Outside was a quick read, thankfully, because it ended up being rather disappointing. The premise had a lot of potential: a group of four friends (a term used quite loosely, as you’ll discover not too far into the novel) sets out on a hiking trip into the wintertime Icelandic highlands as an attempt to rekindle their strained relationships… but their trip and friendly ties start to quickly unravel alongside the stormy weather.

I first had a problem with how often the perspective shifts between the four friends. At times, the story is broken up by (in my opinion) often unnecessary shifts every 3 to 4 pages. These bite sized shifts make the story seem choppy, and the added perspective of what a character is thinking doesn’t seem necessary a lot of the time.

While the pace is pretty good, the payoff is not there in the end. SPOILERS BELOW!

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The plot twist that the first half or so of the book deals with (the mysterious stranger in the hut) goes absolutely nowhere. The background of Gunnlaugur being a rapist and an alcoholic goes nowhere. The reveal of Ármann and Helena being twins doesn’t seem to matter much, although it’s treated as a big deal.

And the final plot piece: that Daníel had condemned Helena’s boyfriend Víkingur to death, didn’t make any sense… there was no explanation for what kind of argument would cause an adult Icelandic man familiar with the outdoors to abandon his only exit vehicle out of the highlands in winter. It just makes no sense.

There are simply too many character traits and decisions that seem to be made expressly for the purpose of giving other characters motives. I found myself completely unattached to all of the characters and didn’t understand why they made the choices they made. Good writing should allow the reader to understand a character’s motives and reasoning for making decisions, right? There was very little of that here.

Again: a pretty big bummer of a read.