talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Violence, Murder, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Torture
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Ableism, Genocide, Medical content, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Grief
Minor: Child abuse, Stalking, Vomit, and War
goofymango's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
I feel really bad giving this book a low star rating, because it wasn't bad. Hoffman isn't a bad author by any stretch of the imagination. I think this is one of those marmite books; you either love it, or it doesn't quite hit the mark for you. I liked the ideas of the book, and the characters were refreshing (hello multiple neurodiverse characters). I think the problem for me was that this book is long, long to the point where I kept getting so, so lost, and the plot felt very drawn out and by the time anything actually really got going/happened, all the potential emotional impact and effect of it was really diluted. I think if this book had been half the length, I would have really loved it, but by the end I was only sticking with it because I didn't want to stop after investing so much time. It was anticlimactic at the end, and I'm still not really sure what happened.
Again, it's NOT because of bad/poor writing, or weak characters etc; I just didn't mesh well with this book. Reading the other reviews, I think I'm in the minority on the front, and I'm really glad others seemed to like it so much. I really loved the approach to neurodiverse characters!
Again, it's NOT because of bad/poor writing, or weak characters etc; I just didn't mesh well with this book. Reading the other reviews, I think I'm in the minority on the front, and I'm really glad others seemed to like it so much. I really loved the approach to neurodiverse characters!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Gore, and Self harm
readingelli's review
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
Cybernetics, body augmentation, use of ‘madness’, presumed death, mass murder, religionevilscientist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
-i listened to this as an audiobook so i don’t know how to spell any of the characters’ names
-yasira was an interesting main character, i liked her. i almost never see books with autistic protagonists. AND to see her interact with an autistic mentor as well was good
-acavi was also a very interesting antagonist. he was clearly not a good person but the narrative managed to make him somewhat sympathetic. also i loved the genderfluid coding
-it was a slow start but the rest of the book hooked me enough that i kept wanting to come back to it, so i finished it very quickly lol
-i didn’t like some parts of the eldritch horror stuff. it’s a thing that’s very difficult to write well and it didn’t hit the mark for me
-also i felt like tiv’s character was kind of flat which annoyed me because i wanted to like her
-finally as a trans person it stuck out to me that the author tried to use trans-inclusive language in some parts but didn’t really consider trans people ever. the only trans character i remember is a non-human nonbinary minor antagonist. didn’t love that
-overall i really enjoyed this book. mind the content warnings though
-also i looked on tumblr and didn’t see ANY fanart for the book. this is a crime
-also i’m still thinking about the worldbuilding. just the idea of having these incredible AIs and choosing to call them gods and their cyborg servants are called angels. love it
-yasira was an interesting main character, i liked her. i almost never see books with autistic protagonists. AND to see her interact with an autistic mentor as well was good
-acavi was also a very interesting antagonist. he was clearly not a good person but the narrative managed to make him somewhat sympathetic. also i loved the genderfluid coding
-it was a slow start but the rest of the book hooked me enough that i kept wanting to come back to it, so i finished it very quickly lol
-i didn’t like some parts of the eldritch horror stuff. it’s a thing that’s very difficult to write well and it didn’t hit the mark for me
-also i felt like tiv’s character was kind of flat which annoyed me because i wanted to like her
-finally as a trans person it stuck out to me that the author tried to use trans-inclusive language in some parts but didn’t really consider trans people ever. the only trans character i remember is a non-human nonbinary minor antagonist. didn’t love that
-overall i really enjoyed this book. mind the content warnings though
-also i looked on tumblr and didn’t see ANY fanart for the book. this is a crime
-also i’m still thinking about the worldbuilding. just the idea of having these incredible AIs and choosing to call them gods and their cyborg servants are called angels. love it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Torture
Moderate: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Genocide, and Blood
mar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
YES YES YES YES YES YES
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping
Moderate: Medical content, Self harm, Ableism, Torture, Death, and Murder
Minor: Body horror
kamreadsandrecs's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There are many themes woven into this novel – themes about faith, for instance, and what it means to become divine – but the one that stands out the most for me is...the difficulty of doing what is right, not least because figuring right from wrong is always harder than it seems. A person may desire to do “the right thing,” but that desire can be easily twisted and manipulated, until what one does might seem “right”, but turns out to be in the service of something terrible. This is what happens to Yasira: she is twisted and manipulated to do things that she later comes to realize are terrible. But she learns from those mistakes, and, as I have said earlier, chooses to reject two evils instead of choosing the lesser one, even if doing “the right thing” comes at great personal cost.
