They Both Die at The End - Adam Silvera

Title: They Both Die At The End
Author: Adam Silvera
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 4.5 Stars

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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 and to live a lifetime in a single day. 

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They Both Die At the End is wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time.  You go into this book fully aware before you even crack the cover that the two main characters are going to die at the end.  You know it.  And even though I knew this, this book still wrecked me.  Adam Silvera might as well just have dug his hand into my chest, ripped my heart out, and stomped all over it, because that was the effect this book had on me.  And I loved every single page of it. Hell, I ugly cried halfway through the book when Mateo tells without really telling his best friend that it's his End day.  We're talking massive ugly cry here folks.  Like:

yeah.

So, anyway, let's talk. 

First of all: Those main characters?!  Rufus and Mateo are amazing and wonderful and just meant to be friends.  It is so hard that they only met for the first time on their End Day.


Mateo is a reserved guy who doesn't really do much by way of adventures.  He just lives his life, helps his best friend Lidia with her daughter, and takes care of his now comatose dad. 

Rufus is sort of wild, gets in to trouble by beating people up a lot, and is just more adventurous than Mateo.

Yet, their friendship works.  They bring out sides to each other that I don't think either would have discovered had they not become Last Friends. 

Things Mateo and Rufus did together that were amazing:
- Going to the Travel Arena and riding around with Lidia in the Around the World in 80 Minutes exhibit.
- Jumping off the rocks into the water at that same exhibit.
- When Rufus took time to go with Mateo to visit Mateo's dad and his mothers grave. 
- Riding around on the subway playing a game where they made up stories about other passengers.  (And then speculated about what those passengers would say about Mateo and Rufus.)

I also liked that the story was interspersed with shortish chapters from the POV of not significant people who somehow traveled through Mateo and Rufus's orbit throughout their day.  For example, there were a couple chapters from Peck, who was trying to hunt down Rufus and kick his ass (it's justified.)  I think having these chapters throughout the book helped add some more dimension to the story and give us more of a take on what other people thought of Death Cast, or their end days, or of the two main characters.

If you haven't read this book yet, you need to go now and do it!  If you have read it - comment and tell me what you're favorite things were about this book!