I picked out The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn on a whim, based on a staff recommendation. I’m not quite sure why I keep buying books I’m not reading, but independent bookstores are addicting. And in this case, it actually got me reading.
I started the book on my journey home yesterday and could not put it down. I read and read and then woke up and finished the book before getting out of bed this morning. Another addicting thing: really good books.
I had been lightly complaining to my friend about another book I read earlier in the weekend that was a queer cozy mystery . . . it didn’t have enough stakes for me. Which I guess is the point of ‘cozy’? I don’t understand how angst and world-ending stakes aren’t cozy for other people? Anyway.
This book sounded like it had stakes. And it did.
The premise: A couple of hundred years in our future, two boys from enemy countries are alone on a spaceship together on a rescue mission with only an AI operating system and maintenance robot for company. Oh no, will they fall in love??
It’s not often a book is so gripping, suspenseful, and actually surprising (did not guess the twist, but the payoff was incredible) while also being a beautiful love story.
One of the reviews on the back cover said “Equal parts terrifying, tender, and thrilling” and that is the most apt description I can give.
An amazing read if you’re in the mood for some (queer) sci-fi with edge and heart.
With Love,
Natalie