denton littles still not dead // lance rubin

published: 2017

pages: 345

isbn: 978-0-553-49700-7

read: 3/26-28/2017

rating: 1// didn't like it 2// it was okay 3// i liked it 

           4// i really liked it 5// it was awesome 6// I loved it

SYNOPSIS

Denton Little lives in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. The good news: Denton has lived through his deathdate. Yay! The bad news: He’s being chased by the DIA (Death Investigation Agency), he can never see his family again, and he may now die anytime. Huh. Cheating death isn’t quite as awesome as Denton would have thought. . . .
 
Lance Rubin’s debut novel, Denton Little’s Deathdate, showed readers just how funny and poignant imminent death could be. Now in this sequel, he takes on the big questions about life. How do we cope, knowing we could die at any time? Would you save someone from dying even if they were a horrible person? Is it wrong to kiss the girl your best friend is crushing on if she’s really into you instead? What if she’s wearing bacon lip gloss?

MY THOUGHTS 

Ahhh!!!!

I think it's safe to say that this is the last book in this story (buuut if there were to be a third, i'd gladly read it). 

I loved it!!!!

I still love the first book a lot more, but this was one was also funny, it answered some stuff but I feel like it also left a couple of blanks. 

I don't want to spoil this one for you (at least not in this part) so I won't say too much about it on here but here are a few things.

....

I HATED DRM. Maybe hate is a strong word but I wasn't a huge fan of DRM. Maybe because DRM was a little self centered-ish and DRM's reasoning for Denton was a liiitle bit (a lot of bit) of a dick move. 

(I don't want to tell you who or even mention the sex of DRM which is why i keep typing it out...but i know its annoying you)

Also DRM's story line ended kinda like wtf??? But whatever. 

I loved the conclusion Denton came to when it came to DRM. And I'm glad that he had his head on straight. Like nothing can replace what he knows but he knows what it meant to know DRM. 

That little plot twist with his dad, I didn't see it coming. I did skip around (like an idiot) and so I found out sooner than I should've and I wasn't as shocked but had i not been nosy i would be definitely been shocked. 

His dad is a hella smart man. 

I still love Denton & Paolo's friendship and I'm not going to lie, I kinda want my own Paolo. I love how they truly care about another and I'm honestly glad this is from a guys point of view vs a girls point of view. I think I've read too much YA involving girls (and honestly, you know that brings dumb boy drama) that I get so happy when I find books that involve guys and dumb ass stuff (not that fighting the death date movement is dumb, but you get what I mean.)

I gotta admit, I think it's a little creepy, to me, the idea of knowing when you're going to die.

Like I'm kinda glad that I don't know, you know.

It's kinda scary NOT knowing but at the same time, i think it's great that you don't know. 

A lot of people in the book were living with this idea that they either had to fit x amount of everything into their lives in order to have fully lived or that it didn't matter because the end was near anyway. It was really stressful to a lot of people. 

(But then Brian & Denton's dad mention how the of stopping this movement messed up DRM and it's just, woah. Everything has an effect.) (Sorry if I'm making absolutely no sense.)

I also liked that Lance made show of how the government runs off dirty money and how rules only apply to "basic humans" but not them. 

Way to stick it to the man, man. 

Overall in the end, it was a good conclusion to this story. 

It started out (from the first book) as a "woah, what if this really were to happen" dilemma and it ended in a "bah!, sorta sweet, suck it man!, kinda story."

I guess what I'm trying to say is Denton and everyone involved would've been dead a long time ago had this been written by someone else or if it were real life cause you know the government doesn't fuck around. 

Good read, good read.

I'll leave you with some fave but not a whole lot cause some might spoil stuff. 

"I mean, in a way, entering the world is kind of like a night of spectacular drunkenness." 

-Denton pg 1

"After all, it's only our failures that give true meaning to our successes. 

Don't you think?" 

-Paolo pg 173

"I ate somebody's mail." 

-Denton pg 243

(I laughed so freaking hard at this and I don't even know why. It's just, who says that!? Lol)

spoilers below.

thanks for reading

#lesreads on IG

SPOILERS

So Denton is on the run and ends up on the doorstep of his biological mothers apartment. 

