The Survivor Wants to Die at the End

Related Organization: Kansas City Public Library

For Adam Silvera, writing books provides a way to create a safe space he wishes he’d had as a gay teen growing up in the South Bronx. His latest young adult novel, The Survivor Wants to Die at the End, is his most personal work to date.  

The third installment in Silvera’s They Both Die at the End series revisits a world featuring Death-Cast, a service that notifies people on the day they are going to die. The story follows two young men, one of whom is the conflicted heir to the Death-Cast fortune, brought together by chance. 

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of ten books – including the Infinity Cycle (Infinity Son, Infinity Reaper, Infinity Kings), History Is All You Left Me, and More Happy Than Not – Silvera is also the co-author of What If It’s Us and Here’s to Us. 

Kansas City native Adib Khorram, a queer Iranian American author of award-winning and bestselling fiction, including the YA novel Darius the Great Is Not Okay, will join Silvera in conversation. They’ll discuss the power of visibility in a novel and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the TikTok hashtag #BookTok on the resurgence of the first book in Silvera’s series, They Both Die at the End, which became the best-selling YA book of 2021. 

Khorram is also the author of the picture book Seven Special Somethings, and the adult romance I'll Have What He's Having, and serves on the national board of Authors Against Book Bans.  

This book explores themes surrounding suicide that may be challenging for some readers.