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cobmagnificent's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, and Death
Minor: Cancer, War, and Grief
ghostlyprince's review against another edition
- 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
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 against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, War, Violence, Grief, Confinement, Vomit, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse
avacadosocks's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Cancer, Confinement, Medical content, Body horror, and Terminal illness
Minor: War, Gore, Suicide, and Vomit
evelynyle_88's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Cancer
Minor: War and Suicide
frenchpants's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Death, Cancer, and Murder
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Xenophobia and War
sonias's review against another edition
- 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
Cuddly space homosexuals don't compensate for all the trauma.
Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Murder, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Gore
Minor: Homophobia, War, and Xenophobia
leguinstan's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
The main character and his love interest are incredibly flat-- outside of a basic personality profile and general background info, I barely got to know anything about Ambrose and Kodiak which made the romance between the two of them stale as all hell. I literally have no idea what Kodiak likes to do for fun and I struggle to picture what he and Ambrose would do together if they weren't stuck in their current predicament.
Luckily, said predicament is a popcorn-munching, edge-of-your-seat affair and once I hit the first big plot twist I stayed glued to my seat until I reached the very last page. While the twist wasn't a complete surprise to me since I watched a sci-fi film years ago
The thing is though--I think The Darkness Outside Us would have been an even stronger novel if it was written for adults instead of teens. To be clear, I'm not saying that it's an adult novel mismarketed for a teen audience. I'm saying that writing the story for teens prevents it from reaching its full potential. Because of the teen readership, the main characters' feelings about the more harrowing experiences in the story could not be explored in more depth. No disrespect intended at all to YA novels! I just feel in this particular instance the YA label on this story feels too limiting.
Long story short: while I have some serious complaints against the novel, I enjoyed the thriller aspects too damn much to give it less than a 3.5.
Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia and War
sexual content: the main character of the story is a VERY HORNY teenager and does end up having sex with the teen love interest several times. It's not explicit but it's not subtle either. homophobia: soooo the main character accuses the love interest of being homophobic but uh... he's only homophobic by the main character's futuristic standards. So it barely feels like homophobia to me.kal517's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Sexual content
Minor: War and Suicide
michmoo's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.75
I was drawn in by the premise and captivated by the possibilities of where the underlying mystery would take us, and then promptly smacked in my soul with the beginnings of the plot twist which only further stressed me out when I realised that we still had a big chunk of the book to go.
Overall, I would say that while this is a sci-fi mystery thriller, it is also at its core, a love story. Watching the love blossom between the two protagonists was a gift in spite of the heart wrenching moments it led to, perhaps because of them.
I definitely recommend giving this book a chance if you are at all interested.
The author did an amazing job, I am emotionally compromised.
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, War, Grief, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Blood