This is a book that I had been aware of for quite a while before reading it. Let’s be honest, the title is one that jumps out at you somewhat when you see it in a bookshop somewhere. The main reason for reading They Both Die at the End though is not due to how much I’d seen it around, but because my daughter read it. As she’s moving more into Young Adult books I find it really useful to read some of them too as it helps open up conversation topics that might not otherwise crop up. I also think that with the increase in influencer influence on young people today books which are shared widely online (as this one was) can really have a huge influence on children and in some cases can give them unanswered questions that can trouble them for a while.
So back to the book in question. They Both Die at the End is a dystopian tale and not at all the kind of book that I would choose to read. Set in a time when people are told when they are going to die that day in a phone call in the early hours of the morning, it follows two teens (Mateo and Rufus) on their “end day”.
It’s a very strange world where whole industries are built up around what people want to do before they die. Restaurants give people free meals, and whole exhibition centre like places become places where “Deckers” (as they are known) can go to tick off things on their bucket lists before the inevitable happens.
All the time though you’ve got this knowledge that the two characters that you are getting to know aren’t going to live to see the end of the book. That is a weird sensation.
In this world geared towards knowledge of impending death there is also an app which allows people to reach out and have a “Last Friend” to prevent them from living their last day alone. Again it’s a strange thought, but also I suppose is a reasonably natural extension of dating and friendship apps that already exist. It’s how our two main characters meet in They Both Die at the End.
It’s worth noting that neither of the characters come from a straightforward background. Rufus lost his whole family in a recent accident, but survived himself, Mateo has just his father, who in the book is lying in hospital in a coma. It’s also a book with a bisexual character, and whilst his sexual orientation does form part of the story there is lovely acceptance and unconditional love from his friends about it.
I can’t say that They Both Die at the End is a book I would necessarily recommend to someone with reading tastes like mine, but at the same time it was a good read to expand my reading, and an excellent one to promote conversation with my daughter. We both found it a very dark book and were in agreement that we wouldn’t want the ability to be told when we were going to die, let alone have to be told it as the characters in the book were. And we both agreed that there was one character (Delilah) where we simply just never find out what happens to her. We know she’s a Decker, but her actually end seems to either have been left out, or passed both of us by.
More than anything though, reading this demonstrated how wonderful books can be in igniting conversations and bonds between people. I’ll continue to keep track with what my daughter is reading (and my son) and keep dipping into their book choices too.
They Both Die at the End is available to buy online here.
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