Week Three: They Both Die at the End
What would you do if you knew you only had 24 hours to live?
A Novel by Adam Silvera
fan art found on redbubble.com
Welcome to week three! Thank you for returning to my page! Sorry it's a little late, I had a long week! Did not want to rush a post.
Now, I discovered this book in 2021 because it was trending on "BookTok". I quickly purchased it and sadly, it sat on my shelf until now.
I will say regardless of the knowing of the end due to the title, the story definitely keeps you on edge and wondering what was going to happen next.
Now I really did love this book, I truly was geeking out when I was reading it due to all the really cool factors that the author put in, including little details that you would need to remember throughout the book to connect some of the dots at the end. Fair warning if you choose to read this book you will definitely be crying a majority of the story, There is rarely a time in the book where you feel like everything is going to be OK.
Let's dive into it!
Favorite Quote:
"This isn't about Karma. I'm not trying to rack up I'm-a-Good-Person points. You shouldn't donate to charity, help the elderly cross the street, or rescue puppies in the hopes of being repaid later. I may not be able to cure cancer or end world hunger, but small kindnesses go a long way."
- Mateo Torrez
Initial Response:
This is definitely my kind of story because it is so so sad. Sad books aren’t for everyone, but they are up my alley for sure. I really enjoy a good heartbreaking book. Why do you ask?
Because they always make you feel something. You know the book left a good mark on you when you’re thinking about it days after finishing it, or just have an overwhelming feeling of loss once you finish a book, especially a sad one.
The story had me enticed the entire time, I fell in love with the characters so quickly and truly enjoyed seeing them develop as the story went on, even if I knew that they were going to meet an untimely death. Loving these characters made it much more heartbreaking in the end... and had me hoping that there would be a great plot twist making it so that both of them would end up living happily ever after. But as you read the book, you learn that their death is impossible to avoid. I think the overall idea of a world like this is really haunting.
The thought of having a organization that knows the day you’re going to die,
calls you to inform you it’s your last day, like it's a telemarketer call, and then society just accepting the fact that you are going to die from one phone call.... is normal? How does that even work? The overall idea of this story is unlike any I've ever read, and it left me with so many questions at the end. Not necessarily questions I was in need of answers right away, but just thoughts of how living in a world like this would work. Just imagine getting a call from a total stranger to tell you that you’re going to die, you have twenty-four hours to live and that you should definitely live it up before you don't get the chance to. Blows my mind truly!
Now me being a generally anxious person, I don’t think I could handle a call like this!
Not just for myself or anyone I know, I just think living in this world I would be in a constant anxious state of when am I going to get my call!
Plot and Characters:
"Hello, I'm calling from Death-Cast. I regret to inform you that sometime in the next twenty-four hours you'll be meeting an untimely death. On behalf of everyone at Death-Cast, we are sorry to lose you. Live this day to the fullest okay?"
In this dystopian world, there is an organization called Death-Cast. Their job is to inform people of when they are going to die... how they do it? No one knows. Who tells them? How can death be avoided?
Also questions unknown.
We start off the story from Matteo's Point of View. Matteo Torrez is 17 years old, an introvert, and in his eyes, nothing really special. He was never the kid who took broke the rules, got in any sort of trouble, or really went out of his comfort zone. Matteo receives his call from Death-Cast on September 5th, 2017. He is told he has 24 hours before he will meet his untimely death, and like most people, is having a difficult time adjusting to this harsh news. He is thinking about how his father, who is currently in the hospital in a coma, and his best friend Lidia and goddaughter Penny, are going to live without him.
Rufus Emeterio also receives a call from Death-Cast on September 5th, 2017. He is in the middle of beating up his ex-girlfriend Aimee's, current boyfriend, along with his foster brothers Tagoe and Malcolm. Also a teenage boy, getting a call about how his life is about to end in the next 24 hours. Rufus is best described as reckless, and the lone survivor of a tragic accident that killed both his parents and older sister earlier in the year. Rufus is not afraid to speak his mind, and he has never really cared for where his life was going to go. More of a go with the flow kind of guy.
Now what do these two have in common? Nothing really. They have completely different upbringings, personalities and thoughts on the future...
The only common thing is that they both decide to sign up for "The Last Friend" app, due to the fact they are both going to inevitably die in the next twenty-four hours. The two boys meet through this app that was designed for people who are experiencing their "end day" and do not want to go through it alone.
Matteo and Rufus meet up and agree to spend their last day together, saying their goodbyes to family and friends and getting the closure they need before the time comes.
They both face challenges together, and truly try to live a lifetime in a single day.
Besides being so different from one another, the boys come together and support each other on their last day, as well as encourage each other to do things that they normally wouldn’t, not just in the sense of activities or experiences such as skydiving or cliff jumping per se, but doing the things you love without shame and without embarrassment.
For Mateo, that was music. Singing, dancing and playing the piano. Also trying new things that he normally never thought he would.
For Rufus, I would say that was just accepting himself, allowing himself to be emotional about his family and the trauma he experienced four months prior. Accepting the love his foster family gives him.
I will not dive in too deeply with these characters because I don't want to spoil too much of the story, because though this is an overall sad novel, joy from the characters throughout their last day journey comes in surprises that you do not expect... and they will really put a smile on your face when you need it.
Writing Style:
Let me tell you the best part of the entire book: it all connects. When I started to discover this about a quarter of the way through the book, I began to get really excited about where this was going to go.
Other than the two main characters, the author includes other chapters with secondary characters that at first don’t seem to connect to the story in any means besides explaining from another person's point of view what a day in this world is like. Each of those chapters either starts off with; "Death-Cast called so and so at this time", or "Death-Cast did not call so and so today because they are not going to die".
As you go through the story, you start realizing that in those other points of view, the characters describe incidences where they see “two teenage boys riding together on a bicycle", or "exiting a train", and you realize that those two boys are Mateo and Rufus!
That other characters in the story are interacting with them in someway by either just seeing them, or being in that general area with them before certain significant events occur.
More and more begins to connect as you go throughout the story. I don’t want to give away too much because really once you’re reading it, it’s very cool to see how these characters are going to run in to each other and what it means.
Once you finish the book, the author included a diagram of all the characters and how they are connected to one another throughout the book. That just confirmed for me that I was right, and it even gave me some insight on which characters interacted with each other that I didn’t necessarily notice while reading. So definitely check it out when you’re done reading the book!
A huge part of this writing style (other than being mostly character POV), I believe had to do with foreshadowing and the impending deaths of the characters. Mostly written in 1st person, there are also chapters that are in a 3rd person voice, who seems to describe situations where death is coming. I also enjoyed that the events in the story were chronological, with time stamped chapters to know exactly when different events, from different POV's, were taking place during the day. You could feel the stress of the day ticking away as the story goes on, seeing that the main characters last day come to an end.
Likelihood to recommend:
I would definitely recommend this to anyone that wants a good heartthrob of a story or just a good cry. This book definitely reminds us that we are mortal, and that though we don’t have a Death-Cast system to tell us when our time is going to end, we should definitely be living every day like it’s our last.
I took away so many important concepts from this novel:
Enjoying the people around us and making sure to appreciate the experiences that you’ve had with them
Telling your family that you love them
Making sure to go out of your comfort zone and experience things that you wouldn’t normally go and do on your own.
Never holding back and always being true to yourself
Do what you wanna do with your life, regardless of what society or other people tell you.
Love who you want to love.
You should always live your days like it could be your last and enjoy the life that you have, or at least make the most of it in any situation <3
You make me want to read this. Great job.