They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera - Book Review
Title: They Both Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publish Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: 3.7/5
Summary(blurb): On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There's an app for that. It's called Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure-- to live a lifetime in a single day. Uplifting and devastating, charming and haunting, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut novel the New York Times called "profound". It's a story that reminds us there's no life without death, no love without loss- and that it's possible to change your whole world in a day.
**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.
I found this book a few days ago at my local library when I was looking for something to read, and I stumbled across this book which intrigued me with its title. The title is literally a spoiler for the story! But anyways I borrowed this, read it, and when I told my friend about it he mentioned it was famous. This was when I was about 60 pages away from finishing the book, so that day after I finished
The whole story of They Both Die at the End is centered around a nationwide service called Death-Cast that basically knows when you're going to die, and then gives you a call on midnight to let you know you're going to die in the next 24 hours. You don't know exactly when or how you'll die-- you only know you will, and you're a ticking time bomb waiting to be snuffed out. The people designated to die that day are called Deckers (for some unknown reason), and their last days are called End Days. As presumably years have passed since the creation of Death-Cast, lots of apps, businesses, websites, and events have been developed specifically for Deckers. One of them is an app called Last Friend, which matches up a Decker with a non-decker or another Decker registered on the app to become new friends on their End Day.
And it is through this app, Last Friend, that the protagonists of this story meet.
This book is about two boys called Mateo Torrez (18) and Rufus Emeterio (17), both of whom receive their Death-Cast call at around midnight (Mateo at 12am, Rufus at 1am) and sign up for the Last Friend app. Mateo usually lives alone with his dad but not at the moment, since his dad is in a coma in the hospital. Rufus is an orphan and his only friends are the others at the same orphan house(called Pluto) who he spent years with. After Rufus narrowly escapes the police catching him because someone called the cops on him, he goes onto Last Friend and finds Mateo. Mateo, a shy worried introverted stay-at-home guy, finds Rufus on Last Friend. They meet and find each other's company nice, and eventually both of them are changed by each other. Mateo becomes much more extroverted and open to challenges when before he was the definition of a scaredy-cat, and Rufus learns to live with his grief of having lost his family (he was the only survivor in a car accident with his parents and sister).
In this book there were parts that I definitely liked and parts I disliked (just like All The Bright Places)-- but I'll start with the best parts first.
Well, first of all I was fascinated by the premise and setting of this book-- a world with a death alarm that tells you you're dying in the next 24 hours-- because of all the implications it would have on the societal structure in addition to its main purpose (giving people a chance to live life to the fullest before dying). I was personally very glad that the author considered what would happen as a result of DeathCast in terms of capitalist society-- it made sense that there would be apps and websites specifically for Deckers to use and post how their End Day is going, and businesses that let Deckers have ultra-safe VR experiences of dangerous stuff they never got to do in their life like skydiving. It also made lots of sense that such Decker-targeted businesses would charge ridiculous amounts of money since Deckers know they won't be around to spend their life savings the next day. It felt like the dark side of capitalism showed here, exploiting every single thing possible with the only intention being profit, profit, and profit. The setting setup is brilliant, and it's what really helped the world with DeathCast truly come alive for me.
Another thing I highly enjoyed in this book was the relationship between Mateo and Rufus, I liked how their friendship developed and each got to support the other in overcoming their respective hardships. Although I didn't find the story behind how they met or their respective love lives very realistic, I thought the way Mateo and Rufus supported each other on their End Day was beautifully portrayed.
And lastly, the story had brief side chapters about other characters that were connected to the story by a mere thread, like this girl called Zoe Landon(a Decker) who met a friend(Gabriella) on the Last Friend app. Zoe and Gabriella are connected to the story in subtle but noticeable ways-- Gabriella's graffiti was what got Rufus to sign up for the Last Friend app, and Zoe picks up a book Mateo left for people on the subway. These side stories add zero substance to the story, and for that reason some people don't like these chapters, but personally these kinds of subtly connected stories are one of the story styles I love the most. This connected-by-a-single-thread style is especially emphasized in Mitch Albom's books such as The Five People You Meet In Heaven, where Eddie's death is caused by a man who dropped his keys on a roller coaster years ago. Each character has their own story, each has their own life, but they are connected through small, seemingly pointless actions.
And for my complaints about this book, first of all I noticed many plot holes in how DeathCast gets their warnings to the Deckers. In the book, the warnings are given by employees who work from 12am to 3am, calling everyone who will die on that day. First of all, lots of people are asleep at that time, so what happens if someone doesn't get their call? The ringtone is set to be extra loud for just this purpose, but what if it's an elderly person who can't hear well? What happens to the people who don't have phones and live alone? Also, children apparently get their alert by DeathCast calling their parents and giving the news to the kids-- then what about orphans? Also, is DeathCast optional or a must for everyone in the country?
Another question, does DeathCast operate internationally? The intuitive answer is no because one company probably won't be able to take care of all the world's deaths and there are many regions in the world where people don't have phones at all.
Lastly, my biggest confusion point is how DeathCast somehow kills off some people. This works because there are cases like Lidia's boyfriend, who died because of a car accident he encountered while driving back to meet Lidia again (he was driving back because he got the death alert and wanted to see Lidia one last time). The same goes for Rufus's family, because they died while driving to a mountainside cabin that Rufus's sister wanted to visit one last time before death. In such ways, the DeathCast call is what drives many Deckers to death. Another prime example of how DeathCast kills Deckers is because there is a social media challenge going around called Bangers where Deckers try to die in the most unique way possible ("go out with a bang"), and the most popular death wins the Decker's family some riches. It's horrible, I know, but it shows just how crazy the internet and social media is.
Too many novels and Marvel movies and such have drummed the notion into my head that there are multiple possible timelines for all the choices that can be made, and another question is, what happens if in one timeline DeathCast calls someone and they die because of it (by Bangers of something like that) but in another timeline DeathCast doesn't call and they don't die? In short, what if somebody dies if DeathCast calls but doesn't die if DeathCast doesn't call? Would DeathCast call or not call?
Such concerns and questions are what prevented me from enjoying this book to its fullest, but in conclusion I enjoyed this book quite well.
I would recommend this book for grade 6/7 and up, it's got some deep dark topics but is generally a good enjoyable read.
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