They Both Die at the End

I really enjoyed this [audio] book. Some parts were a bit cheesy (almost instalove??), and some were annoying (or should I say MAD annoying), but overall i enjoyed.

I wish I felt more powerfully towards the characters. I just wanted MORE.

They Both Die At the End is a novel that explores death and how people deal with it. The story is set in a world where people are told that they are going to die 24 hours in advance. Enter our main characters, Mateo and Rufus, who both have been informed that they will be dying (Hello title reference).

To be completely honest, I expected to like or even love this book as Adam Silvera seems to be a rather popular YA contemporary author. However, I found this book lacking in a lot of ways. The first issue I had was the writing. I don't necessarily think Adam is a bad writer, but his writing style and I did not vibe. The writing felt forced. It felt like Adam was trying to create these super unique quirky characters and make the characters be these things rather than letting them develop naturally. Due to this, the plot of the story and the progression of certain relationships felt off as well. It felt like Adam had an idea and then shoe-horned characters into the world and idea that he had.

The other issue I had was that the book takes several breaks from the main plotline to see other people in the world who may have some contact with the main characters. This shift, I assume, was to get a better idea about how people handle the idea of mortality, especially their own. However, I didn't feel that these chapters added much to that theme/concept, and it pulled me out of the story which is never a good thing.

Moreover, I felt like the depictions of grief and loss in this book were basic and shallow. We never went in depth with any of these ideas that Adam introduced about how we as humans deal with death. I understand that this is a YA contemporary and that, to an extent, you can't expect them to be in depth philosophical discussions. But, I feel that this issue could have easily been fixed by focusing only on the main characters and their families rather than trying to incorporate all of these side characters to get as many different ideas about mortality and death in the novel as possible.

Overall, I liked the concept of the novel and the general idea of all the characters,but I feel like the execution of all of these things just did not go well.

Really enjoyed this book, the worldbuilding from a FPOV of each individual character wasn't as confusing as I expected it to be and kept me in the story the whole way through.

4.75/5 CW: Anxiety, suicidal ideation, grief

This is the first book in a long time that I’ve just wanted to sit down and read (Listen rather. Great audiobook) I wanted to know what was going to happen. I would sit down to read a little bit and stop two hours later. The characters were fun, three demential, diverse, real.

I personally relate to Mateo a lot, as a person has social anxiety and autism. Sometimes it’s good to for people like us to step outside of our bubbles. But sometimes it’s really not. Having the time of your life doesn’t mean you have to something extremely adventuress for an introvert. For a person in general. If it was the last day of my life I wouldn’t regret staying home sometimes.

A quiet night can be the best time of your life. If it’s what you really enjoy, that’s what you should be doing. If I were to be thrown into certain situations, even if I knew it was the last day of my life, I probably would not have fun. I would have a terrible time at something that was too stimulating. It’s okay to know your limits sometimes. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take risks. Just calculated risks. Being a homebody doesn’t mean you are unadventurous or are wasting your life away.

Regardless, I think Mateo and Rufus’ dynamic was amazing. Everyone needs a person like Rufus in their life. Though there is a different between someone like Rufus and someone who just pushes you too far. The difference is import to remember. If someone pushes you into something that’s so uncomfortable that you freak out, they aren’t a true friend. People often don’t realize the difference between those two dynamics. One is perfect healthy, the person is doing it because they know there friend can handle it and will have fun in the end. That’s Rufus and Mateo.

I have mixed feelings on the other points of view. Once they all connected my mind was blow away but at first I felt a little pulled away from the story. I just wanted to know what happened to Mateo and Rufus. But the background characters do have a great message. Anything you do can effect the world of another person. Anything they do could be effecting you, even if you don’t know. Everyone around us has a story, everyone is a human being.

One thing that really annoyed me was Rufus’ inner dialogue. I know it was showing his heritage, up bring, and personality, but it was just really repetitive. There was a ‘mad’ like every five seconds. Dose the boy know any other words to describe something??

The ending felt a little bit abrupt to me. I felt like there was still things that need to be resolved. It even took me a few minutes to figure out how Rufus died. I t felt anticlimactic. I was excepting something much bigger and dramatic I guess.

There is much more I could say about what this saying about society, ext. but this review is already so long and that’s all folks

ééééééééé gata...

[3.5]

- me enganou quem disse que só era triste no final do livro

- achei o romance deles muito instalove sim mas a construção foi boa

- esperava mais do final

- me tocou muito principalmente pq eu tenho um ponto fraco com esse assunto

- .......................overhyped

4ish / 5

Dull writing, uninteresting characters.

The concept is so good, but the writing style was a major let down.