This week I’ll be talking about They Both Die at The End by Adam Silvera. Completely unsurprisingly given its title this is a very sad book. It focuses on two teenage boys who have both just found out that this is their last day of life. They receive a phone call at midnight telling them they have 24 hours left to live, which is a new service offered by modern society. As these boys deal with the unexpected news they decided they’ll spend the day together creating some memories. Though the book is sad, I found myself often seeing themes of hope, and joy in it. The characters are amazing, and you truly feel through them on each page. It is an interesting book because it doesn’t and really can’t rely on plot to engage its reader too much. The title gives away the last page. There are some questions that keep one engaged, but mostly you just want to see these characters live their last day. You want to see them ever so briefly happy. My only problem with this book came in the latter half. The book makes jumps between points of view (POVs) quite a lot mostly focusing on our two main characters. But in the end, it starts jumping between a lot of people, in my opinion, too many people. The first half of the book had you falling in love with the main characters so by the end I was not interested in any other POVs and only wanted to see our main characters and was disappointed every time I saw a new POV. Overall I would highly recommend this book, but make sure you are in a place with your own mental health that you can read about death and mortality and still feel safe. 9.1/10
“I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows.”
“I cannot tell you how you will survive without me. I cannot tell you how to mourn me. I cannot convince you to not feel guilty if you forget the anniversary of my death, or if you realize days or weeks or months have gone by without thinking about me. I just want you to live.”
From now on with my reviews, I will include an unsplash image that evokes the feelings the work gave me. For this week it is;
Image can be found here
March 12, 2022 at 11:12 pm
Hi Alice! This sounds like an excellent book, although very sad. I am very curious about how the two boys spent their last day, so maybe I should give it a read. Out of curiosity, is it an LGBTQ+ book? I sort of remember a similar title from our library display back when I worked there.
March 21, 2022 at 7:39 pm
Sure is! Has a gay and bisexual main characters!
March 17, 2022 at 12:07 pm
Hi Alice!
This book sounds super interesting. Your review left me wondering how the author managed to keep you engaged through the entire book when you already knew how it was going to end. Once again, I love seeing your ratings and favourite quotes from each novel 🙂
March 20, 2022 at 10:52 am
Hello Alice! This book sounds very engaging (although also very sad). I really like how you pointed out that a book like this cannot rely on plot, but rather must rely on the character’s experiences on that last day. Thank you for sharing!