In the book “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera, there is a dramatic and sad tone in the beginning that really catches the reader’s attention and draws them in to keep reading. The book firstly describes how their world works, a “death cast” calls the designated person and tells them that they are going to die in the next twenty-four hours.

We’re introduced to one of the main characters, Mateo, who is described to be a shy and timid kid, someone who keeps to himself and the people he’s close with. The death cast calls Mateo to explain to him that he will be passing in twenty-four hours, and is very taken back.

The book then switches to the point of view of the second main character in the story, Rufus, a character who is more out there, ambitious, caring, and loyal. Rufus also ends up getting the call and that’s when the beginning of the book starts to unfold.

The story itself has really nice pacing and a nice balance between introducing the characters and their lives in more detail and getting to the actual story itself.  In the first half of the book it’s going back and forth between the two points of views and getting to know the main characters and their surroundings better, then eventually we get to see the two main characters meet with each other, leading to the main unfolding of the book.

Throughout the story we get the same theme, the characters want to know what it’s like to live and continue to do activities. We get to see the characters grow and really impact each other’s lives. As the book goes on, we also get to see amazing character development between the characters; it is very well written and very easy to see the development and the change from the beginning to end.

The story itself has many emotions throughout the story, it has a blend of excitement, fear, joy, love, and sadness, but Silvera mixes the emotions into the story in an excellent way and makes it enjoyable to read throughout the book. Silvera also did a great job of the love story of Rufus and Mateo–the love in the story didn’t seem rushed but was at a perfect pace. It didn’t seem forced but like we actually get to see and feel the characters get closer and eventually fall in love.

All of these points together made the book such a nice read and not be able to put the book down. The elements in the book go together very nicely and make a truly enjoyable and heartbreaking story. Overall, the story was a nice read and super enjoyable, the theme for the story had a nice dynamic and the characters were lovable and well written and it was almost like you knew the characters themselves. I recommend this book to any person who enjoys reading and is looking for a more emotional, action filled story who’s also prepared for a little heartbreak on the way. The book has some language and discusses some points that would make the main audience for this story 13 and up.

I rate this a solid 5/5 stars.