Life is precious in Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End
Imagine living in a world where you know the day you die. What would you do in the last hours before that happens? For teenagers Mateo and Rufus, it means ticking off the things they have and haven’t done before. Together. From ordering their usual dishes at a 24/7 diner to a virtual skydiving experience and dancing madly at a club, they set off making their last moments worthwhile. But what starts out as a mutual agreement — after meeting through an app — leads to a tragic romance that breaks expectations and spills tears.
Set in New York City, Adam Silvera’s critically acclaimed 2017 novel They Both Die at the End delivers what will eventually happen as the title suggests. But the title leaves out the specifics. The novel follows the naive and intelligent Puerto Rican-American Mateo and Cuban-American foster child Rufus’ experiences in planning how they’d spend their last moments.
Like Silvera’s debut novel, More Happy than Not, the voices of the characters of this novel are unforgettable. With shifting narratives divided by chapters, readers can learn about personal testimonies of Mateo and Rufus. That includes their backstory, their fears, desires, ambitions, regrets… basically everything that makes them human and propels their commitment to live. We learn that all Mateo wants more than anything is to talk with his father again. After a sudden stroke, his father has been in a coma for weeks. Then there is Rufus’ tough personality which may have only been shaped and influenced by his experience growing up in a foster home, together with a bunch of other kids.
Perhaps one of the novel’s underlying themes is the concept that life is fleeting. This doesn’t differ much from reality. But even though the novel integrates science fiction aspects — such as the Death-Cast Institution which is responsible for informing people about their death days — the message that life is how you make of it stands true beyond the pages. And so it does with Mateo who uses a portion of his savings to provide for his best friend early into her motherhood. So it does with Rufus who reconciles past differences with his former girlfriend, even when it means accepting the fact that she is now in a relationship with someone he despises. But as they get together for the whole day before tragedy strikes, their relationship develops. This makes the ending even more tragic.
As with most novels in the young adult genre, Silvera’s They Both Die at the End stirs emotions first felt when one reaches their adolescence. But finding one’s identity, accepting and recognizing it play an integral part in the narrative. In this novel, however, both Mateo and Rufus go through the phase in a limited time. Yet through their shared experiences in going places in New York and living their last moments together, they get to grasp what lives on — love.
The way I see it, the novel is not solely romance. It is also about self-discovery, a tad bit of comedy, and a pinch of drama. But the philosophy lies in its underlying theme — life is precious. Whether or not we know when we’d die, we have to live each moment like it’s our last.
