Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

41 reviews

shayh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting and Confinement

Minor: Suicide, Terminal illness, Cancer, Grief, Vomit, Excrement, 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.

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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.

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.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Suicide, Cancer, and Vomit

adrianas65's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

tlaynejones's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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