Mateo and rufus
This sentiment is one shared especially by people like me in the LGBT community. But sometimes the relationships we choose to be a part of, our found families, do more for our growth and wellbeing than our immediate family. Most of us grow up hearing that our blood relatives should be the most important people to us. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. “You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. I’ve pulled some quotes from the book to show how it is an important read for Vanderbilt students:
![mateo and rufus mateo and rufus](https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1550607763ra/27089324.gif)
And as for how they died? I guess you’ll just have to read it to find out. Though they each spend part of the day with their families (Mateo at his father’s bedside and at Lidia’s house Rufus with his foster siblings, nicknamed the Plutos), the boys share their last hours with each other. Their first kiss happens after they perform an American Pie karaoke duet, and it is as sweet as you can imagine. They begin as friends, and slowly fall in love as they learn more about each other and challenge themselves to be better people. They both join an app called “Last Friend” and spend their last day together trying to live a whole lifetime. 5, 2017 in a New York just like ours except for “Death-Cast,” both Rufus and Mateo get that call. Not how or where they will die, only a vague when. The premise of the book is that the boys live in a world where people receive phone calls alerting them of their last 24 hours alive. We hear more from them than other characters, but Silvera periodically interjects their narrative with the thoughts of seemingly unimportant characters whose lives and deaths cross paths with the boys’ eventually. It begins with Mateo who is Puerto-Rican, gay and kind of a shut-in, then switches voices to Rufus, our Cuban bisexual bad boy with a tragic past. It also holds some relevant wisdom for college students. At least until the end when you might need to hop into a stall in Buttrick or Calhoun to dry your eyes. If you’re looking for something to start in the thirty five minutes between your TR 1:10 p.m. I am recommending you this book to you, dear reader, because it is easily digestible. Though readers are prepped for the end from the moment they read the title, heartbreak is inevitable when Mateo and Rufus both, well, die at the end. There is also a distinct immature rawness to Silvera’s writing style that encapsulates the utter teenage-ness of the novel’s protagonists.
![mateo and rufus mateo and rufus](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c4/48/be/c448be900de06bc0a00af543a64d6b67.jpg)
![mateo and rufus mateo and rufus](https://themelobookworm.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/theybothdie.jpg)
Silvera’s novel has a certain colloquial charm about it, even as it broaches sensitive subjects like grief and teenage motherhood. However, there is something particular about it that inspired me to begin my column with it. Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End is not the most heart wrenching book I read this past summer, nor would I dub it a literary must-read.