I adored Silvera’s first book about this topic and was so excited to learn that he was writing a prequel. In both They Both die at the End and The First to Die at the End, there is a death-predicting technology known as Deathcast, that alerts people to their death date so they can spend their final day as they wish. This book focuses on Orion, who has a life-threatening heart condition and knows he won’t make it to old age, and Valentino, who signs up even though his family doesn’t believe in it. After meeting in Times Square during the Deathcast launch, one boy receives the first Death Cast call and the two decide to make the most of their final day. The moral questions about Death Cast shine a light on technology that could be applied today, along with society reacting to a system that isn’t perfect. This is a wonderful and emotional read.
