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A review by crackedspines_
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
4.0
OVERALL RATING: 4.5 stars! They Both Die at the End is such a unique, special, emotional book. I love the concept and I love the characters. Somehow Adam Silvera managed to make the ending not only incredibly sad, but also somehow surprising, even though it's right in the title. I did have one problem with the plot, which is where it lost half a star, but other than that I absolutely loved it.
PLOT: 4 stars. I adore the concept for this book. It's interesting and Silvera wrote it well. The book spans a single day, but it feels longer. So much happened in this one short day. My only problem was how Rufus and Mateo met. The Last Friends app and all of that makes sense, but I don't understand what made Mateo click on Rufus' profile. Both characters change a lot by the end of the book, and their feelings for each other do as well, but I can't get past that initial meeting.
STRUCTURE: 5 stars. i enjoyed the alternating perspectives, and the shorter perspectives mixed in really added to the story. The times were also very helpful.
WORLD-BUILDING: 4 stars. Death-Cast is of course the biggest difference from our own world, but there were so many interesting, well-thought out facets of this world: the language, such as End Days and Deckers; the CountDowners and Last Friend apps; and companies like Make a Moment.
THEME: 5 stars. The message of this book is so important, both the main one and the several smaller ones. TBDATE was perfectly balanced between happy and hopeful and emotional and a bit depressing.
CHARACTERS: 3.5 stars. At the beginning of the book I didn't much like Rufus. I know that's the point, and that I was judging him from a very small part of his life, but regardless that made it very hard to get invested in his chapters at first. I also struggled a bit to buy into the romance. I understand that the book was only one day long, but there was just no chemistry. I didn't see any signs that they were attracted to each other aside from them telling me. Aside from that, though, all of the characters were beautifully developed, even the side characters. It was amazing to watch Rufus and Mateo grow and change, and their emotions felt real.
PLOT: 4 stars. I adore the concept for this book. It's interesting and Silvera wrote it well. The book spans a single day, but it feels longer. So much happened in this one short day. My only problem was how Rufus and Mateo met. The Last Friends app and all of that makes sense, but I don't understand what made Mateo click on Rufus' profile. Both characters change a lot by the end of the book, and their feelings for each other do as well, but I can't get past that initial meeting.
STRUCTURE: 5 stars. i enjoyed the alternating perspectives, and the shorter perspectives mixed in really added to the story. The times were also very helpful.
WORLD-BUILDING: 4 stars. Death-Cast is of course the biggest difference from our own world, but there were so many interesting, well-thought out facets of this world: the language, such as End Days and Deckers; the CountDowners and Last Friend apps; and companies like Make a Moment.
THEME: 5 stars. The message of this book is so important, both the main one and the several smaller ones. TBDATE was perfectly balanced between happy and hopeful and emotional and a bit depressing.
CHARACTERS: 3.5 stars. At the beginning of the book I didn't much like Rufus. I know that's the point, and that I was judging him from a very small part of his life, but regardless that made it very hard to get invested in his chapters at first. I also struggled a bit to buy into the romance. I understand that the book was only one day long, but there was just no chemistry. I didn't see any signs that they were attracted to each other aside from them telling me. Aside from that, though, all of the characters were beautifully developed, even the side characters. It was amazing to watch Rufus and Mateo grow and change, and their emotions felt real.