Full review here: https://kammartinez.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/review-the-outside-ada-hoffmann/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Kidnapping
Moderate: Torture and Bullying
st_ender's review
challenging
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I had so much fun! It has messy religion /and/ space opera so the two buttons that make me work were hit but then on top of that I got queer rep neurodivergent characters and posthuman angels? I'm losing it.
To be fair I didn't really care for the technical stuff. I was in it for the world building and therefore I cannot tell you much about whether the science part checks out or makes sense.
There was a part where the tempo slowed down a bit and then sped up again at the end which was a bit of a rough patch but it's quite common in debuts and still didn't really matter on a big scale. Bought the sequel immediately and have big hopes for my boy Akavi (sorry).
To be fair I didn't really care for the technical stuff. I was in it for the world building and therefore I cannot tell you much about whether the science part checks out or makes sense.
There was a part where the tempo slowed down a bit and then sped up again at the end which was a bit of a rough patch but it's quite common in debuts and still didn't really matter on a big scale. Bought the sequel immediately and have big hopes for my boy Akavi (sorry).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Genocide
Moderate: Body horror and Ableism
sarah984's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. The characters live in a world of AI gods and their agents, cybernetically enhanced human "angels". The main character is a physicist who is thrown into a world of plots, counterplots and Lovecraftian horrors after an energy source she creates destroys a space station. Rather than being immediately executed as a heretic, she is pressed into service to locate her mentor, the source of the equations that led to the disaster.
I wouldn't call most of the characters "likable" per se, but they were interesting and dynamic. (Though unfortunately I found the love interest kind of bland) The horrors that Yasira comes into contact with are described in an engaging way and it’s interesting to see her thought process changing over time.
I wouldn't call most of the characters "likable" per se, but they were interesting and dynamic. (Though unfortunately I found the love interest kind of bland) The horrors that Yasira comes into contact with are described in an engaging way and it’s interesting to see her thought process changing over time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping
Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, and Stalking
sylviehelen's review
4.5
15/01/22 re-read:
I am rating this up on a re-read, the issues I had before made a lot more sense this time around (possibly due to reading a story I was familiar with, possibly just because I was taking my time and paying more attention). I was still very gripped throughout and this time around I found the pov of the angels and the particularities of their power dynamic with the gods extremely interesting!
First read:
AI gods and cyborg angels, ambiguous villainy, Lovecraftian horror elements, and parallel universe/time travel-esque shenanigans with a queer autistic protagonist.
I enjoyed this so much!
I would have liked to have known what the outside actually was in more detail; as is my common criticism of sci-fi with a really cool concept - I loved the ideas but I'm not convinced it was drawn together as well as it could have been. But all in all I was so impressed! The cover art for the sequel has been revealed and I am definitely going to be reading it.
As for the horror elements - I am a huge crybaby and did not get very scared but I did have legit chills at various points throughout. When Ada Hoffman wants to build suspense, she knows exactly what she's doing.
The autism rep is own voices.
Content warnings for torture, ableism, body horror.
3.5 stars rated up.
I am rating this up on a re-read, the issues I had before made a lot more sense this time around (possibly due to reading a story I was familiar with, possibly just because I was taking my time and paying more attention). I was still very gripped throughout and this time around I found the pov of the angels and the particularities of their power dynamic with the gods extremely interesting!
First read:
AI gods and cyborg angels, ambiguous villainy, Lovecraftian horror elements, and parallel universe/time travel-esque shenanigans with a queer autistic protagonist.
I enjoyed this so much!
I would have liked to have known what the outside actually was in more detail; as is my common criticism of sci-fi with a really cool concept - I loved the ideas but I'm not convinced it was drawn together as well as it could have been. But all in all I was so impressed! The cover art for the sequel has been revealed and I am definitely going to be reading it.
As for the horror elements - I am a huge crybaby and did not get very scared but I did have legit chills at various points throughout. When Ada Hoffman wants to build suspense, she knows exactly what she's doing.
The autism rep is own voices.
Content warnings for torture, ableism, body horror.
3.5 stars rated up.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Ableism and Body horror
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