Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

38 reviews

adrianas65's review

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

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Suicide, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Medical trauma, and Vomit

tlaynejones's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This is not a book to make you feel good. I found the experience of reading it often made me feel claustrophobic; the building sense of horror reminded me of Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro. The story is set on a space ship in deep space. It’s about two boys, late teens I think, who wake up with compromised memories and a situation that doesn’t quite fit what the on board AI is telling them. It’s also sort of a queer love story. The story is almost entirely about cis men, and there are lots of unresolved/ unexamined issues around corporatisation, colonialism, classism…

I enjoyed much of the interactions/ relationships between the two boys, and I found the problem solving around how they managed their situation quite interesting. Cautiously recommended. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Vomit

Minor: Homophobia

wheatlyre's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Sexism, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment, Racism, War, Transphobia, and Homophobia

keya_caivalur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Abandonment, Cancer, Murder, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, and Vomit

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, and War

tovetott's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

(I'm so torn about this score but like... 4.8??? Might change this once I've had some sleep jdjdbdn)

Okay so. This book fcked me up lol. From the synopsis I really thought it was gonna be a cool, interesting, fluffy kinda space-tale and like... it was, but not even CLOSE to what I expected! My jaw was on the floor for long periods of time, multiple, multiple times.

As a Doctor Who girlie and a sucker for sci-fi and space, I really loved it even tho it damn near caused nightmares for me. Very spooky! Very unsettling! The movie 'Gravity' comes to mind even tho this book has a lot more fluff and calm moments to give you a break between the absolute horror. 

The thing that did knock down the score for me a bit was the romance, because it felt a lot like it came out of nowhere? I assume that being forced to live together with a single person and only having them to rely on in a life-or-death scenario would make a relationship a lot deeper than here on Earth, but it went a little too fast for me considering how intensely enemies/rivals-esque they were set up to be in the beginning. But, like other reviews also say, it's really not that important for the plot.

Other things I liked include how the author showed that time has passed! Very cool idea! Very confusing at first but was woven into the story soooo nicely as it went on. Also the separation between the "chapters". So incredibly cool.

I'm not gonna write anymore because, like many other reviews say, it's SO worth going in blind!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

Moderate: Gaslighting

stellastallion's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer and Medical content

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Medical content, War, Sexual content, Suicide, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Grief, Addiction, Excrement, and Blood

summermorning's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, War, Violence, Grief, Confinement, Vomit, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

hoax_meal's review

emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is devastating but hopeful. If you're looking for a light read, this isn't it. It deals with extreme existentialism. But that's sci fi for you. That aside it's a very well written romance. Probably my favourite book I've read so far this year. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Gaslighting, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical content, Classism, Excrement, and Homophobia

sonias's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

It's not fluff. If you want fluff - run the fuck away. 
Cuddly space homosexuals don't compensate for all the trauma. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia, War, and Xenophobia