Reviewed on Forever Young Adult in November 2021 and on Instagram.

Cover Story: Montell Jordan

The drawing for this cover is really lovely. I love the intensity in the shared look between Ambrose and Kodiak and the way they’re reflected in the window. Plus, placing them at the window to quickly convey this is a space book and the way it feels kind of pulled in and almost claustrophobic – I have zero notes.

The Deal:

“The ship is in need of repair.” That’s what Ambrose hears when he’s awoken by his ship’s Operating System (OS) with no memory of how he actually got on the ship. Sure, he remembers the time leading up to the launch of the Endeavor, the moments he found out his intrepid astronaut sister was still alive and sending a distress signal from their colony on Titan, but the rest is a bit of a blur.

And other things aren’t adding up. Why is there dried blood near one of the electrical panels? Why does the OS seem reluctant to let him talk to his CEO mother back on Earth? And is Kodiak—the broody, sullen astronaut from rival country, Dimokratía—everything he says he is?

BFF Charm: Eventually

BFF Charm with a sweatband on
Ambrose at the start was a little too immature for my taste—like, dude, you’ve got a hundred pending repairs to the only thing that is keeping you from the cold fingers of space; stop mooning over the hot dude across the ship and buckle down!!—but once we got deeper into the mysteries and he and Kodiak started uncovering just wtf was going on, we caught a vibe. Though if I gotta be on this spaceship of crazy to hang out with him, uh…I politely decline.

Swoonworthy Scale: 5

We’re in Ambrose’s head the entire book, so silent, surly Kodiak was an enigma to us both, and that made it hard for me to get really excited about their romance. (I know, he should’ve been a total MLD but something was missing for me.) I couldn’t tell sometimes if Kodiak into Ambrose’s advances or just weirded out. What is going on in that noggin??

It’s been a minute since I read this, and I’m struggling to pinpoint a moment where I really connected with their romance (except maaaaybe one or two parts later on I can’t discuss cause #spoilers). Their connection did get better in the second half, but I was never head over feet.

Talky Talk: Conceptually Cool

This book reached for the (Titan) moon and landed me amongst the stars in a place I was NOT expecting to go. Of course I cannot give you explicit details without spoiling things, but suffice it to say I was very intrigued in the plot twists and the questions about humanity and survival that Ambrose and Kodiak’s situation posed. I do wish we got less of Ambrose in his teenage feels and more of the science fiction-y implications. Dare I say this should have been an adult fiction book? Who AM I?

Bonus Factor: Tricksy AI

Data the Android from Star Trek: Next Generation
So when Ambrose wakes up, the OS sounds like his mom because she is like the Elon Musk of their time and her company built most of the rocket ship stuff they’re using (OMG, LOL, I just put together the fact that Ambrose’s last name is Cusk. Cusk, Musk. DUH, it was right there!). Ambrose is, understandably, kinda wigged out about this. But more pressing concerns are how the Artificial Intelligence is baked into every aspect of the ship, watching their every move, and may have additional orders that Ambrose and Kodiak aren’t privy to. We all know trusting AI is the first step towards the apocalypse, right?

Bonus Factor: Genetics

Strands of blue DNA
Ambrose’s mother is some kind of whacky: she had dozens of surrogate children fathered using her eggs and reconstructed sperm from “great men of history”. (I hope you, too, are picturing some poor scientist having to extract those swimmers from amber ala Jurassic Park.) Ambrose and his stranded sister, Minerva, are the only ones who came from Alexander the Great’s DNA, so they share a special connection, and this love Ambrose feels for his sister is what drives him.

Bonus Factor: Space Travel

Space shuttle flying over earth in space
I’m married to a certifiable space nerd who is lucky I also enjoy space things. (We’ve been to a lot of space museums.) I’m always completely content to have my feet on the ground when I go to said museums and see that the realities of space travel accommodations are not how they look in movies or books, but isn’t it fun to dream?

