They Both Die at the End (They Both Die at the End, #1)

by Adam Silvera

[ccbookwitch]

I really was not a fan. I felt like the story only existed because Silvera wanted to build this world, but even the world-building didn't require much other than explaining what people do on their End Days now that the whole world gets to know when they're going to die. It's not even a very original storyline; there are plenty of books about teens who either know when they're going to die or can predict when other people are going to die.

All of the emotional investment in the book also relied on the concept of these two characters both being destined to die. However, even with that, I didn't really care much about either character. Neither Rufus nor Mateo were very well-developed, though out of the two Rufus was definitely more interesting with more layers. Mateo was sort of the opposite of Rufus, but that meant that he was very bland. He spends most of the book trying to convince himself to take risks on his last day alive because he's never taken risks before.

I also didn't like the third-person chapters from other characters. For the most part, they weren't even about characters connected to the main story, and the chapters that were from the POV of the story's secondary characters gave too much away too soon. On the note of pacing, Adam Silvera once again did his thing where he puts most of the action at the last 15% or so of the book, which, this time, was the romance. I knew there would probably be some romance because it's Adam Silvera and it's YA, but I really didn't buy it. They're just so different and only have this "deep" connection because they're both dying on the same day. They really didn't have much in common or have much chemistry, and the romance was inherently insta-lovey, which automatically turned me off.

Basically, I just found this story from the plot to the characters to be really bland. The pacing was off, and the world-building wasn't really that unique. Despite that, I do think a lot of contemporary teens would be very into this book, so I'll still probably recommend that my library buys it. I think this is largely a case of me having read a lot of YA and thus not finding it very unique, and also the author relying too heavily on the main concept of the world to make the story emotional, and it ended up feeling fake and forced.

I know I'm a black sheep where this book is concerned because the rest of the YA world is obsessed with it, but it simply wasn't for me. I was not impressed, yet again, by Adam Silvera, and I don't think I'll be giving him another chance after this one.