Hey!

So I have just finished reading a book called They Both Die at the End.

Gloomy, right?

Judging from the title, we can already tell that our two main characters are going to die. Now, this isn’t necessarily a book review. I want to talk about how genius this book is and maybe speculate some of the unanswered things about this book.

First of all, this DOES contain spoilers for the book, so if you haven’t read the book, please do! It’s an amazing book with a very interesting story (though, the two main characters are both males and do like each other; so if you feel uncomfortable reading it, I would want you to still give it a try, but it is your time and you can choose how to use it).

Second, the two main characters die. Mateo and Rufus, our lovely protagonists, both got an alert from DeathCast, which is a global thing that tells people on their death day that they are going to die. Events happen and our two protagonists meet each other and go on an amazing one-in-a-lifetime adventure. But, in the end, they still do die.

What the author does by telling us that the main characters is creating suspense from the start. Every time an event happens, you just feel like its the moment something goes wrong. We don’t know when or how they’re going to go, so anything bad just increases that suspense. Furthermore, the book also has a few short chapters telling the story from the perspective of other side characters, expanding the world as well as the giving the reader the perspective of the antagonist. Puck, the antagonist of the story (though I would say that the main antagonist would be death itself), did not get a DeathCast alert. Additionally, because of certain events, Puck wants to kill Rufus. By now, we can piece together that Puck is definitely going to do something that may cause Rufus’ death, and because Rufus got the alert and Puck didn’t, it creates another suspense in which the readers “know” what happens. While Puck did attack Rufus, I don’t think it really directly affected Mateo and Rufus’s death.

Mateo died from a fire at his house when the stove burst into flames. Rufus managed to make it out alive but Mateo didn’t. The shock over Mateo dying eventually lead to Rufus being in a car accident that lead to his death… or did he?

Before we discuss Rufus’s “death,” let’s talk about Mateo’s first. As I mentioned before, he died from a house fire. At the very beginning of the story, Mateo mentioned that someone was going to fix his stove or do something that makes it not spontaneously burst into flames. Mateo, when he got the DeathCast alert, planned on staying home the entire day (he wanted to go out and do many things but fear held him back). Since he received the note, Mateo wrote to said person to not come fix his stove anymore. And because he was going to stay home the entire day, he still had to eat, which leads to the stove exploding. So either way, Mateo was going to die. The difference is that because Mateo was convinced by Rufus to go outside and do something before dying, he had a chance to live a life he had always wanted to live by taking risks and in turn, lived longer than if he had just stayed home. Let’s pause this here. This will become important later.

Rufus never truly died. There were only implications from other character’s perspectives that make readers speculate that he died. The speculation was that Victor’s car (Victor was driving to his girlfriend Delilah after learning that she got a DeathCast alert – he was probably speeding) crashed into Rufus, causing Rufus to die (and potentially Delilah too?) The book never confirmed that he was ran over; it ended on Rufus walking onto the road. And that’s it. We know that he was not focusing on the road, instead looking at pictures or watching videos of Mateo (after Mateo had died). But that’s all we know. There wasn’t a death scene nor a specific sentence that explains it, nothing at all. So could Rufus be alive? To answer that question, we have to look at how DeathCast works.

From Mateo’s death, we can conclude that the person is going to die, no matter what they do to try and change it. That means that DeathCast alerting people of their deaths wouldn’t change a thing… or does it? There has been multiple deaths throughout the book and they all have been warned by DeathCast. DeathCast warning people of their deaths definitely changes how someone acts. They might take more risks or hide in a shelter. Living normally is not the first thing that really comes to a person’s mind if they have just been told that they were going to die today. If DeathCast had not warned Mateo, would he have died? The answer is.. probably not. Mateo would have never have left the note the fix the stove, and the stove would have never have exploded. That means that Mateo would not have died from the house catching on fire. Now, this is all just speculation, but Mateo, being Mateo, would have probably stayed home all day and not go out. The book never showed any nuclear explosions or introduced anyone that hated Mateo, meaning that he isn’t going to get killed in his house. With all potential deaths gone (there still are some like somehow electrocuting yourself or chocking or whatever, but the chances are very slim), Mateo would live if he stayed home. But what if he went outside instead? He may have gone to visit his father or Lidia, but was there a chance that he could be killed there? There is a chance, but the point is that DeathCast warning Mateo caused a chain reaction of deaths. Because of Mateo, Rufus went to a specific location. Because Rufus went to that location, the three gang members that are after him recklessly caused a car accident that almost killed Delilah and did kill another character. Because the other character died, Delilah was writing an obituary for him and called Victor about receiving a DeathCast message. Because Victor received Delilah’s call, he hurried and sped to reach her. And finally, because of Victor’s speeding, it is speculated that since Rufus was around the same area Delilah was in, Victor’s car collided with Rufus. None of this would have happened if Mateo didn’t receive a DeathCast warning.

This finally answers our question, could Rufus be alive? Probably not. Even though how DeathCast finds out who dies is still a mystery, with the evidence given, we can assume that they can only see people that die due to their intervention. This means that DeathCast messaging people about their deaths is what eventually causes their deaths. So, Rufus getting the message means that the chain events that happened because of him and Mateo will eventually get back at him, and sadly, whether it was due to Victor or some other event, he may end up dying.

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Honestly while this book is a very good standalone book, another book is appreciated to clear up the mystery of DeathCast. Though, if the sequel does get created, it may end up ruining this bittersweet vibe that They Both Die at the End has.

Bye!