modern world was really smooth. When they first meet on the app I was laughing because it felt right, that's absolutely how this kind of app would have played out in 2017 when the book is set. Grounding this in a specific day on the calendar was very wise, since it means that even as the popular apps change it can still feel relevant because it's not pretending that technology is ageless or something. It also feels like it'll be resonant for a long time because it's specific and poignant without being self-aggrandizing.
I didn't expect the ending to blow me away, but it did. I mean, it's in the title, right? But this is a book that's fully about the journey, not the destination, and it has room to be fun, serious, contemplative, heart-pounding, sad, and wonderful, all in one day of the characters' lives. The seeds of the end were there from the beginning and I'm so sad that the book is over, even though I knew it had to end eventually. I love the ending. I'm very sad about it, but it's perfect for this book and these characters. If it really had to be over sometime this was probably the best way it could have gone about it.
I really like the narrative structure. The first part of the book stayed with the two MCs for a while, letting me really get to know them as characters and get a sense of the setting. Then, once they were established as MCs, it slowly introduces snippets from other characters' perspectives to give context, sometimes to get in the head of someone the MC's interacted with (or someone who knows someone they interacted with). It helped to ground their experiences and create this feeling of many people living their lives with all these connections, but always returning to the MCs and their growing bonds with each other. There were only a few places in this snippet of the world which were important, but even with these few locations and small selection of characters it made it feel big. They had time to visit places and return to a few key ones as things changed throughout the day, or sometimes only the reader was the one revisiting when the second glance was through another character's eyes. Many of the characters grew or changed in this one day. Not everyone, obviously, a mass epiphany or everyone becoming great overnight would have broken immersion, but enough for it to feel like a book where most people became a little bit better for having gone though this day, for having known each other. The way the central conceit was incorporated into the rest of the modern world was really smooth. When they first meet on the app I was laughing because it felt right, that's absolutely how this kind of app would have played out in 2017 when the book is set. Grounding this in a specific day on the calendar was very wise, since it means that even as the popular apps change it can still feel relevant because it's not pretending that technology is ageless or something. It also feels like it'll be resonant for a long time because it's specific and poignant without being self-aggrandizing.
I didn't expect the ending to blow me away, but it did. I mean, it's in the title, right? But this is a book that's fully about the journey, not the destination, and it has room to be fun, serious, contemplative, heart-pounding, sad, and wonderful, all in one day of the characters' lives. The seeds of the end were there from the beginning and I'm so sad that the book is over, even though I knew it had to end eventually. I love the ending. I'm very sad about it, but it's perfect for this book and these characters. If it really had to be over sometime this was probably the best way it could have gone about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness
CW for homophobia (minor), panic attacks (minor), mental illness (minor), grief, drowning, blood, gun violence, violence, suicidal thoughts, child death, major character death, death.mryshells's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, Gun violence, and Grief
Minor: Blood, Cursing, Gore, Medical content, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness
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