In a near-future city where people receive the date they’ll die, two strangers meet on their final day and decide how to spend the hours that remain. Poignant and propulsive, They Both Die at the End turns a ticking clock into a celebration of risk, connection, and being fully alive.
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Start or resume Shelf TalkThese picks are popular with readers who enjoyed this book. Possible spoilers below.
In They Both Die at the End, did you enjoy the strangers-to-soulmates bond that forms over a single, high-stakes day in New York City?
If what gripped you in They Both Die at the End was watching Mateo and Rufus meet on the Last Friend app and grow from awkward strangers into something profound as they crisscross NYC in one day—singing karaoke, visiting Mateo’s dad, and daring each other toward courage—you’ll love how Natasha and Daniel collide over a single New York day in The Sun Is Also a Star. Like that last 24 hours before the Death-Cast call runs out, their time pressure (her looming deportation) makes every conversation electric, every small choice intimate, and every block they walk feel like fate nudging two hearts closer.
In They Both Die at the End, did you enjoy a tender, tear-tilting love story that confronts mortality head-on without flinching?
If the goodbye calls, the rooftop moments, and that final, gutting ride with Mateo and Rufus left you wrecked but grateful, The Fault in Our Stars hits the same emotional frequency. Hazel and Gus face time’s limits with the same mix of gallows humor and tenderness that Mateo and Rufus discover as the Death-Cast clock winds down. Expect the kind of eulogies-before-death honesty and seize-the-moment courage that made They Both Die at the End linger long after the last page.
In They Both Die at the End, did you enjoy a quiet, society-wide thought experiment about knowing your lifespan and what you do with the time left?
Hooked by the Death-Cast premise—one call that reroutes Mateo and Rufus’s entire day, their choices, and even the Last Friend app connections they make? The Measure poses a hauntingly similar question when mysterious boxes appear with strings that reveal how long each person will live. Like the ripples you see through side POVs in They Both Die at the End, Erlick follows multiple lives to explore love, risk, and ethics when the end date isn’t abstract anymore.
In They Both Die at the End, did you enjoy a tightly focused, one-day descent that stays locked on a single choice about life and death?
If you loved how They Both Die at the End stayed intimate—just Mateo and Rufus moving through a single day, every minute weighted—Long Way Down brings that same intensity to a 60-second elevator ride. As Will travels floor by floor, ghosts from his past step in, much like how brief encounters shape Mateo and Rufus’s last hours. It’s stripped down, immediate, and personal—every second counted, every choice magnified.
In They Both Die at the End, did you enjoy two boys slowly discovering themselves and each other through honest, vulnerable conversation?
If Mateo’s growth—finding his voice with Rufus’s push, singing in public, and finally facing Lidia and his father—was what moved you, Aristotle and Dante offers a gentle, luminous coming-of-age arc. Ari and Dante’s friendship deepens through everyday moments and hard-won honesty, echoing the way Mateo and Rufus turn small acts across one day into life-defining steps toward who they’re meant to be.
