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book details / updated June 22, 2026

They Both Die at the End

by Adam Silvera

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The premise (an app that calls to tell you you'll die today) does the heavy lifting, but the book's real strength is how ordinary and specific Mateo and Rufus's single day together is. It's a book readers go into knowing the ending and still get wrecked by.

Cover of They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

why track this in moth

This is a book people reread on purpose to catch the foreshadowing they missed the first time; Moth's notes are a good place to track what you notice on a reread.

Book facts

Genre
Young Adult Fiction, Social Themes, Death, Grief, Bereavement, Friendship, LGBTQ
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
September 5, 2017
Pages
384
Reading time
7 hr 38 min · ~18 nights at 25 min/day in Moth
ISBN
9780062457790
Language
en

Publisher's summary

Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.

New York Times bestseller * 4 starred reviews * A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Editors' Choice of 2017 * A Bustle Best YA Novel of 2017 * A Paste Magazine Best YA Book of 2017 * A Book Riot Best Queer Book of 2017 * A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of the Year * A BookPage Best YA Book of the Year

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure, to live a lifetime in a single day.

In the tradition of Before I Fall and If I Stay, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut, More Happy Than Not, the New York Times called “profound.”

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