By: Biftu Osmon

‘They Both Die in the End’, written by Adam Silvera, is a novel about two teenage boys who receive an unexpected phone call informing them that they will die within the next 24 hours and that there’s no way of preventing it.

The novel mainly focuses on the daily rundown of the two main characters, Rufus, who’s an open-minded, spontaneous teenage boy, and Mateo, who’s the polar opposite, an introvert who prefers to keep to himself. These two characters are living completely different lives before they connect through an app meant for people who are inevitably going to die within the next twenty-four hours. It was created so people wouldn’t spend their last day alive alone.

Since they are fortunate to live close to one another, they decide to get together and spend the day bidding goodbye to their loved ones while also engaging in enjoyable activities. The book allows you to see every moment of Rufus and Mateo’s bonding and formation of their friendship because each chapter is an in-depth hour of their day. By the time the day was over, both of them had achieved something they had never imagined they would in their entire lives.

I would rate this book a 6/10. Although the ending was very obvious, because of the book title, I wish the author would have added a more interesting or more major plot twist. I began reading the book expecting it to be a 5 star book because the book had mostly only great ratings, and there was a lot of hype surrounding it all over social media. I still enjoyed the plot and idea the author had, and I would probably still recommend this book to a friend, because I still enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it.