ARC Review: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera {5 stars}

Title: They Both Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, LGBT
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date:  September 5th, 2017
Pages: 384 pages
My Rating: 5 Stars

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. 

"“Entire lives aren't lessons, but there are lessons in lives.” 

It's completely illogical to mourn the death of two fictional characters, but that's what I'm doing anyway. It has been 2 full days, and I am still not okay! It is quite obvious in the title that they both die at the end, but a part of me wished that there was something they could do to prevent it.

“But no matter what choices we make - solo or together - our finish line remains the same … No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end.” 

They Both Die at the End is the type of contemporary novel that I have been looking for and have only found a few times. Most YA contemporary novels build up on a romance and most of the time focus solely on the romance aspect, but They Both Die at the End is so much more than just romance. Romance was just like a teeny tiny fraction of the novel, and I loved it so much. This is not to say that YA contemporary romance novels are worth less, but as I grow older, I'm tending to look for more YA books such as this one - full of meaning, life (even if they both die), and amazingness (is that even a word). 

“Maybe it's better to have gotten it right and been happy for one day instead of living a lifetime of wrongs.” 

The two main characters, Mateo and Rufus, are not exactly polar opposites, but they are really different from each other. Mateo is this precious human being filled with so much kindness, empathy and willingness to help others, which is why it broke my heart when his time came. Rufus, on the other hand, is a foster kid who at the moment that he was informed of his death, was actually beating up someone. It broke my heart when death came for him because he just found his family recently, but I felt like he embraced death in the end.

"People waste time and wait for the right moment and we don't have that luxury."

The main character's best friends are all so amazing, and each has their own personalities. They felt every bit as important as the two main characters, and that's not something that all authors can do. Most of the time, they just feel like sidekicks. The multiple POV of this book also amazed me in that it showed the two main characters from different perspectives, but also showed how truly connected we all are without our noticing it. 

They Both Die at the End filled me with so much hope and love, but also so much sadness and despair and longing for a life in which I embrace my full potential and live it to the fullest. This book made me want to live life properly so bad, but it frustrates me too because I don't know how and I have no clue where to start. I would say though, that this book is perfect and I'm so, so glad that I read it. I haven't read Silvera's debut novel yet, but I sure will buy a copy soon and devour it because if this is any indication of what that book would be like, then I'm sure that it would be nothing short of perfection.

5 perfect stars