This is more like 3.7 stars for me! I had very strong feelings about this book, so I’m going to break it down into what I liked and didn’t like-

What I loved-
•Mateo and Rufus. These two were the perfect fit for each other’s last friends and watching their relationship grow throughout the course of the day was beautiful! 
•Their friends. I loved Lidia and the Plutos! It was nice to get inside reactions to the people closest to them on their last days. Seeing their sadness and their joy at being able to see their friends for one last time was the perfect addition to this book. 
•The other characters chapters. I really liked being able to see into other peoples lives during this day and being able to see how everyone’s day interconnected and how one thing that one set of people does affects the things that happen to other people in the story. It was really interesting to see those connections! 
•Rufus visiting Mateo’s dad. I loved that he went and told his dad all about their last day and then left him the note so that he could find their photos later. I thought that was really beautiful. 

What I strongly disliked-
•I did not like all of the *potential deaths* throughout the book. The explosion at the book store. Peck threatening Rufus with the gun. The girl who considered killing herself just to prove Death Cast wrong. These things felt like they were supposed to create suspense but they just fell flat to me. I would’ve preferred it if they weren’t there. I understand they were supposed to create the feeling of never knowing when your last moment will be or how you will die but I just didn’t hit for me. 
•I really didn’t enjoy the ending. Over the course of the book I became interested in Delilah’s story and we finally find out that she is actually going to die that day and only has a few hours left, and there’s ACTUAL suspense about how she might die. And then nothing. We get NO closure on how she dies. Or when. Or if she got to see her ex-fiancée one last time or not. It’s implied that the fiancée is the one who kills Rufus but the fiancée wasn’t slated to die that day. So did they see each other? Did the accident somehow kill Delilah as well? I hate that we don’t find out. 
•I also didn’t like how quickly Mateo’s death was handled. I understand that he wouldn’t have wanted Rufus to spend the rest of his living day mourning him but still. It was really just passed over.

What I very strongly disliked-
The idea of Death Cast in general. It wasn’t fleshed out AT ALL. Like. If you’re going to create something like this you have to give me reason to 100% believe in it and that just wasn’t here. It really took me out of this book sometimes because I didn’t really feel the danger of the day because I couldn’t fully believe in the system. 

Overall I enjoyed the book! But unfortunately their was more that I disliked than I liked. The characters are what really pulls up this rating!