Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Darkness Outside Us

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

81 reviews

thisqueerreadstoomuch's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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raichou's review against another edition

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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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tlaynejones's review against another edition

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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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coffeebean216's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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downtown_kb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

“It's a programming affectation I've always disliked, when a computer program says it's "glad." Here, isolated in space, it's especially unnerving. This operating system, which has no limbic system and therefore no emotions, and which has my life in its hands, can lie.”

Earth is in its death throes, space travel is a reality, and Ambrose is on a mission to one of Jupiter’s moons to try and rescue his sister after her distress beacon goes off. He assumes his mission is solo but he soon finds out there is another spacefarer on his ship.

This is a hard review to write because it’s one of those books that makes you question things and have deep thoughts and if I could verbalize such thoughts they probably wouldn’t affect me so much.

This is an epic space adventure with nail biting suspense that will keep you guessing and on your toes. Then once you figure out what’s going on things don’t let up: those deep thoughts start to come.

I loved Ambrose as a narrator. He’s kind, sarcastic, and a bit reckless. I liked his cavalier attitude and yet he is very self-aware. There is definitely a strong romance subplot that is very sweet at times. This helps to balance some of the existential dread! I found the plot clever and fascinating and great for sci-fi space lovers. This is YA strictly because the characters are 17 years old and the it doesn't get too in-depth.

I highly recommend this book and it is one of my favorite reads this year! I will be thinking about it for a while to come.

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