Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

41 reviews

summermorning's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, War, Violence, Grief, Confinement, Vomit, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

hoax_meal's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

This book is devastating but hopeful. If you're looking for a light read, this isn't it. It deals with extreme existentialism. But that's sci fi for you. That aside it's a very well written romance. Probably my favourite book I've read so far this year. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Gaslighting, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical content, Classism, Excrement, and Homophobia

sonias's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

It's not fluff. If you want fluff - run the fuck away. 
Cuddly space homosexuals don't compensate for all the trauma. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia, War, and Xenophobia

michmoo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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 mean, what can I say about this goddamn book? 

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, War, Grief, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Blood

mandaraffe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Moderate: War and Xenophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

linnea1801's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this book gave me trust issues

when the first Ambrose and Kodiak died I was screaming and crying

I am very glad that this is fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, War, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Vomit and Cancer

corriejn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Gaslighting

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Cancer

Minor: Vomit, Blood, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Sexual content

five_rats_in_a_trenchcoat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Cancer

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Excrement, and Medical content

This book was an emotional roller coaster, I'm going to have to sit with it for a bit and when I'm done orocessing I can't wait to reread it. The big plot twist was perfectly executed, you get the exact amount of information to be able to guess, but not enough to fully know what's coming, it was a perfect mix of "Oh shit, I think x is what's happening" and "what the fuck is going on". If you like sci-fi thrillers with horror elements I highly recommend this book, what an amzing read. I listened to the audiobook and if that's your cup of tea you should give it a listen, the narrator did an amazing job voicing the main characters and his imitation of different robot voices made me giggle a couple of times! Beware of the warnings though, this book can get very heavy at times and has some content that could be triggering. The ending was absoluoltely worth the tears I cried though, 5/5 stars

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fascinating. I didn’t stop thinking about this while reading—it just moved to my subconscious and then came back anytime it was relevant again. Heavier than many of the other SciFi books I’ve read. When I got home, and before I turned off my car, I often had to just sit there, over-emotional, before pausing it to continue about my day/night. Especially in the final third of the book, I was struggling with a lot of the thoughts of Ambrose on his journey.

This also introduced many new concepts to me that I wish we had on our Earth in 2023.

Like the discussion of gender and homophobic and top/bottom dynamics.

There was also a paragraph where Ambrose considered “love” and his preconceived notions of what it is and is meant to be—this actually helped my autistic brain to better rationalize the differences between media-based interpretations of love and what I’ve genuinely experienced.

This book was raw and honest in a way I don’t often see in sci-fi. I mean, I’m biased as I don’t consume a ton of science fiction, but I find a lot of the tech and discussion to be pretentious and unnecessarily complex, but this was relatable and real and genuine. I really enjoyed following the relationship of Ambrose and Kodiak. And I’ll almost miss them.

Highly recommend to anyone who likes Sci-Fi and dislikes gender/sexuality binaries. To anyone who wants to better understand love and what it means to be human.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, and Confinement

Moderate: Death and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cancer, and Abandonment

ollie_again's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Cancer

Moderate: Murder, Gaslighting, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Grief, and Blood