They Both Die At The End: A review by Penny R

They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera is a young adult novel that focuses on the romance of Rufus and Mateo. The teenagers are in a dystopian world where you get an alert the day you die, so they try to live their entire lifetime in a single day.

At the beginning of the novel, Mateo is a very shy character. He spends time with his father and his best friend Lydia for most of his life, until his dad goes into a coma. As a result, he hides in his room for most of his life, and he’s especially interested in the lives of Deckers (people who are dying that day). Mateo has always been very kind to everyone and everything, even burying a baby bird on the side of the road in one of the earlier scenes. When he gets the call, he’s pretty shocked and scared. Eventually, he builds up the courage to download the Last Friend app in the hopes of meeting someone to support him. He’s very put off by some of the people on the app, and is about to give up when he meets Rufus.

Rufus’s life is almost the polar opposite of Mateo’s. He's beating up his exes’ new boyfriend when he gets the call, which is the first scene we see him in. He’s always lived life very vividly, even after his family became Deckers and drowned when he was younger. He was put into a foster home and lived with a couple teenagers with similar situations. They became a close group of friends called the Plutos. Rufus dated Aimee, one of the Plutos, for a long time. They broke up really unexpectedly, and Aimee quickly moved on to Peck. Peck calls the police when Aimee brings him to the foster home afterwards, and Rufus is forced to get away. He’s also thinking he needs support from someone else, knowing that the Plutos can’t support him after the police were called. He downloads the Last Friends app, eventually meeting Mateo. He convinces Mateo to meet up and spend the day together. Throughout the day, the two face their fears, confess everything to each other, and eventually fall in love. 

This book is probably one of the best romance books I've ever read. I found myself not wanting the book to end, while simultaneously being impressed with the way all the plot points fit together. The main characters felt very in depth to me and I appreciate the way they just clicked with each other when first meeting. I sympathized with all the characters because the book had chapters from most of the characters mentioned, not just Rufus and Mateo. The morals of the book were also very in depth, mentioning the idea of living a lifetime on your final day and stepping past your comfort zone. As Adam Silvera mentions in a review of the book, "The ending was never the point of the book", meaning the book is about Mateo and Rufus's journey. The book promotes queer relationships and the affect trauma can have on your life. I also appreciate that both characters had realistic situations that they worked through and tried to make the best of, for the most part. 9/10!