Adam Silvera – Author Biography
Early Life
Adam Silvera was born on June 7, 1990, in the South Bronx, New York City. He worked in the publishing industry — as a bookseller, at a literary development company, and as a reviewer — before becoming a novelist. Growing up as a gay Latino teen who rarely saw himself in books, he set out to write the stories he had needed as a reader.
Career
Silvera’s debut, More Happy Than Not (2015), about a Bronx teen considering a memory-erasing procedure to forget his sexuality, was named a New York Times Notable Book. His breakout came with They Both Die at the End (2017), in which two strangers are notified they will die within 24 hours and spend their last day together — a high-concept tearjerker that became a massive BookTok phenomenon years after publication, returning to bestseller lists and spawning the prequel The First to Die at the End (2022). History Is All You Left Me (2017), about grief after a boyfriend’s death, cemented his reputation. He has also co-written the What If It’s Us duology with Becky Albertalli.
Major Works
More Happy Than Not (2015), History Is All You Left Me (2017), They Both Die at the End (2017), The First to Die at the End (2022), and the Infinity Cycle fantasy trilogy (Infinity Son, 2019, and sequels). A television adaptation of They Both Die at the End has been in development.
Writing Style and Themes
Silvera writes emotionally direct YA fiction with a signature device: the premise is announced in the title, so readers know the heartbreak is coming and still can’t look away. His books center queer Latino protagonists navigating grief, mortality, first love, and mental health. Death is his great subject — not as a twist but as a given — and his stories ask how we spend the time we have. His prose is spare, conversational, and built for maximum emotional impact.
Legacy
Silvera is one of the defining YA voices of the 2010s and a cornerstone of the BookTok-era revival of backlist titles. They Both Die at the End became one of the most talked-about YA novels of its generation, and his insistence on centering queer teens of color helped reshape what mainstream young-adult fiction looks like.
