The First to Die at the End reminded me why I love speculative fiction

 

Today I’m talking about Adam Silvera’s The First to Die at the End (TFTDATE), which stands as a prequel to Silvera’s They Both Die at the End (TBDATE). Was that a sudden opening to this? Yes, it was. But I have something to say.

So, there was a time where TBDATE was my favourite book of all time, and it might still be. That’s not a thing of me saying, “Ooh, is it? Is it not?” It’s literally me saying that I have no idea whether it is anymore as my personal tastes have changed. Still, I was very excited about finally getting TFTDATE after how much I loved TBDATE, but I didn’t realise just how damn long this book was. When it arrived, I saw how chunky it was and, for whatever reason, I was not expecting it to be 550 pages. My immediate first thought was what could he possibly need all that space to say? Even then, I was still excited to get into it, especially since I’m a huge fan of Silvera’s books that have this sort of vibe. I know that’s a dumb thing to say, but I mean like the Die at the End books, More Happy than Not and History Is All You Left Me. They all have that vibe, almost speculative fiction-y, that I love.

Our blurb says welcome to the first night of Death-Cast… Orion Pagan has waited years for someone to tell him that he’s going to die due to his series heart condition. But now that he’s signed up to Death-Cast, he’s ready to begin living. Getting an End Day call is the last thing on Valentino Prince’s mind. He has a long and promising future ahead of him, and he’s excited to spend the night at the Death-Cast launch party. When Orion and Valentino cross paths, their bond is undeniable. But after the very first Death-Cast calls go out, the boys’ lives are changed forever – one of them receives a call… and the other doesn’t.

Immediately, one thing I loved about TBDATE was knowing that they were both going to die, so I was never going to get annoyed by the fact that it happened, and it’s the same for this book. I was told from the outset one of them gets a call, so one will die, and I’m ready for it. One thing I hate is the “bury your gays” trope. Now, I don’t mind if gays die for a specific reason, like in TBDATE, where it’s not specifically only the gays that die, since other people are dying. And because I know the universe of this book, I know that it doesn’t play into the trope I hate. Slay.

The very first chapter has Orion telling us about how the Death-Cast has just popped up and that he signed up, and that it wouldn’t be the first thing to tell him he’s dying, also that it sounds like something that would be in one of his short stories. You get to find out both his parents are dead. It’s a very short chapter that then hops over to Valentino. The first thing that Valentino tells us is that Death-Cast won’t call him because he didn’t sign up, but that did then make me think immediately, “Oh, what if he’s the one that ends up dead, even if he didn’t sign up?” That was my very first thought. Still, Valentino has just moved to New York to be a model, and he’s moved from Arizona with his twin sister, Scarlett, who would join him soon. I don’t know, his first chapter was basically him arriving in New York, being disappointed that his studio apartment was smaller than he thought it’d be and telling us what his coming out to his parents was like.

To also carry on the train of when I thought Valentino would actually be the one to die at the end, he mentions that since Scarlett almost died once and that he’ll “never exist without her again”. I do remember that in TBDATE, even though they were both meant to die, you only saw one die, and I wondered whether this would be the same, because even though “only one” was meant to get the call, that being Orion, maybe Valentino died before Orion. That’s ultimately what my prediction ended up being by the end of chapter two.

There’s a bit in chapter four when Valentino gets to Times Square and unknowingly stands next to Orion, listening to this kid tell his story, and Valentino mentions, about Orion that “he must have a huge heart”. Was that a bit on the nose? Yes. But I’m not sure whether that was just a bit corny, meant to be a thing where it’s showing us Valentino is still new and knows nothing about NYC. Either way, when Orion and Valentino actually meet, I thought it was cute with how horrendously awkward Orion was, but also good for Orion for being able to just go and talk to a stranger.

To return to the corny point for a moment, this book definitely did get a bit corny from time to time. One example was that huge heart bit, but there was another right at the end of the book where the one that doesn’t die at the end is talking about how they’re going to live, and the metaphors they were using were all very, “Oh… that’s nice…” and, again for lack of better phrasing, corny. I did also feel like from time to time there would just be a little too much in terms of what was written. There were definitely moments where I’d be reading a bit and thought that the last sentence of extra detail could have been removed, since it didn’t always add anything. One specific example I have of this is when Orion ends up in hospital near the start of the book and he mentions his ECG, then we get a couple of sentences giving an explanation of what an ECG is. It was things like that, we didn’t need to be told what an ECG was.

On the positive, when Orion does end up in hospital, his doctor is the mother of Rufus from TBDATE, that was a cute little cameo. The whole era in the hospital was cute to be honest. Further on that, Rufus and his dad also turn up. You do get the line, when the book in on Rufus’ father’s POV, “He can’t imagine Rufus spending his End Day with a stranger”, as if that’s not exactly what he does. Mateo from the first book also turns up, but he turns up with his dad who I’m pretty sure is in a coma in the first book. Their cameo was probably the one I liked the most.

Some of the length of the book came from other random people in the book’s universe. I’ll be honest, even though this book is 550 pages, I don’t think I really noticed it’s length. I’m sure there will be people who thought the book dragged, but I didn’t feel that. I did think some of the cut aways to other characters that had a random singular chapter to themselves could have been cut out. For example, Joaquin Rosa is the head of Death-Cast and the book pops over to his POV occasionally (which was something cool to see, especially since this book does see the launch of Death-Cast), and in one of his chapters, there’s mention of someone who was meant to get a call from Death-Cast but died before they could call him. You then immediately get a chapter from that person who was meant to get the call which I, personally, just thought was unnecessary. There were a few other times than that. I do still stand by my point that I don’t think the book dragged, but it definitely could have been cut down a little, even if a couple of those singular chapters did make me drop my jaw.

One thing I’ll often ask for in books is things like details about the characters and what makes them who they are. Something that I appreciated about this book is when Valentino and Orion are together, Valentino mentions that he doesn’t even know what kind of music Orion likes, and basic things like that. You sort of find out, but due to the nature of the book, and the fact the two of them have less than 24 hours together, it’s obvious that they wouldn’t talk about those things in favour of living as much life as they can in their limited time. I think the book did a good job in helping us get to know the both of them without stilted things like, “Hey, what music do you like? What’s your favourite movie?” You got to know them through their actions as well as their words.

Reading this book made me remember why I loved TBDATE so much. I’ll repeat my point that Adam Silvera’s speculative fiction books are my favourites of his, and I think they are where his writing is at its strongest too. I don’t know, to me, they just hit harder than the fantasy and What If It’s Us ones. Even if it did occasionally get a bit corny, I really liked this book and honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up on my favourite books of the year.

Okay, bye!