This was heartbreaking good, I can’t even out into words how much I loved this. 

Ten out of ten 

Uuuh, this is a hard one. Because I adored half of the book but was bored by the other, unfortunately. 
I really loved the second half of the book when you start to realize how the different POVs are connected or how things are connected to the previous book. In fact, every time details from book one were mentioned, I had tears in my eyes because I am still so emotionally invested in that story and the characters. 
And here is the problem: I did not feel much for the 2 protagonists in this book. I liked Valentino a lot at the beginning. How innocent and naive he was and his relationship with his twin sister. But this all mostly disappeared the moment he met Orion. And I didn't feel it, I didn't feel any chemistry between them. While I fell in love with Rufus and Mateo in book one, I was not invested in Orion and Valentino. Sadly. Because in these kinds of books, the chemistry between the two main characters is kind of the point. 
However, I was there for all the side characters. They managed to stand out, even if we got little time with them. I was rooting for them, feeling for then, was heartbroken for them. 
But I also think there were 1–2 choices where it felt like the only reason they were there was for the shock factor/forced emotional reaction. They definitely accomplished it, but it felt cheap to me in retrospect. 

Adam Silvera's work is always an easy read for me. His niche is typically youth fiction telling the story of gay kids trying to find their way. He has a real fan following with his creativity and modern real-talk for teens. It's not going to be everyone's flavour, but it never feels forced. This is the second of his Die at the End books, and serves as a prequel for the first book. The story holds tension by being delivered in the first person in a chronological order, from different people's points of view. This is the second book I have read this week that introduces random characters with us not knowing at first that we are being woven into a tangled web of inter-related characters.

The tension in this book is interesting because, unlike the characters, we know that the DeathCast system (that warns people on their last day, that they are about to die), is real and works. Nobody can predict that there will be a hiccup on its first day of use and that some of the people who are going to die that day have not been told, and even that is only revealed to the populace half way through the day.

For those who have read the other book first, there are revelations that are very obvious (we know what the creative app programming endeavours of one character are likely to culminate in), and some things that are much less obvious, such as a character making a phonecall from a pay phone, which are going to be phased out and trashed shortly.

My absolute favourite thing about Silvera's imagined world is that he has replaced a leading popular fantasy franchise with something I can really totally get behind. The major popular magical fiction series in his world is called Scorpius Hawthorn; and it's a magical story with prophecies and wizards and things. There are major movie spinoffs and the child actors are treated wonderfully, getting to play and have fun around film-shooting in Brazil, while their special dietary needs and health are supported by caring handlers. The author of the original book series is Poppy Iglesias and she's a lovely caring person who is also a Queer Latina Trans-woman. I would love to live in this fantasy where the most popular magic franchise is also ethical.

This book is a serious tear jerker. It has homophobia in it. It has sex in it; there are condoms, explicit consent, and not a lot of other detail. It's there as a celebration of love rather than to be titillating. There is also domestic violence, and gun violence, grief about losing parents in the 9/11 destruction, and apocalypse cults, and scary dudes in skull masks. The intended audience is probably 14+ but mature readers younger or older than that will probably enjoy it. Some of the coincidences seem ridiculously contrived and unlikely, but that's just the style of story, and is similar to the other book as well. I was caught in frisson several times when reminded of things like 9/11 or when I realised that throw away details experienced by one character were more relevant to the story of another character.

Fans of the original book will likely enjoy this one as much.

 

You will cry. Love how the author has interactions between characters in different points of views 

I havent read "They Both Die At The End" so this is my introduction to Adam Silvera's world. Personally, I left feeling it was the genre of dystopian tragedy masequeraded as gay love story contextualised in death.
There are points I also personally thought repetitive or would take a lot of disbelief. It definitely begins to explore some interesting questions but I don't think it goes hsrd enough. The love story itself is adequately good. I do think there are better LGBTQIA+, last-day death-love stories.

This is more a stream of consciousness for the self of issues I had:
• Supposedly, ~8,000 USA citizens die each day [lazy Googling] and yet everyone complains that Death-Cast could be a fialure on launch, despite holding a 100% correction rate of people not dying that don't die and a 0.15% error rate (12/8,000) of people supposed to die but were not contacted. Like, it seems wild that everyone just assumed this system was supposed to be perfect or a complete wreck if anything less.
• On the topic of numbers, Death-Cast is staffed by (I believe) 20 therapists to make calls and an 'optimal' call should last 5 minutes. Assuming a 7.5hr work shift, that's only 90 calls at most or 1,800 if the entire staff worked all shift.
• Adding on that, it feels really cult-like that everyone just welcomes Death-Cast so openly. Some minor characters do question it and there appear to be some terrorist rebels but, even if people don't know how it's so accurate, they all just assume day 1 that one is a doomed individual. 
• The CEO, Joaquin, and his wife, Naya, are just so...ignorant and apathetic to this very revolutionary technology. They keep saying it'll help improve lives and it spins as this technology being for the positive but, after the Valentino's call, Joaquin is more worried about press and how his technology looks. Meanwhile Naya is offering water fountains to therapists telling in 5 minute intervals to 90 people that they'll die in 24hrs and if they're not keeping to this optimum, they'll be at risk of poor job performance because 'it'll save many lives'. I would've been more interested if Joaquin, Naya, or their son was one of the people to get the call for launch day.
• Valentino and Orion's meeting, love, and death (for one of them) is all within 21hrs. It's very Romeo & Juliet energy. Like, in suspension of disbeleif, sure, they're in love. And they do have some cute moments. But there's also bits that just do not feel they match for the time they have.
• In a book of very many ethical questions, it feels very unfulfilling because it generally just assumes DeathCast to be good for all. At the end, Joaquin wants to expand and "make sure the military don't weaponise it etc." but it feels very "...and they all lived happily ever after" saccharine for DeathCast. It somewhat explores this, e.g., Doctors won't treat Deckers, flights won't take off if they contain a Decker, they'll be looters and rebellions in response to predictive death technology. But, I think it just misses a lot of nuance. Will the medical industry start an organ harvest system for deckers? Can I prove this system isn't perfect? For the 21hrs of expected death, Valentino is really restrcited and ostracised in many ways for being forced to be a decker and we just accept that as okay because "it'd save more lives if...". 
• I don't like that, halfway through, the story decides to adjunct on this plot of "who ELSE will die?". Much as the side characters help add nuance or alternate perspective, it just felt that this added mystery of who else will die took away from the already mystery of when and how Valentino would die, or if he even would at all. I honestly think this story would've just been fine or better focusing in on Valentino & Orion without this B-plot.

I have more issues but on the positives:
• The potrayal of domestic abuse was well done. This was terrifyingly written that I was quite uncomfortable. 
• The relationships between characters was generally well done. I like that Scarlett & Orion's sister and their relationships with Valentino & Orion aren't cast aside. The minor characters had some fun dynamics too. Rolando was a bae throughout.
• The potrayal of the message it presents at the end regarding embracing every moment pre-death is decent.
• About 55% way through, I felt like their was genuine connection between Valentino & Orion that felt reasonably believable.

Enjoyed They Both Die At The End when I was a bit younger - this prequel did the job. Enjoyable enough plot, not great writing. I liked all the fun tie-ins between characters though that always makes me go hehehe