Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

9 reviews

raichou's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Oh I loved this book so much! 
I've had it on my shelf for a bit, before finally picking it up and I think it pulled me out of a nearing in reading slump. 

I don't want to say much about the story, it's best to go in blind and not know much about it. Let the story sink in as you go along.
Don't read the spoiler parts without reading the book first!

Ambrose and Kodiak are such amazing characters. It was so interesting to see what would happen in each new cycle, how they would react to the news from their old selves. 
I think all versions were reasonable and I loved reading all of them. I even cried at two. It was such an emotional roller coaster and I loved the ride. 

I'm so glad they got their happy-end at last and hope they got to live a happy fulfilled life together on Minerva.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Self harm, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Blood, and Violence

char42's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Firstly: This is not a Young Adult book! It could be maybe be called “New Adult” but I’d recommend for all ages 16+.

‘The Darkness Outside Us’ is a deeply moving and challenging book, a well-executed and original take on several key sci-fi tropes including <evil AI spaceship> and <clones / regeneration>. Schrefer build the tenfold beautifully and excruciatingly. The romance is believable and tender, without getting in the way of individual character development. I have some small nitpicks in terms of the continuity of character development (due to the central plot twist of the book) but given the unique plot, Schrefer managed to keep the character development mostly coherent and believable (which is a real feat considering the central premise). A beautiful and challenging sci-fi book, which feels miscategorised as Young Adult. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cancer, Vomit, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

Minor: Genocide and Child death

five_rats_in_a_trenchcoat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Cancer

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Excrement, and Medical content

This book was an emotional roller coaster, I'm going to have to sit with it for a bit and when I'm done orocessing I can't wait to reread it. The big plot twist was perfectly executed, you get the exact amount of information to be able to guess, but not enough to fully know what's coming, it was a perfect mix of "Oh shit, I think x is what's happening" and "what the fuck is going on". If you like sci-fi thrillers with horror elements I highly recommend this book, what an amzing read. I listened to the audiobook and if that's your cup of tea you should give it a listen, the narrator did an amazing job voicing the main characters and his imitation of different robot voices made me giggle a couple of times! Beware of the warnings though, this book can get very heavy at times and has some content that could be triggering. The ending was absoluoltely worth the tears I cried though, 5/5 stars

doodleoodz's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Could not put this book down, finished it in a day. Well worth the read; it kept me interested, heartbroken, and utterly in love with the choice of words.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Cursing, Self harm, and Suicide

modernathos's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Honestly? What a great read to start the year with. This book was gifted to me by my best friend and unlike anything I've ever read before in all the good ways.

The first hundred or so pages were quite slow to me, but once the story gets going it is absolute insanity to the very end and you cannot put it down anymore. Schrefer tricks his readers as much as

OS tricks our characters

, therefore this book will haunt me forever.

I do have to say that the romance felt a bit forced or too fast at times. Maybe it is because I found both Ambrose and Kodiak hard to connect to. Don't get me wrong, I loved it once the plot really got going, but if we'd had the chance to learn a bit more about our spacefarers' past, especially Kodiak, even though

both of them turn out to be clones

, the

repeated deaths of the main characters and the

end of the book would have hit just a bit harder and better than it already did.

I've seen The Darkness Outside Us be described as a story that "smashes your heart and puts it back together" and ultimately, I agree with that statement and have nothing else to add to it.

Rep: queer MC, poc MC, non-binary mentioned character
December 24th, 2022 - January 2nd, 2023 

"When adoration is selfish, it's not going anywhere." - Ambrose Cusk, part 1.

"Welcome to Minerva."

"I couldn't have written about the love of a lifetime without first experiencing one with [my husband]." - Eliot Schrefer, acknowledgements.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical content, Blood, Murder, Cancer, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: War and Death of parent

paulawind's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

It’s perfectly average sci-fi, getting brownie points for trying to be diverse. Nice spot in the ya genre but I guess I’m-too seasoned in sci-fi genre to find any of the plot points here novel. 

I liked how they pondered upon different reactions the clones would have upon discovering that they are clones but existential dilemmas are the backbone of sci-fi so I could predict most of the action and plot twists. Was it still an enjoyable read? Yeah but I’m not going to rave about it. Maybe I’m too old for this? Or too “polsci grad” for the mentioning of Plato’s allegory of the cave to seem nuanced? I liked how it asked the questions what should our fate be as individual humans in history. Felt like this book learned a bit too much into being American selfish no matter what because let’s be honest - the fact that the humanity wasn’t doomed after they killed all but the last pair of clones is sheer luck. Just because they wanted to live few extra years they almost made humanity die out. Typical neoliberal propaganda

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Vomit, Violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, and Excrement

kenzie_redelman's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

One of the main points in this book is repetition. Reading the exact same couple of pages several times drove me a little crazy, but the repetition was necessary for the plot. The author did an amazing job of keeping the book interesting while having only two characters confined in a small space for a long period of time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Medical trauma, Self harm, and Suicide

irisheyz77's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content and Cancer

zucchinispades's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Self harm, Murder, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, and Confinement