Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

88 reviews

gooseberry420's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Vomit, and War

Minor: Excrement

mistle_hawk's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Jesus Christ talk about a rollercoaster of emotion. 

Watching this mess of cosmic horror and co-dependency play out over and over was gripping. It made me feel ill. I couldn't put the story down. 

I have mixed feelings about the main m/m relationship.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tender moments and cliche enemies to lovers trauma bonding. However, as the story transitioned from character-driven to plot-driven, my investment in the relationship between the latter iterations of Kodiak and Ambrose dwindled.

Honestly, I was hoping for a sad ending—the kind of existential terror in line with the rest of the book's tone— instead the ending was almost cartoonishly happy. Buuuuttttt I'm too curious to see where the story goes from here to not pick up the second instalment in the series when it releases in October later this year.

I think the story is limited within the confines of the YA genre, but I ate it up anyway. The whole thing kind of reads like fanfiction in a good-bad way. 

Also, take a shot every time the word polycarb is used. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and War

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and War

miayukino's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? N/A

4.25

I was initially frustrated with the politics of this book. I thought that a rehashing of the space race, though cool in concept, was not something I wanted executed in this exact style. While I remain opposed to the politics of the writer, the book quickly sheds that discussion in order to examine the larger picture of human existence.  I expected this to fall into the normal trite both sidesism commentaries about political divides and human carnage but what the author provides is remarkably faithful to the recognition of our insignificance (and dichotomous ultra-significance), in a way I haven’t read before. It is very well paced and structured. It wrecks you and grips you and maybe even gives you a little faith (or at least a little perspective). I couldn’t put it down. (Literally. Started it yesterday afternoon and it’s 1 AM the next day.) 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, and War

Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Transphobia

pitsikakku's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Medical content, War, and Injury/Injury detail

shayh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

ismildlypoetic's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

4 stars = I loved it!

This is one of the most unique books I've ever read. If you like science fiction, I recommend it, way more for the plot structure. If you're looking for a romance, although it's a main element in this story, I would choose a different book. 

Oh my God where do I start? So I usually don't read sci-fi, because I don't like the idea of something not based in reality, but I always tend to enjoy it a lot more than I think I will. I got this book out of a little free library during a trip to San Fransisco because I needed something to read on the plane home, so I went in with very little to zero expectations. 

Starting with Ambrose and Kodiak 1.0 (2.0? the one we meet at the beginning), I thought the characters were so funny, and I was excited about a classic enemies-to-lovers slow-burn plot, but it just happened in outer space. This, to my surprise, did not happen. They died about 40% of the way through the book, and I had absolutely zero hypotheses for what was going to happen next.

The mystery of the clones, whether OS was evil, if Minerva was alive,  and where we were headed was such a great story and the author did an incredible job of pacing it out in a way that felt natural for the audience. However, after the first set of clones, I feel we lost the Ambrose and Kodiak we loved (i mean, we did), but I never was able to reattach myself to whatever version we saw next. I found myself caring for the original back on Earth more than whoever I saw in front of me. Part of this has to do with the romance. The first set of clones was great, loved it. However, with the second incarnation, the author never built up the love again; just said "here, date" and threw them together. And I never found the spark after that. It seemed like they were only together because they were both gay, and there was no one else around, not for any actual chemistry, which was a shame. 

 

All that being said, I thought this book was great, and I'm very excited to read the sequel when it comes out in October.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

The main characters

die several times, in graphic ways.

One such instance involves

a murder-suicide.

If these themes would be harmful for you, please choose a different book.

booksnbcys's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Abandonment, and Classism

beeping_librarian's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

The mystery is interesting, the characters less so. Weird binary opposite stereotypes of people, with forced romance. Didn't really get into it until halfway through. It doesn't say a lot with its ending.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Suicide, and Vomit

menthe's review against another edition

adventurous reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit