They Both Die at the End: A Story About Mortality, Friendship, and Making the Most of Life

I think the teen dialogue and the audio version made me rate the book so low. I was happy for the characters “growth. ” I think the circumstances as far as why this is happening kind of bothered me and so it was hard to connect with the characters cause as an adult I’m busy thinking everything is unfair to put characters through.

I said this from the beginning, but I knew this book was going to make me feel all the feels at the end. I really liked how Matteo and Rufus were very easily polar opposites in how the lived their lives, how they dealt with the news of their imminent deaths, as well as their outlooks on how to spend their last day on earth. It really brought out a good balance between them and I loved watching them teach each other things and watch how their relationship formed in the short time they knew each other.

The concept itself, the idea of Death-Cast and receiving a phone call stating that you’re going to die within 25 hours, is super creative and unique. I really liked the cast of characters and this is one of the few books I’ve finished where I truly wanted to know what happened to each character in the months after the book takes place. I thought I was going to hate all of the different character perspectives, and while
I did find some of the tertiary characters’ perspectives a little arbitrary, I liked how the author connected all of them back to Rufus and Matteo in some minor way.

Overall, I thought I going to be a bigger mess emotionally than I ended up being. But, this book still hit me emotionally.

This was like a heartbreaking Black Mirror episode. It was introspective and really pushed the narrative that we really only have one life to live. There were some parts that read a little off. The “slang” didn’t feel like it belonged but it didn’t take away from the story too much so I don’t mind. I just keep asking myself: what would I do if I found out I only had 24 hours to live?

This was just not my favorite book. While there were some parts I “mad enjoyed”, I overall just kept waiting for something less monotonous to occur. I chalk it up to having high expectations based on others’ reviews/recommendations.

Such a good read! The characters are realistic; the story line is new and fresh; and the ending was bittersweet. I’m going to have to read something fluffy to get over this book.