I found this audiobook from Booktok. The Darkness Outside Us is a Stonewall Book Award Nominee for children’s and young adult literature. Queer characters plus a space opera is how it was marketed to me. I did see a follow up video that there is horror (said in a dramatic voice). Ambrose wakes up on a space ship with no memory of launching. He is injured, and he quickly realizes that he is on the ship to rescue his sister, who was sent to explore Titan. He hears the voice of his ship is his mother, a leader of the world he is from with some status and power. There is another person on the ship, Kodiak, sent from a rival nation to assist with the mission.
Right away, things do not add up. Why would his sister be sent out to explore space apparently on her own? Why would boys (they are 17) be put on a ship together for the same mission? Why does the ship insist they need to complete a series of tasks and what happens when they get to the end? As the story unspools and the paranoia (or is it?) increases between both boys it gets much more tense and suspenseful.
There is definitely horror in this book. I would say the premise itself, which I will not spoil in case you want to read it, is pretty darn horrible. In space, no one can hear you squish. There is a medium amount of spice in this book. Every once in a while things get very steamy. I read several reviews that said there isn’t much romance, but I don’t agree. I thought it was very romantic at times, even when people were going to squish. Maybe because of the inevitable squish.
