

Now, 10 years later, he has authored at least half a dozen more. Part of what kept Silvera going, he said, was his desire to see more people like himself - a queer Latino - represented in literature. I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, which is not something I talk about very often, but I went through dialectical behavior therapy to help treat that." "Death and fear and disease and mental illnesses," he explained, touching on his own history with suicidal ideation. The First to Die at the End takes readers back into an earlier version of that world. Because the main characters do not survive, Silvera had to come up with a prequel. The problem with writing a smash hit where both heroes die is how to follow up. Because I spoiled the ending with the title of the book, I was like, 'all right, I warned you. Of course, there were all the videos of people crying. "That was all because of the word of mouth that began on TikTok. 1, which has never happened before," Silvera told NPR. "Now it's been on The New York Times bestseller lists for two years, and it's spent 15 consecutive months at No. They record TikTok videos of themselves weeping over his tragic endings. A new prequel is hitting shelves this week, with the only slightly less gloomy title The First to Die at the End.īut Silvera's fans love how sad his books are. Young adult author Adam Silvera spilled an ocean of teenage tears with his wildly successful 2017 novel, They Both Die at the End, about a doomed romance between two boys. Adam Silvera speaks onstage at the 2020 Audie Awards Gala at Guastavino's in New York City on March 2, 2020.
