Ahhhh, I should not have read this book because I now desperately need to read the rest. And if Michael does not get the love he deserves by the end if this series I’m going to scream. I literally love him so much like honestly, who gives a fuck about Dean and I know that the second book is about him but I just have an immense love for Michael. He’s so good. He saved Cassie, he was fun, he’s so sweet, and he literally just let her go so she could figure herself out, no selfishness. Anyway aside from Michael’s character, I liked quite a few other things about this book as well. It is a bit rough with some of the writing, a few adverbs I could have done without and some phrasing I didn’t like but it was really good overall. The story is interesting, I mean a group of kids living together is a fun trope for me and love triangle is kind of boring, like I definitely rolled my eyes a few times at “Cassie keeps noticing one boy getting annoyed at other boy for doing basically nothing” but it wasn’t the main point of the book and it wasn’t done horribly so I don’t mind too much. Although I do get annoyed when she compares Michael to Dean. The whole FBI thing was pretty cool, not gonna lie though, I do not like gross things and some of the murder scenes were a bit graphic for my taste, but they were relevant to the story and that’s kind of the point and it’s honestly pretty cool that this story is written in way that takes something that I probably wouldn’t be interested in normally and actually gets me pretty obsessed with it. This was my second time reading it so I knew that Locke was the murderer but it was still a pretty good twist I reckon. I love the idea of all these kids with special abilities even though they come from bad places and I’m in love with all the characters like Michael obviously, he’s totally my type with the fun energy despite his sucky past and his tendency to hide his feelings despite the fact that he can read everyone else’s also what kind of awesome ability is that like being able to tell what people are feeling all the time, I mean that would be so cool and I love the way that he conflicts directly with dean, like Michael tries so hard to hide his true self so someone who can figure out a person’s personality, like Dean, sucks for him and then Dean is like the typical, no one can know I have feelings and he just hates that Michael always can tell what he’s feeling anyway I just think that’s cool I don’t really know about Dean I guess overall I like him, he’s very serious and like I know that his life might suck and honestly… who would take a kid who had to deal with the trauma of his dad being a serial killer and from what I remember of the second book, dean is forced to participate and then have him work on murder cases his whole life, like can he not get a break, just let the kid live on the beach and not have to have this weight all the time, at least for a while and honestly the only times that I didn’t like Michael so much was when he would make comments to Dean about him turning out like his dad bc honestly that’s a pretty terrible thing to do. I gotta say, I think all the characters were really cool, Michael’s my number one, Sloane is precious and needs to be protected, Dean is a solid dude, Cassie’s a bit of a disaster but still likeable, and Lia is intriguing at the very least. I honestly can’t wait to learn more about their backstories. In this book we really only get Cassie’s with a little of Dean and a little of Michael and I know that the second book reveals Dean’s because I did read that like a million years ago but I don’t remember if it said anything about anyone else. I’d definitely like to learn more about Sloane and Lia, there were some hints that they’ve both had sketchy pasts just like everyone else, which I can imagine from Lia, especially with her ability but I’m probably most curious about Sloane because she doesn’t give off the ‘tortured youth’ vibe like the others and I’d like to see her open up. I don’t know for sure how many books are in the series but I think there’s like four or five and I know book one covers but doesn’t resolve Cassie’s backstory, and book two is about Dean’s dad and his childhood, so I’m hoping that the other books let us into the other characters a little more. Anyway, this was super rambly, most of it written right after I read it, but I enjoyed this book a lot more than expected, I have a lot of love for Michael Townsend, I love a book about a group of friends, and I’m excited for the rest of their story.

I really am not sure about this book. I think I liked it a lot more the first time I read it and I wish that I had written down my feeling then so I could compare them to now because, I did enjoy it this time, but also I couldn’t wait to finish it. And I don’t know if it was just because I was trying to rush or because I already knew what happened and didn’t care that much or if it just wasn’t as good as I thought it was. I mean, it was a cool story, I absolutely love the fandom angle. And it’s actually done really well, like it’s really a love letter to fandom in a way. The Starfield fandom, in the book, is the only thing that gets Elle through her awful life and the way it’s represented is so good. The book really shows the love and community that can be formed through the mutual love of a story. There was really a few different common ideas mashed into one I think, mainly ‘modern Cinderella’, ‘anonymous texting’, and the aforementioned 'fangirl’ trope that has surfaced recently but all of these are done well and manage to work well together so that’s cool. I think that the main reason I didn’t love love it, is because some of the characters I just couldn’t fall in love with. I mean, I liked Elle and Darien for the most part, and they make a good couple, and Sage was pretty cool. The step-sisters and step mom were essentially the same as every other Cinderella story, I actually felt like the step-mom, Catherine, wasn’t very well done. Her hatred for Elle was never properly explained and didn’t really make sense, and I didn’t understand Elle’s obsession with her. Like, I guess I get that she would want a parental figure in her life and she didn’t have many options, but like, Catherine was literally always mean to her, with absolutely zero indication that she cared at all, to the point where she could be called abusive and Elle still seemed to think that Catherine was going to just suddenly start being nice or something. I don’t know, I just didn’t get their relationship I guess. Overall though, I did like the book, it’s a fun easy read, maybe not the best for rereading, but I think it’s one of the best books as far as representing nerd culture and fandoms in the internet age.

