Hardcover Released June 1, 2021Paperback Released May 10, 2022
Winner of the 2022 Stonewall Book Award
While sorting a shipment of books to be shelved in Ink, the main bookstore I work in, a book caught my eye. The cover of The Darkness Outside Us, a young adult LGBTQ+ book by Eliot Schrefer, looked interesting so I read the back cover and the first couple of pages and the story drew me in. I'm not really into Sci-Fi but in spite of being a Science Fiction & Dystopian Romance, I very much enjoyed The Darkness Outside Us.
I recently read a few books by Adam Silvera as well as Becky Albertalli. If you enjoy their writing style, imagine it being remixed with episodes of Black Mirror or Twilight Zone. Schrefer brilliantly encapsulated a dark, foreboding atmospheric feel to the story, almost giving you a claustrophobic vibe due to the fact these guys are on a spaceship. The first couple of chapters are a little slow but not bad and you don’t want to put it down because it sets up with a melancholic mood that continually builds and all of a sudden, you are hooked and want to know what's going on and what's going to happen.
The story is set several centuries in the future with Ambrose and Kodiak on a mission to save Ambrose's sister from a fledgling colony on one of Jupiter's moons. I won't give away much more to this story because the less you know, the better your reading experience will be. As with most reviews I've read, the general consensus among all of us who have read it, it's a complicated story that the slightest of detail within the story could be a spoiler. I will say, it's classified as a romance book, and a love story is inevitable, the only thing I will say that doesn't spoil the story is about the journey and Ambrose and Kodiak finding themselves.
Some of the national trade reviews are quoted as:
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 *
A film adaption by Eliot Page's Pageboy productions has been announced though no details of a timeline of when it will be filmed, released or who will star.
If you enjoy The Darkness Between Us, you will be happy to know that Eliot Schrefer's sequel The Brightness Between Us will be released October 1, 2024 available at Libro.Fm, HudsonBooksellers.com, Amazon.com or your favorite book retailer. I already have an advance copy and will review it soon.
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