Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - They Both Die at the End

Omggggggg omg 😲 😍 😭
This book was phenomenal. I ADORED everything about it, but was mainly in awe of how the author was able to create such a flowing story over the time frame of a single day. I felt like I had spent years with the characters when it had only been a matter of hours. Adam Silvera just became one of my favorite authors ☺️

MY RATING:
4.5 Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨️
Why?
The YA novel was WAYYYY more insightful than I expected 🥺. There was such a tense and emotional feel to the book and yet it still provided a sense of hope that true happiness, peace, and kindness exists in the world. 🌎 In today's day and age, kindness is hard to come by ....
Anyway, SOME parts of the novel felt a little immature to me (like a random statement where the author tried to relate to a younger generation but it really has the opposite effect) 😅 😅😅 - hence the 4.5 stars!

Still, this was amazing 👏 🤩
I highly recommend, I highly adored everything from the friendship to the romance and the LGBTQ+ representation 🏳️‍🌈, and I cannot wait to pick up another of Silvera's titles.

Content Warnings

xabbeylongx's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-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

Book Review:

I’ve been wanting to read this one for ages. If I’m honest, I’ve been putting it off, because half of the TikTok books that get recommended to me aren’t, in reality, that great. However, I finally found this book in a charity shop, and I must say, I’m so disappointed in myself for not getting round to it quicker.

Everything about this book was so clever. Firstly, the idea of having someone call you when you’re going to die is so unique, because like, isn’t it a bit of a paradox? Like say you were going to die at work, but you find out you’re dying so you don’t go to work, so you don’t die... it’s hard to wrap my head around it, but it’s so good. This book really shows how, no matter what, life just keeps going, and the world keeps on spinning.

The characters themselves are beautiful. Flawed, heavily realistic, and real sweethearts, I loved Mateo and Rufus. Really unique characters, and you get to bond with them so well over the course of the book. All the other characters are the same, really lovable, and very well written - and that’s such a good thing in novels. I also think they’re very comedic, the humour is definitely suited for my generation.

I love how every chapter with a different character is interconnected. We hear about multiple stories, like Peck’s story, and his group, and Delilah and her ex’s story, etc etc. I love how every thing, every character, is there for a reason, like, I’m assuming, Trevor at the ending going to find Delilah, and Rufus meets his end… it’s all so good, so cleverly written, and it’s amazing. I’ve seen it’s a series, so I definitely cannot wait for the next book in the series!

Book Summary:

We follow Mateo and Rufus as they find out they only have less than 24 hours to live. In this reality, people who are dying get calls from Death-Cast, telling them that they only have a certain amount of time to live. They don’t say when, or how, they’re going to die, and just try to encourage people to live their lives to the fullest that day.

Mateo is at home when he finds out. His dad is in hospital, in a coma, so it’s just him by himself. When he gets the alert, he decides to spend his last day living. Rufus, when he gets the call, is beating up his ex’s (Aimee’s) new boyfriend (Peck). He decides it isn’t worth it, and he leaves.

Rufus calls all of his friends to their home and he plans a funeral for himself. Unfortunately, Peck calls the police on him, so his goodbyes are snatched and he is now on the run from the police.

Mateo and Rufus meet on an app called Last Friend, which is designed to help Deckers - the name given to people who are dying and know it - find someone to spend their last day with. They are cautious at first, but then eventually meet up, and they spend the rest of their day doing stuff together.

Mateo says goodbye to his dad and his best friend, Lidia, and her baby, Penny. When her boyfriend died a few months ago, she almost couldn’t go through with it, but Mateo was there for her. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to tell her, but she found out, and they managed to get a few last moments together. Rufus’s friends end up finding him, and they also get their goodbyes. Mateo and Rufus spend the day doing various activities, which Rufus takes lots of photos of, and they get to know one another.

They quickly find out they have feelings for each other - Rufus knows a little while before Mateo. They bring each other out of their comfort zones, and although it isn’t fair that they don’t get enough time together, they make every moment last. When Peck and his crew travel to find Rufus and finish him off, Mateo punches him, and they are safe. For a bit, anyway. What matters is, if they were given the time, they would grow to love each other, to be in love with each other.

They go to Mateo’s house and they seek solace in his bed. As long as they promise not to leave the bed, their ‘safe place’ they will be okay. When Rufus wakes up to the smell of smoke, and Mateo gone from the bed, he knows what has happened. He finds Mateo burned, and desperately wants the medics to save him, but he’s already dead. Rufus knows that Mateo was only trying to do something nice for the two of them, and that makes him even more angry. Rufus ends up being knocked over by a car, after visiting Mateo's dad in hospital, and that's how he meets his demise.

Content Warnings

courtneys_reading's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

I knew it was going to be sad and yet I still cried by the end. I guess it was just you knew it was going to happen and still didn't know when or how and it was devastating. It was beautiful though. I loved it a lot.

Content Warnings

kiwichill's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

This is a beautiful story about two young men who meet on the day they know they are going to die. They help each other to grow as people. It's sad but heartwarming to feel how they do knowing that it's the last day they have so they might as well spend it in positive ways

Content Warnings

fizzingweasleys's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

hanniball05's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

I don’t know, I just didn’t vibe with this book. It had so much potential but used it only on two characters when it could have explored so many different characters and their problems and how they deal with this particular topic.

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tottles's review against another edition

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i never enjoy first person books as much as third person, especially where the perspective shifts. idk why i keep trying.

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arlorees's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny inspiring tense 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? Yes

4.0

I sort of understand the idea behind putting in snippets of other people's stories, but I honestly just wanted to get back to Matteo and Rufus everytime we moved away from them. I couldn't care less about Delilah and Victor and that random actor.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the way the main characters spoke/thought in a *youthy* way - it felt a lot like "hello fellow kids".

But by the end this didn't seem to matter so much. A great story.

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