At first glance, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera seems to be an extremely poorly thought out novel. Any person who dedicates themselves to a television show or book series understands the frustration of having the ending of their show or book spoiled for them. Yet despite spoiling the ending of his novel in the title of the book itself, Silvera masterfully contrives a heart-wrenching tale of two teenage boys who only have each other on their last day to live.

In the They Both Die at the End universe, every person receives a phone call prior to their death, warning them that they will soon die within the next twenty-four hours, so they can make amends. Mateo and Rufus are two teenage boys who both receive the call and meet each other through an app that can match deckers (people who receive the call) with a “last friend” that they can spend the rest of their life with. After chatting with countless of heartless individuals who solely use to the app the play with decker’s emotions, they find each other and decide to meet up in real life and live their last day together. Their relationship quickly grows from awkward strangers to close friends to affectionate lovers, as they share stories and secrets with each other and explore the world they took for granted.

For me, the most commendable aspect of Silvera’s novel is the deep philosophical question he raises throughout the novel. How would you spend your last day on earth? I feel that most people live by the philosophy to “live every day like it’s your last,” but after reading this novel, I can not help but ridicule this way of living. To live every day like it’s your last means to live every day in apprehension and despair. To stay within your comfort zone in fear that one misstep could lead to an untimely death. To reminisce on past experiences rather than to make new ones. So that when you die, you die with the regrets of all the chances you never took. I believe that like Mateo and Rufus, everyone should live every day like it’s their first. To create new memories, to be curious, to take chances. So that when you die, you can rest easy knowing that you made the most of your life.

In addition, Silvera also raises the interesting question of what it means to live an experienced life. The proverbial phrase “listen to your elders” is a shallow answer to this question. We assume that since elders have lived longer, their experiences must be far more superior than to those of a twenty-year-old. This is simply a fallacy. It matters not how long a person’s life is, but what they did with that life. Mateo and Rufus both lived more in a single day than they did in the previous seventeen years of their life.

All in all, I think there are two important morals anyone should get from reading They Both Die at the End. First, to live every day like it’s your first; and second, to make the most out of each day you have. So go out and live each day making an impact on the world and the people around you, because before we know it, it’ll all be over. Because we all die at the end.