Synopsis
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 the 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.
Review
I purchased this book in the same haul when I got The Midnight Library as it popped up in the 'Other books you may like' section. In many ways, I can see why the algorithm put these two books together as in many ways, they deal with similar themes. On first sight, the most glaring similarity appears to be death...or at least how to deal with death. That's perhaps the first (and wrong) assumption you can make about They Both Die at the End. Sure, the book spends a good deal of time discussing how the main characters think about death but actually, when you really delve into the pages and get stuck in, it's a book about life and friendship. Two people, completely unalike on every level are thrown together to spend their final day, aware that at any moment they could die, or worse, have to watch the other die.
It would be easy for Silvera to turn this story into a sci-fi mystery. How does this mysterious company know when people are going to die? Do they actually have something to do with people dying? What are the implications if someone manages to avoid death? However, what Silvera does is write a character examination and that is entirely the right decision. One of my favourite films is Finding a Friend for the End of the World which is based on the well worn 'asteroid hitting the earth' storyline. Except, the film pretty much ignores the big sci-fi elements and the race to 'save the world' which we have seen so many times. Instead, the film follows a couple of people who are flung together and we follow their journey into making peace with what is about to happen. This book is very similar in that respect and it was refreshing because of that.
Something else worth commenting on is the LGBTQ+ visibility, specifically the B part. At first, Rufus comes across as a bit of a thug. In fact, the first time we are introduced to him, he is beating up his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend! However, as the story progresses and we learn more about Rufus, we discover that he's actually a product of the system and he's actually quite a nice young man. When the bombshell is revealed that he's actually bisexual, it doesn't really come across as a bombshell. It's just another part of who he is and it doesn't define him. As a bisexual woman myself, that type of visibility is really inspiring and actually kinda important.
Final Thoughts
This is really fascinating concept and I loved how Adam Silvera made it about the characters rather than the big sci-fi questions. It's a true character examination and in Mateo and Rufus, we have two really different and interesting protagonists. At times, nothing much happens but that wasn't enough to make me want to put it down. If anything, it kept me reading as I repeatedly found myself just drawn into the tale of these two boys spending their last day on earth together. Two ordinary boys who have been forced to come to terms with their own mortality.
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