Fast reader responses to a 700-page book
Silvera shares that although the 700-page novel took a year and a half to write, readers have been finishing it in a matter of hours, which he considers a huge compliment.
Adam Silvera
American
Born 1990
Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times bestselling author, is an American writer born in 1990 who made his YA debut in 2015 with More Happy Than Not. His 2017 novel They Both Die at the End reached many new readers in 2020 through BookTok. The Death-Cast series now spans They Both Die at the End, the 2022 prequel The First to Die at the End, and The Survivor Wants to Die at the End (2025); No One Knows Who Dies at the End is announced for 2026. He has also collaborated with Becky Albertalli on What If It's Us and Here's to Us.
Across these books, Silvera writes queer characters facing identity, grief, love, and mortality without turning away from loss. More Happy Than Not uses memory manipulation to ask whether erasing pain can protect a person; They Both Die at the End and its prequel focus on how people spend limited time and what they owe one another. His plots move between private choices and last days, keeping friendship, family, and romance at the center while leaving room for hope after heartbreak.
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed 4 of Adam Silvera's books, including The First to Die at the End, They Both Die at the End, and The Survivor Wants to Die at the End.
4
Books ReviewedIn Adam Silvera's own words
Adam Silvera discusses 'The Survivor Wants to Die at the End', detailing its characters, premise, and place in the Death-Cast universe.
Uploaded by Headliner Chicago, 2025 · Watch on YouTube ·
More conversations
Researching the 2010 Setting
Silvera notes that setting the prequel in 2010 required historical research on details like whether FaceTime existed yet and the price of New York City MetroCards.
Writing an early Harry Potter sequel
Silvera shares that he began writing fan fiction around age 11 and completed an entire eighth Harry Potter book titled 'Harry Potter and the Demise of Hogwarts' before the published series ended.
“I wrote an eighth Harry Potter book before all the books were out.”
Also in this interview
Adam Silvera books in order
8 books, 3 series; 3 reviewed on LuvemBooks. Dates and covers from Amazon.
Death-Cast series reading order →3 books
#12017Our review →
#22022Our review →
#32025Our review →
The First to Die at the End
4.6/5
reader rating · 2,940 ratingsAdam Silvera's The First to Die at the End is a Death-Cast prequel following Orion and Valentino on the day the first calls go out. Reviewers praise its emotional pull and New York setting; others find the sprawling cast and engineered tragedy hard to buy.
Reviewed Sep 9, 2026
They Both Die at the End
4.6/5
reader rating · 42,655 ratingsAdam Silvera's They Both Die at the End (HarperTeen, 2017) follows Mateo and Rufus through the day Death-Cast tells them they will die. It returned to bestseller lists through BookTok in April 2020; Kirkus Reviews found it engrossing and heart-wrenching, while Teen Ink's reviewer found it slow.
Reviewed Feb 21, 2026
The Survivor Wants to Die at the End
4.5/5
reader rating · 780 ratingsAdam Silvera's The Survivor Wants to Die at the End is the third They Both Die at the End novel: Paz waits for a Death-Cast call that never comes until Alano saves him. Kirkus calls it "raw, delicate, and deeply caring"; it is heavy, with abuse, self-harm and suicide.
Reviewed Aug 26, 2026
More Happy Than Not
4.5/5
reader rating · 1,892 ratingsAdam Silvera's debut follows Aaron Soto, a Bronx teen weighing a memory-erasing procedure after his father's suicide and his feelings for Thomas. Kirkus Reviews and the New York Times praise its ambition; Cannonball Read found it very depressing.
Reviewed Mar 24, 2026
Ask LuvemBooks about Adam Silvera
Adam Silvera has 4 books reviewed on LuvemBooks, and a clear signature runs through them: queer teenage protagonists facing mortality inside tightly compressed timelines — They Both Die at the End unfolds over the single day its two leads have left to live after a call from Death-Cast, the company that predicts imminent death. His debut, More Happy Than Not, trades that premise for a near-future Bronx memory-erasure procedure, but the same blend of speculative concept and grief-driven emotion carries over. Readers on Amazon have rated all four reviewed titles 4.6/5.
- Where should I start?