Relationship Status: Watching From A Distance

It wasn’t love at first liftoff, Book, but you caused enough of a ruckus that I felt compelled to drive out to the coast and stand with the hordes to watch what you’d do next.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from Katherine Tegen Books. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. The Darkness Outside Us is available now.

I loved this book so so much, I’ve never really been a big Sci fi fan but if you add sci fi and Queer together and a mission/race against time deal I’m all in and oh I truly was for this one.

Loved the main characters so much, the story ahh and at the end of the book just wanted to reach in a give the characters a hug 😭

Honestly, I was blown away. It's original and heartbreaking and terrifying all in one. The only issue I have with it is that I have no idea how to booktalk it to people without spoiling everything. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

This book took me forever to finish because for some reason, the first 15% was dragging for me (looking back, I don’t have any reasoning as to why this is, so don’t trust past me). But once I picked this back up after months of pushing it to the back? I REGRETTED NOT FINISHING IT EARLIER!!! HOLY!!! OH MY GOD???

Without spoilers, the plot twist was something I wasn’t prepared for (and I’m pretty good at guessing plot twists). AND THE END!!! It answered most of my questions, which a lot of sci-fi books leave open-ended, so I’m very thankful for that. Ultimately this book deals with grief and how to come to terms with loss in a variety of ways, and how we cope. It hurt my brain and hurt my heart, but it also put it back together again. Ambrose and Kodiak are both good characters (though I feel Kodiak could have been a bit more fleshed out, but I’m okay with it since we get only Ambrose’s POV anyways). I want this to be a TV series, or a movie. It’s excellent.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

Rating: 3 stars

I've been wanting to branch out and read more sci-fi recently, so I thought "The Darkness Outside Us" would be a great place to start. Overall I did really enjoy this book, however, personally I just didn't connect to the characters or the story emotionally at all. As the book was filled with so many plot twists and shock worthy moments, I definitely understand why some readers will absolutely love this one! But I just felt a disconnect while reading.

Overall, I highly recommend this to fans of queer sci-fi, I'll definitely be reading more from this author in the future!

I think some point during this book, I just felt lost and I'm not sure whether it was me or the book. A lot of people seem to love it, but I just couldn't get into it.

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer was a great gay scifi book. This book includes many classic tripes like enemies to lovers, but did not offer many nuances.

I was happy to see a new addition to the sci-fi genre, especially an lgbtq addition. Science fiction is generally over saturated with straight male interests, so it was refreshing to have a lgbtq addition. I love sci-fi, but I find that it is difficult for writers to do a good job with science fiction in the literary world. I generally find that the genre translates better on film than text, but this did a pretty good job. I like that this book branches out to bring in more readers to the genre.

THIS BOOK!!!!!! While the beginning took me a while to really get into, the more I kept reading, the more I was hooked and hooked good.

The mystery at the core of this story kept me reading and reading far past my bedtime while the emotional connection and ups and downs with Ambrose and Kodiak's relationship was one of the most exciting and engaging parts. This book was truly a roller coaster of emotions from anger to shock to horror to awe.

When I got to the end, I literally burst into tears at the beauty of it all.

Read this book. Don't stop in the beginning because the end is completely worth it.

This was so,,,,strange? The narration was very weird. I wanted to connect to the main character so badly but it just wasn't happening. Everything seemed so dramatic but also I had no idea what was going on. I felt like the story opened in the wring place, like I constantly felt like I was a missing things, missing context, The pacing was weird, the main relationship just seemed so weird to me? I didn't get it.

I really wanted to like this book. I ended up DNFing it. The writing was so choppy and the author used the same words over and over. If I had to read ‘OS’ one more time I was going to yell. I usually don’t notice if a book is in first person or third person but this novels main weakness is in its first person POV. The author had a good idea for this plot and I think other readers will love it. It just wasn’t for me.

