For whatever reason, I have always been drawn toward tragic stories, this could be because I enjoy watching characters respond, change, and grow because of whatever tragic event took place, or maybe it’s because I need something to help change my perspective on life and/or remind me how lucky I am to have what I have. Whatever the reason is, when I saw this title I knew I had to read this book. Not only the title affect my decision, but the idea intrigued me: two strangers whose lives are both full of pain meet because they are dying, and decide to spend their last day alive together. Honestly, how can you get more tragic?

This book takes place in time where people get notified on the day they are going to die by a company called “Death-Cast”. The two main characters 18-year-old Mateo Torrez and 17-year-old Rufus Emeterio meet through an app called “Last Friend” which is an app designed so that “Deckers” (people who are dying) can meet someone to spend their last day with. Throughout this book, Mateo learns how to branch out and try new things, and Rufus learns to see the world in a different way.

Something I really loved about this book was the changing perspectives, throughout the book you get to hear from many different people and how the presence of death affects them. For example, at one point Mateo and Rufus were talking about what they think happens after death, this was one of my favorite parts of the book because the question of what happens after death is one that plagues most people, not only that but the fact I have a similar idea as to what happens when you die. Another thing I really loved was the way the story was told, every chapter was stamped with the time which reminded me of the John Green book Looking for Alaska (in which every chapter start with a number of days before and a number of days after). I also loved the time stamp because as each hour passed I was getting more and more anxious as to how and when the two characters would die.

As much as I enjoyed this book, everything and everyone has a flaw. I must say I was disappointed in lack of creativity. I can’t tell if the author was trying to be “edgy” or if it was pure laziness, whatever the reason was, something felt wrong. Another thing I didn’t really like about this book was how the lack of depth for both main and supporting characters. I loved this story, and I loved the characters, but the because of how the story was written it lacked depth. I understand that entire story had to take place within 24 hours and that each chapter was within an hour or two so things had to be cut down, but because of this certain parts of the book felt rushed, and while I’m at it, in the middle of the book random characters were thrown into the story. I get it was the writer’s way of showing how inescapable death is, and how it spares no one, not even the wealthiest of people but honestly, throwing in these characters was distracting and made the story’s flow a little off.