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Cover of The Brightness Between Us

The Brightness Between Us

Eliot Schrefer (2024-10-01)

Subgenre
Age groupYA 12-17
Content ratingPG-13
Pages349 (Standard (250-400))
Setting
CSM age14

Content levels

ViolenceModerate
Sexual contentModerate
LanguageMild

Synopsis

Named one of the Best Books of 2024 by the Chicago Public Library! In this sequel to The Darkness Outside Us, a Stonewall Honor Book, New York Times bestselling author Eliot Schrefer delivers another ambitious, genre-bending novel and epic love story that spans thousands of years and the far reaches of the galaxy. Seventeen years have gone by since the Coordinated Endeavor crashed on a distant exoplanet. Ambrose Cusk and Kodiak Celius are now the devoted parents of two teenage children, Owl and Yarrow, in a hardscrabble frontier home. Though life on Minerva is full of danger, the family’s bond is enough to make it all worth it—until they learn that the biggest threat to their survival might come from within. More than thirty thousand years in the past, Ambrose wakes on Earth to find that his mission to save his sister was a ruse. His mother betrayed him, and the cruelty of her true plans sets Ambrose spiraling. When he discovers that another spacefarer is suffering his same fate, he will have to decide whether to risk crossing a world at war to reach him. Separated by time and space, a young family and two strangers learn that their lives are intimately intertwined. They race to uncover the unexpected connections that might save them all . . . and perhaps humanity as well.

Tags

Literary Science FictionLGBTQ+SequelEpic Love Story

Is The Brightness Between Us appropriate for my child?

Suitable for most readers 14 and up.

This sequel to The Darkness Outside Us features mature themes including parental betrayal, survival dangers on an alien planet, and an LGBTQ+ love story spanning millennia. The narrative includes moderate peril and implied intimate content appropriate for older teens.

What to know going in

This book has moderate violence, moderate sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include betrayal, manipulation, and survival (see the full list above).

Who'll love this

Teens will be captivated by this sweeping tale of two families separated by thousands of years whose fates mysteriously intertwine across the galaxy.