They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

June 12

Well that was depressing.

Adam Silvera's They Both Die at the End is an exploration of a world where everyone who's going to die that day gets a phone call telling them they're going to pass, but not when or how.

And then we go from there.

There's this weird pocket of sad YA that I've largely avoided. John Green's books are about as bad as it gets. But basically I don't feel the need to read this stuff very often.

It's an interesting structure. You have two main POV characters who find there way to each other on their last day of life, not knowing what moment is going to be the one that takes them away. But you also sprinkle in some side characters throughout that help shed a little light on their story and their world as a whole. It reminds me a lot of The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater where some POV characters only show up in little blips every now and then.

At its heart, it's just a very sad YA story. If you ignore the impending doom part, it just feels like two characters trying to explore their city and a newfound person in their life.

I gave it 4 stars, but really it's probably closer to a 3. I just liked enough pieces that I didn't want to drop it quite that far. It's an interesting premise, though not a lot is done with it. While this is technically speculative fiction, it's really plain YA in a speculative setting. I also don't know that I cared all that much about the characters. They were fine, but I never really felt like I needed to root for either of them, which is why it took me a year to read it (aside from the not wanting to be depressed part).

I don't know how long this book has been on my Kindle. The fact that it's on my Kindle at all tells me it's been a while because I've largely been avoiding Amazon purchases the past few years. But I used to buy things when they were on sale for a dollar or two. And that led to a massive backlog I've slowly been clearing out over time.

So why did I pull this book? I think an author I followed said something about it. But I'm not even sure at this point.

But I bought it. And it sat and sat and sat and sat, etc.

Why? Because the title didn't sound like it was lying. I wasn't exactly itching to be depressed. As best I can tell, a year ago I decided to give it a try. I'm at the point where the only unread books on my Kindle are ones that I've seen fallen out of lust of even the idea of reading, but I also don't always want to re-read. I needed something to have on my Kindle for downtime.

This one isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it was interesting.