The First to Die at the End

About The First to Die at the End

The First to Die at the End is the prequel to Adam Silvera's bestselling They Both Die at the End, published by Quill Tree Books in 2022. While the original novel is set in a world where Death-Cast has existed long enough to be a social institution, the prequel takes place on the very first night the service goes live — when no one knows yet if the calls are real, when the world is holding its breath, and when two strangers find themselves drawn together in Times Square.

Orion Pagan has lived with a serious heart condition for years. He signed up for Death-Cast because he wants to know when the end is coming; for him, it is a matter of control rather than fear. Valentino Prince is in New York to start a new life; he registered only after his twin sister nearly died in a car accident, and he expects nothing to come of it. When the first round of End Day calls go out, one of them receives a call, and one doesn't.

Stakes and Scale

Where They Both Die at the End takes place in a world where Death-Cast is background infrastructure — known, accepted, integrated — the prequel places its story at the precise moment of uncertainty. No one knows if the calls are real. If they are, then receiving one means you have hours to live. If they're a hoax, the fear and grief are still real. Either way, the night has changed.

Silvera manages that uncertainty with skill. Orion and Valentino's relationship develops across a night defined by the question of whether it will be their last. Orion's meditation on mortality is informed by years of living near the edge; Valentino's is sudden and unpracticed. Their different relationships to death give the novel its emotional architecture, and the question of which one received the call — answered within the novel but withheld from marketing — is handled in a way that doesn't feel like a trick.

Why It Has Been Challenged

The First to Die at the End has been removed from school libraries in Escambia County and Santa Rosa County in Florida, and Roane County Community School District in Tennessee. Like its predecessor, challenges have cited the novel's same-sex romance and its handling of death and mortality as the primary concerns.

The novel was a #1 New York Times bestseller on publication. Its status as a prequel to one of the most widely read young adult novels of the previous decade means it has a built-in readership of teenagers who are already deeply invested in Silvera's world. Removing it from school libraries doesn't prevent those readers from finding it; it prevents school librarians from being part of that conversation.