They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera | Book Review

Wednesday 20 November 2019

I had high hopes for this book. My wife enjoyed it and the two hosts from one of my favorite podcasts (We’re Doing Fine with Robbie and Lisa) both enjoyed it. I trust the tastes of all of those people so I figured there’s little risk in giving it a listen as I was in the market for a new audio book. So what did I think? Here’s my review for They Both Die In The End by Adam Silvera.




The title is very straight forward. It's about two kids who find out they’re going to die. There’s a service called Death Cast that calls people shortly after midnight and lets them know that they’re going to die. That way people can be prepared and spend their last day however they wish. Death Cast doesn’t know how or at what time, just the day. Mateo and Rufus don’t know each other. But they will after they both get the call and find each other using an app called Last Friend, an app for people who don’t have anyone to spend their last day with.

The title says they both die but they could still survive. However, for a story like this, it doesn’t matter. The journey is what counts more. It’s like any show or movie about the Titanic. You know it’s going to sink, but that’s not why you watch it. The main character could be like Jack and die or like Rose and survive on a piece of wood big enough for two. But either way you don’t sit down to Titanic thinking it’s going to have a happy ending.

I’m going to be honest. I spent half the book disliking the characters. Mataeo was a wuss. I would have been more understanding if it was revealed he had some sort of mental issue, but no explanation was given besides him being a wussy homebody who was scared of the world. Rufus sounded like someone who got a copy of “how to talk ghetto” for Christmas and was practicing as much as he could. Everything was “mad.” The sun was mad bright, the food was mad tasty, and the music was mad loud. Not just that, but he started out very one bland note.



I found myself liking the characters more as the story progressed. They were changing and it was for the better. Mateo was less of a scaredy cat and Rufus was developing more and his . In the first half of the book I just enjoyed the story and the setup while in the second half I grew to like the characters as well.

I’ve read quite a few reviews for this book and one of the biggest complaints I read was about instalove. I want to assure you that there is no instalove. In my opinion, instalove is what happens in cheesy romance books or Twilight when Bella sees Edward for the first time and she’s eternally, irrevocably, and haphazardly in love just from the sight of the creepy old vampire.

This was a cute book. A typical YA drama/romance. It wasn’t bad at all but I’ve also read better. Adam Silvera had a really good idea with this book that never fully got fleshed out. Mateo and Rufus get nice and complete stories but other parts of the book, like the world it is set in and how things work, are never explained.They Both Die In The End has many pros and very few cons so I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of YA drama and romance.

I still have quite a few question. How does death cast know how is going to die? Why are the doomed called deckers? Some people are killed because they get the call and then do something stupid. So is the call that killed them? Would they still have died if they didn’t get the call even though the fact that they got the call is what made them take a certain action that caused their death?

If that last question was a bit confusing, allow me to explain in a non-spolier example. Let’s say I get called by death cast. I find out I’m going to die today. Because I get that call, I decide to do something I never would have done otherwise. I go skydiving. While skydiving my parachute fails and I fall to my death. But I never would have been skydiving if I never got the call. So would I have died anyway? Is death unavoidable?

Those questions aside, I still liked this and would recommend it to any fan of YA. If you're not a read of the genre, then I might stray away from this book. Otherwise, give it a go.

They Both Die At The End gets a 7.5 out of 11

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