They Both Die At The End was such a good book that I initially was very sceptical about the prequel living up to it - I had high expectations, and The First To Die At The End definitely met them!

Valentino and Orion are great characters who both have strong narrative voices. Their relationship was so sweet, if a little insta-lovey, but the fact that this book was longer and slower paced than TBDATE meant this wasn’t as much of an issue. I wasn’t sure that the gag of everyone knowing how the book will end would land a second time, but the slight uncertainty over whether Death-Cast got everything right first time round added a good amount of tension into the plot. 

One of my favourite things about the first book was how it showed the connections between so many people in New York, and this theme is continued really well in this book, with short chapters from various characters’ POVs who are all interconnected (including some familiar faces from TBDATE!). The world-building of the Death-Cast system is also expanded on, as it shows details of society starting to adapt to this life-changing technology, as well as POVs from inside the Death-Cast company. I thought that the secret to Death-Cast might be revealed in this book, and the fact that it wasn’t felt like a bit of a cop-out - but I suppose at least a few people would have been disappointed with every explanation Silvera could have given so maybe the mystery is better left unrevealed. 

Overall, I really enjoyed a lot about this book