BookPage Teen Top Pick, September 2017

In an alternate present-day New York City, Mateo and Rufus both receive the same call from Death-Cast in the early morning hours, letting them know they'll be dead by midnight. The two teens have never met, but when they connect on the Last Friend app, they set out to help each other pack the experiences of a lifetime into one last day and form a deep bond that soon goes beyond friendship.

Adam Silvera, bestselling author of More Happy Than Not and History Is All You Left Me, delivers a thought-provoking story about two boys who seize one final opportunity to change their lives. The premise—that we should embrace every day because we don't know many we've got left—may be trite, but Silvera's take on the cliché is anything but. He renders every moment of their last day with such honesty that readers will feel as though they're experiencing the same terror, anger and even joy Mateo and Rufus feel as they prowl the city together.

It's a risky move, letting the reader know from the get-go that the main characters won't make it. But these protagonists are impossible to hold at arm's length; Mateo's crippling shyness and Rufus' temper are sure to resonate with readers. Both boys are hyperaware of their own shortcomings, but they're also bound and determined to overcome their insecurities and live as their ideal selves during their final hours. They Both Die at the End is impossible to put down, and it's sure to inspire readers to think about the people they want to be.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Soon after Rufus Emeterio, 17, and Mateo Torrez, 18, receive midnight phone calls from Death-Cast, a service that notifies those with less than 24 hours to live, the New York City teenagers connect via the Last Friend app and decide to spend their final hours together. Both have been dealt harsh hands even before getting the call: Mateo's mother died giving birth to him and his father's in a coma. Rufus is the only survivor of a car crash that killed his entire family. Over the course of an eventful day, these thoughtful young men speak honestly and movingly about their fate, their anger at its unfairness, and what it means to be alive, until their budding friendship organically turns into something more. Each tells his part of the story in alternating, time-stamped chapters. Other voices—mostly friends from Rufus's foster home and people they encounter—fill out the narrative, revealing the influence both boys have had on those around them. It hardly matters that the title telegraphs the ending; it's still heartbreaking when it arrives. Ages 14–up. Agent: Brooks Sherman, Janklow & Nesbit. (Sept.)

Gr 9 Up—Everyone who is going to die on a given day gets a call to let them know; not the when, or the how, or the why, but just notification that they will die on that day. Mateo and Rufus each get that call and are facing their last day without a loved one. But there's an app for that. Combining a well-realized alternative present with a lovely romance, Silvera's latest delivers what readers want in a book about dying teens. There's no avoiding the cliches that go along with the idea that an impending end makes life more meaningful, but recasting a Lurlene McDaniel-style doomed teen romance with Latinx queer boys and having the societal changes wink at those clichés softens them and makes a better storytelling device. The overarching structure of meaningful coincidences making a magical day in New York has its predecessors—Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Nicola Yoon's The Sun Is Also a Star being prime examples—but this title is a deft exploration of that trope. Silvera continues to masterfully integrate diversity, disability, and young queer voices into an appealing story with a lot of heart. VERDICT While most of the elements and themes of this work are not new, they are combined, realized, and diversified expertly in this title. A must-have for YA shelves.—L. Lee Butler, Hart Middle School, Washington, DC