This synopsis of this was intriguing but as I started listening to this it didn't really hold my attention. HOWEVER, once the major twist was revealed I was on board. It was super interesting and different from other YA sci fi books I've read. I think this could have been made better if it was an adult book. Overall, I enjoyed it. The ending was a bit rushed and lackluster but I liked the journey.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A tale of two strangers who find themselves on a space ship full of mysteries and must learn to trust and rely on each other to make it through. An engaging and introspective space thriller and survival drama with a bit of romance thrown in.

I love Eliot Schrefer as a person, but I wasn't interested in his animal books. I didn't think if be that interested in this book either since I'm not a sci-fi person, but this book had so many moments of emotional softness and tenderness that it balanced out the mechanics. There were so many ways this book could have gone, and I never knew which way it would end, but it was a satisfying ending.

This book was so so good! I loved both Ambrose and Kodiak so much! I truly did not expect the plot of this book and I couldn’t have been more surprised by the twists and turns this book took me on! This story was also so emotional in different ways throughout the book and the ending was fantastic! 4.5 stars, I loved everything about this story!

Did anyone else see the movie Passengers with Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt? Did you also go in expecting something beautiful, with a sentient, sinister setting, some romance and lots of intrigue/action? Did you also leave disappointed when it was actually a movie about Stockholm syndrome with awkward pacing?

WELL HAVE I GOT A BOOK FOR YOU! This book is exactly what that movie looked like it was going to be.

This is a story about passengers.

Oh my gosh, this was so good & so mismarketed. There is a MM romance- and it’s beautiful & the connection is so well rendered that it absolutely jumped off the page… but this is not a romance. This is a thrilling space adventure! This is a story about human nature and hope, and it spans across decades and galaxies. This is a story about the power of love certainly, but I would not call it a love story. I really hope someone makes this onto a beautiful film

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

Thank you so much Netgalley & Harper Collin Children’s for this eArc!

WHAT IS HAPPENING?! You won't know for a bit, but it's a great journey. A futuristic space adventure with an atypical twist and a secret-keeping AI that will keep you guessing. Also: sweet gay romance. Also also: thoughts about life, meaning, the universe, etc. Adventure, excitement, scary space shit.

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer: Holy sentient computer and LOVE in space, Batman! Wow. Phew! Couldn’t put this one down! So much to unpack with this one! Love the positives of what a human future could look like, but the negatives were terrifying. And be ready for twists and turns!

I want to thank the author/publisher for giving me an advanced reading copy of this book for this review. Although I am very grateful for their generosity, the following review is completely my own and not influenced by either the author or the publisher.

As a reader, I'm always looking for interesting stories that involve LGBTQIA+ characters where their sexuality is not the most interesting thing about them. Thankfully, Eliot Schrefer's book, <i>The Darkness Outside Us</i> is far from your stereotypical coming-out story.

The story centers on Ambrose and Kodiak. They've been tasked with helping to rescue Ambrose's sister who is alone on Mars. Of course, they aren't even sure she's alive. The two passengers aboard the spaceship aren't even supposed to meet; much less interact or fall in love.

As the two men learn to trust each other and distrust what's going on around them, they quickly realize that the reason for their mission has been hidden from them from day one. The boys learn to rely on each other as they learn the darker but more important mission they are on to save humanity from extension.

So, I don't want to say more than that because I really don't want to give away any spoilers. I will say, I definitely didn't see where things were heading when I started the book. I thought the twists and turns were very unique and creative. Personally, this is probably one of the best books I've read in this genre in a long time.

Although this book has two men who fall in love as the leads, the story transcends sexuality and provides a universal theme for all of us about love, death, and the purpose of life.

Ambrose awakens on a spaceship with no recollection aside from his mission. He is bound for Titan, Saturn’s moon, to try to save his sister, the first settler, who set off a distress signal recently. He is only one of two passengers aboard the ship and combined with his amnesia, Ambrose starts to discover clues that things aren’t quite what they seem.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was so good. I love science fiction books that aren’t too sciency and focus more on the human condition. While I was reading, I got The Loneliest Girl in the Universe vibes, which was another book that focuses more on the human condition while aboard a spaceship. This was just perfection *chef’s kiss* highly recommend.