She was never dead and both his father and brother knew. 

In the first book his dad, Lyle, tells him he never wanted to have him but D ran away before he could finish telling him that the only reason he didn't want him was because his mom  (DRM= Denton's Real Mom. aptly named by Paolo) ONLY wanted him because she couldn't contract the virus unless she was pregnant. You can only give the virus to fetuses. 

She went from never wanting kids and having to have been begged to keep Felix to "hey! let's make a baby!" 

And Lyle knew what she was doing because, tun...tun....TUN!!!!! he's the one that created the virus!!!!

It's just that Cheryl (Denton's real moms name)  got a little overboard and wanted to make it into a huge movement. And then life insurance companies were paying her off because there's money in that business and so basically she kinda just went mad. 

Her, along with Felix and Dane had been waiting 17 years for Denton to arrive to see if his virus worked and it turns out it did. 

EXCEPT that D can only transfer the virus through saliva within 48 hrs of their death date...so, Paolo is no longer able to be saved because they swapped spit sharing a bowl a month ago. 

he's living with his mom for about a week before he decides to run away but gets caught right away, by Cynthia, only to be saved by Felix again. 

so now that his mom and Dane have been running lab test on rats, and they know that he needs to swap spit with them, Cheryl's plan is to have Denton spit in a glass of water and give it to Hailey, the daughter of some dude from the government that's pretty high up there who is all for death dates, in the hopes that she'll survive and make him look like a fool for believing in all the "everyone needs to know their death date" hoopla. 

except things go wrong and he cant get his saliva anywhere near her. lulz. 

(ps: shes the completely horrible person that talked about being saved in the synopsis) 

all is well because the next target is Karen something or other who is like the VERY TOP person who is definitely all for this death date stuff cause she's definitely getting broken off by the companies involved. she's due to die the day before Paolo. 

she catches wind of D saving some random dude in the ass crack of the Bronx (her words not mine) so when Cynthia catches him once again (and he doesn't get away) she tells him that she needs him to give her saliva so that she can live. because even though she's pushing 80, she's still not ready to die. 

but after he does, he'll still be taken to DC to get the virus removed from him because he cant just go around all willy nilly saving people and ruining their money movement. 

basically, it's okay for her to live because she is who she is and she's not ready to die BUT everyone still needs to go through their death date because they can't lose money. 

so Cynthia is instructed to take D to a hotel and keep him there until her 48 hrs start. 

eventually D catches a break and tells Cynthia how Karen wants his saliva and that pisses Cynthia off because here she is honoring her sons death but the high up bitch thinks its okay for her old ass to live while her young son dies. 

so they escape (because they were with another DIA Agent) and take separate buses. her to Paolo and him to Brian's house because low and behold, Cheryl finally passes away; after they escape the DIA in her own home and no biggie, leaves her fucking kid behind. (i hated her more for that.)  so yea. 

now Denton is out to find a cure for Paolo.

and it turns out that his dad has it (up until this point, he didn't know that his dad was the creator of the virus. this is also where he learns that his mom was also mostly doing it for the monies!) 

so he goes home, he talks to his dad and it turns out his dad kept up with it and now there's a super duper virus that cancels out your death date without the 48 hr window. so he gives it to him and he goes to save Paolo, he shoots him up and so now he's alive!!!!  well, you know what i mean.  
the one thing about that shot is that since it cancels out the death date now you can either die before or after. AND Paolo can give it to anyone and that person can then go on and give it to other people so basically everyone will erase their death date. 

but of course they run into more DIA's and all of what i mentioned above is told to everyone at their graduation where there is also media that way people will know the government took them if they go missing or whatever (cause that guy Denton saved passed away the day after his death date (which translates to the DIA took care of that ish real quick.) 


uhm....other than that, there still some stuff i left out but for the most part that's the gist of it all. 

ill leave you with one last quote that i didn't want to mention above because of spoilers. 

"Yes, Cheryl gave birth to me, and I'm so happy i got to know her, but she was never really my mother." 

-D pg 295 (and i whole heartedly agree!!!) 

thanks for reading! (: