Evening Everyone,

I hope you have all had a relaxing and chilled out Sunday. I haven’t really achieved much this weekend, but it has felt like I’ve been really busy. Busy doing a whole lot of nothing it would seem. What I have managed to do is get this book read.

Book 📖

My best friend and I have decided to do a buddy read each month. They Both Die at the End was my best friends choice (I chose the last one) and although I had obviously heard of this book, because who hasn’t, I didn’t know for sure what it was I was going into.

Description 🔖

Every night at midnight, Death-Cast staff members call all of the people that are going to die that day, to let them know that it will be there final day. On September 5th. Mateo and Rufus receive the dreaded call. Both young men find themselves seeking a new friend once they get the news and luckily there is an app for just that; Last Friends.

Through the app, Mateo and Rufus hit it off and decide they want to live an entire lifetime together, in just one day.

General Thoughts 🤔

I feel slightly bad about this book and my review. I have never hidden the fact that YA is not really my thing. I try it every now and again because I always want to give it a go but if I had know that this was a YA book, I likely wouldn’t have read it. I have to be completely honest.

However, I did read it and got through it all. Unfortunately, it was a gentle reminder to myself as to why I don’t get along with YA. The story had the potential to be so much more as the concept of the book was fascinating but instead I felt like it lacked substance and not a lot really happened. I read more about Mateo and Rufus travelling from one place to the next than about anything they actually did on their last day.

Characters 👫👭👬

Obviously the main characters in the story were Mateo and Rufus and I really wanted to fall in love with them both. Of course, I knew how the story would end (the clue’s in the title) but I wanted to become invested in these characters, care about their last day and how they spent their time. But I just couldn’t. There was nothing that made me feel close to them. I won’t say I didn’t empathise because in the fourth and final part of the book, I did feel sadness for them both but I wanted to feel something for them throughout.

Writing Style ✍️

I think it’s unfair of me to review the writing style of this author, because writing style is one of the biggest things that stops me from falling in love with YA. So my opinion is already tainted.

I do honestly think that the idea for this story was brilliant. It was certainly something that did make me stop and think about what I would want to do if I knew it was my last day.

I also enjoyed the structure of the book. It was split into four parts that were broken down into short and snappy chapters. Each chapter was told from a different character’s perspective; not all of them Mateo and Rufus.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Unfortunately, as soon as I was a couple of chapters in I knew this book wasn’t going to be for me, but I wanted to give it a chance and as it wasn’t too lengthy, I stuck with it. This book has been very popular so I will happily be the odd one out with my opinion and I am pleased that it has enjoyed success. I probably would have given this book 2.5 stars, but I don’t do halves, so I will gladly round up to a 3.

😍😍😍😩😩