The Darkness Outside Us
They Both Die at the End meets Gravity in this mind-bending sci-fi mystery and tender love story about two boys aboard a spaceship sent on a rescue mission, from two-time National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer. Stonewall Honor Award winner!
Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same rescue mission.
Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor with no memory of a launch. There's more that doesn't add up: evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship's operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed--not when he's rescuing his own sister.
In order to survive the ship's secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust each other . . . especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.
* Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books of the Year * A Booklist Editor's Choice of the Year * A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book of the Year * A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults & Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Book of the Year *
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Community Reviews
To be clear, I agree with other reviews in that this was not at all what I thought it would be (a soft gay space story judging by the cover, which you should definitely not do ever) but it’s exactly the flavour of dark sci-fi that I LOVE. I gobbled this up so quick and honestly want to read it again.
This standalone novel is set in the future, where relocating to another planet is the obvious choice for humanity. Our main characters Ambrose and Kodiak wake up onboard the Coordinated Endeavour with the joint mission to rescue Ambrose’s presumed dead sister Minerva from a previously failed mission to settle on Titan. They learn to live and work together despite their earthly differences, but it quickly becomes apparent that something isn’t quite right and the AI operating system is not being entirely transparent with them.
Eliot Schrefer did a fantastic job at guiding readers through just the right amount of awe at the miracle that is the universe and tense trepidation at the unravelling mysteries as we progress. The pacing remains just right the whole way through, and there really was never a dull moment – it was such easy reading and it’s been a hot minute since I last enjoyed reading something this much.
Schrefer captured the resilience and fragility of humans, and it was easy to connect with the main characters and feel invested in their story because they were just SO human. I admit I was initially devoted to their opposite’s-attract trope (the kind you know will always end with the broody character having a sweet soft centre), but that was when I still thought this would be a sweet gay space story. On that note, the only thing I found odd was how increasingly horny the characters become for each other? But I’ve always been averse to insta-love and that may not bother you as much.
Everything else was chef kiss, and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys edge-of-your-seat, thrilling reads that feature increasingly dark tones or, on the flip side of that, introspection and hope in the face of hopelessness.
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