Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

42 reviews

taelights's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I HATE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Medical content, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Biphobia, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and War

pro_basil's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

oh. my. god. I can not explain how far the book goes beyond the synopsis. It becomes this different kind of story and it evoked so many emotions in me that may haunt me for a while. I loved this story, the last time I really enjoyed a book was years ago. This was so good it actually jump started my love for reading again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: War, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual content, and Cancer

Minor: Gaslighting and Vomit

aardwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

For a book where most of what actually happens is relentlessly grim, a strangely gentle read. The whole thing is very tropey and none of the twists will likely actually surprise you, but the journey matters more than the destination. I have to say the emotional build-up early on feels a bit rushed, but then, our main characters are seventeen year old boys, so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Suicide, Abandonment, Death, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Violence, Cancer, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child death, Gaslighting, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Homophobia, War, Sexual content, and Genocide

bowlofspaghetti's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Terminal illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cancer

cryptidkay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.5

 I'll admit that I picked this up for the space gays. I love me some space gays. But this book came right out of sci-fi left field and dragged me along with it.

The author plays amazingly well with traditionally terrifying sci-fi tropes but at the same time including two characters who blossom and grow near and dear to a reader's heart (AND each other's). Doing such with only two characters (and the OS? I guess?) is amazing. There's no where for a reader to turn if they don't particularly like the main characters. No background folks to turn to (Rover? After what it's done? Eugh. No.). And that ENDING! Damn do I love a well-deserved happy ending 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

folkmare's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This. was really not the book I was expecting. If you are going into this book hoping for a semi-lighthearted romance about boys in space, you will probably be disappointed. There IS romance in this book but I wouldn't say that it's the main focus. It's hard to describe what I mean by massively spoiling the book, so I won't pick it apart. This is a much darker read than I was anticipating. Despite the cover art, The Darkness Outside Us is more of a scifi drama thriller, with an apocalyptic backdrop. My one big gripe with it is that I don't really see the need for it to be YA. There's nothing in particular about the characters or the plot that requires them to be 17.

I think there would have maybe been a little more depth and emotional nuance if it was written with an adult audience in mind. Kodiak in particular, was kind of a boring character to read, because we don't get any of his perspective and he's written to be so "stoic and cool". It took a little while to grab me, I wouldn't say the writing is the best, but I was interested enough in the plot to keep reading. I'd suggest if you're waffling, try to make it to part 2 and then decide, because the story shifts at that point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War and Medical content

major character death

lavender_lores's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

this book can fit so much book in it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gaslighting

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cancer, Excrement, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: War

ktrecs's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, and Grief

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Sexual content, and Cancer

Moderate: Colonisation and Gaslighting

Minor: Body horror, Homophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis