“…stories can make someone immortal as long as someone else is willing to listen.”

Two teenagers, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, recieve a call early one morning from Death-Cast letting them know that within the next 24-hours.. they will die.

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I have mixed feelings about this book… on one hand, it was really cute and reminds you to live while you still can. On the other hand, I was a bit disappointed with these kids… they seemed a bit childish at times, but maybe that’s how everyone would be if they knew they were dying today?

Mateo and Rufus being the story as complete strangers that both received a death alert; 24 hours left of life.. if they’re lucky. – Great concept. Who wouldn’t want to know when they were dying? Me. But that’s besides the point.

For whatever reason, they both want to make new friends so they don’t die alone. Some developers created this Last friend app for “deckers” (people that received the death alert) to use to find people to connect with. – Again, awesome concept. They should maybe actually create something like this, maybe for those kids/adults that are bullied, suffering from depression, etc. It could save a life.

So, these two totally different kids meet via the interweb, and go about this adventure of a life time, literally. Rufus helps break Mateo out of his shell and Mateo helps Rufus become a better person. And quite predictably all be it, sweet, they fall in love.

The story was written in multiple perspectives. I don’t mind when stories are written in multiple perspectives, because I love how I get more points of view/experiences, but this seemed a bit much, maybe? I didn’t really need to know why this guy decided to blow up a gym, or that this woman was dating a man who worked for the Death Cast.

I was expecting this book to be more… emotionally impacting. Again, don’t get me wrong, it does play with your emotions. You definitely root for Rufus and Mateo to survive another day with each other, but with the way everyone hyped this book up with how “broken” it made them, I expected more. I didn’t get teary eyed until the very end. And I’m not going to lie, some of the parts of the story dragged.

I wish the author went into more detail about how the Death Cast knows when people will die, it just seems like it’d be an interesting fact to know, adding more to the sci-fi aspects of the novel.

All in all, I would rate this book 3.5 stars (☆☆☆.5). Its a decent read, a bit long and dragging occassionally, but good.

**Spoilers below**

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***Final Warning***

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Alright, so. We only for sure know that Mateo dies at the end. Its kind of open to interpretation. If you want to believe that Rufus doesn’t die, go for it. How does Mateo die? Well, after waking up next to Rufus around like 9pm, he decided to make them tea… in the beginning of the book we learned that the stove in his apartment was busted.. the stove/kitchen caught fire and he was there for it. Rufus woke up and pulled them both out, but it was too late for Mateo. 😦