- Start with They Both Die at the End — it's the book that made Silvera's reputation, and its premise (two strangers spending their last day alive together after a call from Death-Cast) showcases his signature blend of speculative hook and emotional gut-punch. It carries a reader rating of 4.6/5 from over 42,000 Amazon ratings, by far the largest sample of any of his books we've reviewed. If you prefer to read the Death-Cast world chronologically, you could begin with the prequel The First to Die at the End instead.
- What's their writing style?
- Silvera's hallmark is pairing a high-concept speculative device — a death-prediction service, a memory-erasure procedure — with intimate, grief-soaked character work. He favors compressed timelines, as in the single-day structure of They Both Die at the End. Expect emotional intensity over plot mechanics: the speculative premise exists to force his queer teen characters into confronting what matters before time runs out.
- Books we've reviewed
- We've reviewed 4 Adam Silvera books. They Both Die at the End (4.6/5 reader rating from over 42,000 Amazon ratings) is his most famous, following Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio through their final day. More Happy Than Not (4.6/5) is his Bronx-set debut about memory erasure and queer identity. The First to Die at the End (4.6/5) is a prequel set the night Death-Cast launches, and The Survivor Wants to Die at the End (4.6/5) follows Puerto Rican teens Paz Dario and Alano.
- How do his books compare?
- The three Death-Cast books we've reviewed share the same premise — a service that notifies people on the last day of their lives — but They Both Die at the End is a romance built around one shared final day, The First to Die at the End rewinds to the service's launch night, and The Survivor Wants to Die at the End shifts to new leads, Paz Dario and Alano. More Happy Than Not is the outlier: a Bronx-set debut about memory erasure rather than Death-Cast, and the one that earned starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and several other outlets. All four hold a 4.6/5 reader rating on Amazon.
- What genre does he write?
- Silvera writes young adult fiction with speculative elements. More Happy Than Not features a near-future memory-erasure procedure, while the Death-Cast books are built around a service that predicts its clients' deaths. Romance and queer identity are consistent threads — They Both Die at the End is specifically a YA romance between two teenage boys.
- What should I read after They Both Die at the End?
- The natural next step is The First to Die at the End, the prequel set on the night Death-Cast first goes live, where two strangers — one who gets the call, one who doesn't — choose to spend what may be their last hours together. After that, The Survivor Wants to Die at the End, the third installment in the series, follows Paz Dario and Alano. If you'd rather step outside the Death-Cast world, More Happy Than Not is Silvera's acclaimed standalone debut.
Who is Adam Silvera?
Where should I start?
What's their writing style?
Books we've reviewed
How do his books compare?
What genre does he write?
What should I read after They Both Die at the End?
Who is Adam Silvera?
Adam Silvera is an American author and #1 New York Times bestselling writer who broke onto the YA scene in 2015 with his debut More Happy Than Not. He's best known for They Both Die at the End, which became a #BookTok phenomenon and returned to the New York Times Best Seller list in 2020. Across the 4 books we've reviewed, he specializes in emotionally heavy young adult fiction built around queer teen characters and speculative premises.
Follow up
What is Adam Silvera best known for?
Is Adam Silvera American?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
Press Enter to ask. Answers come from our editorial Q&A — start typing to see related questions.
Authors Like Adam Silvera
John Green
Fiction
Young Adult
John Green's The Fault in Our Stars captures the same bittersweet emotional core, following two teenagers confronting mortality through a fierce, tender romance.
3 books reviewed
Kathleen Glasgow
Fiction
Young Adult
Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces shares Adam Silvera's raw, unflinching look at teen mental health crises, trauma, and the painful difference between survival and recovery.
2 books reviewed
Stephen Chbosky
Fiction
Young Adult
Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower also features an intimate first-person narrator, exploring a teenage boy processing buried trauma, sexuality, and identity through a close friendship.
1 book reviewed
Becky Albertalli
Fiction
Young Adult
Rebecca Albertalli is an American author of young adult fiction and a former psychologist.
1 book reviewed
E. Lockhart
Fiction
Young Adult
E. Lockhart's We Were Liars explores teen grief and altered memory, pairing shocking reveals with a cooler, more controlled voice.
1 book reviewed
T
Tamara Ireland Stone
Fiction
Young Adult
Tamara Ireland Stone's Every Last Word delivers the same Young Adult emotional stakes and a structural twist that reframes everything the reader thought they knew.
1 book reviewed