Hey Bookworm friends, today I have another review for #ScifiMonth2024 (and my last one of the month)! I just finished listening to the audiobook for The Darkness Outside Us and I think the Wild Space prompt that throws out all the rules works well for it! If you read it you’ll understand 😉.
Link-ups
Thanks to the Sci-Fi Month hosts: Imyril at There’s Always Room for One More,
Lisa at Dear Geek Place,
Annemieke at A Dance with Books,
and Mayri at bookforager
About The Darkness Outside Us
Author: Eliot Schrefer
Series: The Darkness Outside Us, #1
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books,
Harper Collins
Format Read: Audiobook
Narrator: James Fouhey
Year Published: 2021
Cover Artist: Sarah Maxwell
Synopsis
Ambrose Cusk wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor, with no memory of the ship’s launch. The operating system reminds him of his mission: his sister, the first settler on Titan, has tripped her distress signal, and he is en route to save her. Ambrose quickly finds out he’s not alone—one rival spacefarer from Earth’s other remaining country is on the other side of the ship. Neither country could afford to mount the rescue alone so Ambrose will have to work with Kodiak, who has isolated himself on his half of the ship. But when they stumble across evidence of strangers on board, the two boys must learn to trust each other to have any chance of survival.
Pace: Medium, Mix of Plot & Character Driven
Tone: Emotional, Mysterious
My Review
I picked up The Darkness Outside Us because I wanted a Sci-fi audiobook that was ‘Available Now’ from the library. All I had heard about it before was that it was “a YA gay romance in space” but, aside from that, I had no expectations which I think worked out for the best. Trust me, if you read the reviews for this book people are mad with the way this book was marketed and I agree—that description barely scratches the surface of what this book is! It is a mind-bending science-fiction story in its own right; it just happens to have teenage characters who are gay and in love but that is not the crux of the plot. To me, the real meat of this story is all in the thematic explorations of reality, destiny, time, and human nature.
“Insanity used to be a stranger that lived on the other side of the world. Now it’s moved next door. It’s only a matter of time until it becomes shipmate, lover, self.”
I’ll be honest, at first I was too immersed in the shocking twists and sci-fi mysteries to give a fig about the romantic aspect. Pausing for lovey-dovey breaks during high-stakes moments is one of my pet peeves (truly, who has time for that? Run!) However, a reveal about halfway through the book changed my mind about their romance and I love when books do that!! I love it when books make compelling enough arguments where I’m happy to go “Oh yeah I was wrong about that”, I could practically feel my heart thawing 😆. In similar news, the ending took me from “I don’t know if this book needs a sequel” to a tearful “I need to know everything, give me more” real quick.
Final Thoughts on The Darkness Outside Us & Rating
I’m going to keep this review short because there’s not much else I can say without spoiling half the fun. What I will say is that the only reason I’m not giving it the full 5 stars is because at times it was a tad repetitive. Granted, that’s due to the structure of the plot and it makes sense (there, that’s your only clue 🕵🏽♀️), but the way it was done still slightly annoyed me in a couple of instances.
| CAWPILE | Rating (0-10) |
|---|---|
| Characters | 8 |
| Atmosphere | 9 |
| Writing | 8 |
| Plot | 8 |
| Intrigue | 10 |
| Logic | 8 |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
Representation
Achillean Romance
Content Warnings
Graphic:
Death, Murder, Confinement, Suicide, Violence, Body Horror,
Moderate:
Cancer, Gaslighting, Medical Content, Xenophobia, Sexual Content, Grief, Abandonment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor (Mention):
War, Classism, Injury detail,
Let’s chat in the comments!
Did you take part in Sci-fi Month? Or, have you read this book?
This does sound good. It’s too bad the marketing/cover weren’t more on point. I wonder if some readers might pass it by because of that.
Based on the reviews I saw on Goodreads I have no doubt that some people are passing on it for that reason which is too bad.
Great review! I haven’t seen a whole lot of people talk about this but the ones I know have read it have loved it a lot. I was unsure whether I should pick it up but honestly, your review has kind of convinced me to bump it on my TBR wishlist cos it sounds fun! I’m curious about the reveal that changed your mind about the romance 👀
Thanks so much Dini 🥰 Prior to reading it I had not seen a lot of reviews either! If you like sci-fi and twisty stories I definitely think it’s worth a read so I hope you like it if you do try it out 😁! haha and I’d love to know what you think of it then 🙂
I’m definitely going to have to try and check this out sometime. I’m curious as to why the repetitive nature was kind of expected due to the plot structure but it’s a shame that it annoyed you slightly. It’s wonderful that the romance won you over in the end though. I’ve seen this around a lot lately and I’m intrigued. I’ve seen mixed things about the sequel but hopefully it’ll work for you 🤞