Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Darkness Outside Us

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The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

27 reviews

reader_in_the_meadow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

The Darkness Outside Us is a 2021 Young Adult Science-Fiction novel by american author Elliot Schrefer. It is parted into six part and is written continuously with no marked chapters. Told is the story of Ambrose Cusk and Kodiak Celius, two spacefarers whose mission to rescue Ambrose's sister takes a dark turn when they discover secrets on their ship.

The plot of this book was all over the place, but in a good way. It was such a well worked out idea that was told in an easy to follow way, so you couldn't miss a thing. Since I don't want to spoil here I am just honna say that the plot twist came right out of nowhere which was such a surprise. And I love when that happens! However, there were some parts where only info dumping was done, but at least they were pretty short.

Since there are only two acting characters in this book there is not much to say about diversity, besides that both of them are non-heterosexual young men. But the tricky thing Schrefer had to do was make both of these characters a whole own personality each so they really stand out. And oh boy, how he did that! They were both very well worked out and their dynamic was so good!

The writing in this book was not that hard to read which makes it easy to concentrate on the story. However it was a bit hard for me to understand some of the more scientific terms, since I did know many of them. The way the story is told is through the eyes of Ambrose, who acts as the main character in this story. I was able to completely immerse myself in the atory and the atmosphere that was built up while reading.

I really liked the dystopian idea, of the cold war not ending and instead accumulating two big countries on earth. It gave the whole story a kind of intense background and so much interesting story points.

However, I found the characters at some points very annoying and just stopped reading because I could not understand them at these times.

To sum up, The Darkness Outside Us is a very great Science-Fiction book with a thrillerish turn woven into it that I can only revommend. Still, please take note of the content warnings before buying.

Content Warnings

wildflower_sarah's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

glyph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

this book is insane. trying to explain this book to people has my brain wrapped up in itself to try and explain how amazing and yet how crazy this story is. to plan for a story like this, to have the mystery so expertly rolled out that you don't even see it coming in the first hundred pages – a feat in itself! it's definitely more dystopian than romcom, and i do wish that i would've known how much of a difference the story had from my expectations from the beginning.

the only thing i wish that would've been a little different are some plot holes that don't really make sense:

like how they redirected the ship but yet there was the portal that led to the book and the tapes? i thought that was their own plan, not something that was there from the beginning? and what about the people who came before them? the logistics of it all stump me.

there's also the factor of characterization, but this is leveled out by the end of the book.

i really enjoyed how each iteration got to be their own people, by chaos or intervenience, bc it feels like a kind of step back from destiny / fate storylines, which i enjoyed. i had a hard time picturing w/ the dialogue that they were seventeen year olds, in my mind they were more late twenties with how they spoke and acted. but even still, we didn't have the time to connect to any particular set, because they changed so often. really the first part of the book is really all we get to see, and even then, it's all surface level with a few dips of emotional depth, but nothing that actually made me feel connected to them. maybe i was too enthralled by the mystery?

it was a ride, and one that i don't think i'll stop thinking about for a while, but it's strange and mysterious and devastating, with small soft moments that make it feel less cold than the space they live in.

Content Warnings

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

Wow. You might think you know what to expect in this book, but I promise that your expectations will totally be turned on their head. The only reason this isn't getting 5 stars is because there were times that the pacing felt a bit weird. But other than that, I didn't want to put this down! The characters hook you and the twists make every section new and exciting.

Content Warnings