Spoiler alert: They literally both die at the end, and despite being completely aware of that since it was pretty much the entire plot of the book, I was still utterly devastated. And worst of all, they DID NOT die together. Like I was genuinely just holding on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, they would at least get to die together but of course not. Anyway, overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It had a creative premise, dramatic plot, enticing writing, and loveable characters. There are two main characters, Mateo and Rufus, who are both 18 year old boys who have cool names and that’s pretty much the only thing they have in common (at least at first). Mateo is 100% relatable as hell, he literally never leaves his room, has no friends, and never leaves the house. Even when he gets the call that tells him he’ll be dying in less than 24 hours, he can’t get himself out. Finally, by joining the Last Friend app, he meets Rufus, who convinces him to leave the feeling of safety in his bedroom. Rufus is a foster kid, although only recently (after the tragic death of his entire family) and he’s cool and reckless and he gets his call in the middle of beating up someone. They are both such good characters, like I just was completely in love with them by the end of the book, even though I kept telling myself not to fall in love with them because I knew that they were going to die. Rufus is totally my type honestly, he’s the “bad boy” but not really, like he doesn’t ever pretend to be tough because he’s trying to be cool, he’s just genuinely really cool. The instagram photography was really cool, I thought, like you don’t see a lot of guys who ride around on their bikes and beat people up with their friends that also like to take cool and artsy pictures, it’s just really sweet. And don’t get me started on the Plutos, those kids will make me cry every time honestly, they are such good friends and they’re all really good about respecting what Rufus wants on his last day, Malcom and Tagoe are the real friends, going to jail for him like that and I’m so sad that they lost Rufus. Like it just sucks to get so attached to these characters and their relationships and then they’re all over at the end, it doesn’t leave any room for happily ever after.  And I could literally kill Peck, like what the hell kind of person would call the cops on someone on their end day, absolute asshole, and Rufus didn’t really get the chance to say his goodbyes because of that but he did get a last moment with the Plutos at the club, even if Peck interrupted that too. With Mateo, again, he didn’t get to do a goodbye with his dad, which sucks so much, and I hope that his dad eventually wakes up and gets Rufus’ note, which as the sweetest thing ever honestly, but at least he spent some time with Lydia although I will still be sad about her and Penny, especially since Penny probably won’t even remember Mateo at all. But, anyway, the relationship that Mateo and Rufus had was incredible. I mean, I love the whole idea of these two people who lead such different lives but just have a connection that’s just really strong. And there somehow managed to be a slow burn element to a story that lasted 24 hours so I loved that obviously, although it’s actually really frustrating that they had so little time together. I also love the way that the author used the point of view of different characters to show how these two were affecting the people around them that you normally wouldn’t think twice about, it was very similar to The Sun is Also a Star in that way, which I’m sure is just because its a good way to make a day actually take up enough time to fill a book, but it also is just so cool to read. Like one of the girls that Mateo rejects on the Last Friend App meets someone else instead, and we get to see a little snippet of their relationship that wouldn’t have happened if Mateo had joined up with her, and they were in the same bookstore at the same time, and it just is interesting to think that all these little decisions affect your life and other people’s lives much more than you think. Anyway, I do have some questions about how a world could exist like this, with the knowledge of people’s date of death being known like that. Like I think it says in the book that they don’t know where the information comes from, but that seems so sketchy to me. Like, wouldn’t people be trying to figure that out, and I’m pretty sure that people would not trust that organization, and there would definitely be some break in situations with people trying to figure out their end day before the call. Aside from that stuff though, it implies that there is some sort of force, fate if you will, that determines the course of people’s lives, so in a world where you know that, and you know that you aren’t going to die on all the days that you don’t get the call, wouldn’t people be much more adventurous? Like, maybe not crazy stuff all the time, but like Mateo level paranoia, in a world where there’s evidence of a force that is protecting you, just doesn’t make sense. Also, it’s a really interesting thing to imagine a world like this, where death is less unknown, and people are trying to live life to its fullest, and I think this book has a pretty good idea of what it would look like. There’s all sorts of places that are designed specifically for people who are dying in a way that tourist attractions are designed, like death is literally commodified which is exactly what would happen in our society.  Anyway, when I got this book, my Mom asked, “Why would you want to read a book where they both die in the end?” and a response I heard was, “Because, at least their lives won’t go on without you.” Essentially, you get the whole story, no matter what. Nothing is happening to the characters when you put the book down. It’s comforting almost to feel like it really is over. Like, when I finish a book, it never feels over, I just want to keep reading, to know what happens next. Even with a perfect happy ending where everything is just the way I wanted, I’m still invested in the lives of these characters and I want to read about everything that comes next, even if it’s just boring stuff. And, although death is never ever the ending that I want for a character, it is THE ending. And when I finish, I’ll still want more, I’ll want it to change or be wrong or somehow rewritten to fit my ending, but it makes it complete. Like this is their story, we’re probably starting in the middle but we’ll give you the background that you need to know how it started and then you get to keep up until the very end. Plus I like to torture myself, and a book that can make me cry is a good book for sure. To sum up, I love this book a lot, and I will definitely be reading again. I love Mateo and Rufus with my whole heart, they deserved the world, or at least a lot more time, and I hate that they had to meet like they did but I’m glad they met and that they shared their story, even though it broke my heart.