Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

48 reviews

smarzipan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Drug use, Medical trauma, Vomit, Death, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, and Grief

shh_fbi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Minor: Vomit

pocketsknight's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I liked this well enough, but I was expecting to adore it. So comparatively, I am still disappointed.

On paper, this has everything I love: ruthless women who are also the main characters, a lot of focus on a deep but antagonistic relationship, a creepy atmosphere...
But for some reason it never clicked. Despite the ordeals Gyre had to go through, I never truly did get attached to her. Or to Em.

Now, this isn't a criticism to the author's writing abilities: I simply believe her writing style may not agree with me all the way. That's fine. It happens. It's a shame that this happened to an author who has such compeling ideas. 

I will keep an eye on what she writes in the future. I won't read everything, but if one of her books seem compelling enough I will try again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, and Body horror

Spoiler

The main character spends the majority of this book having violent hallucinations. It is never fully explained which ones are from the extremely trying situation she is in (aka, her own brain), and which ones are from hallucinogenic targeted attacks (aka, external factors). If that sounds like it might be too much for you, I DO NOT recommend this book.

booitsnathalie's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Moderate: Medical trauma and Murder

Minor: Vomit

shadowspinner's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Confinement, and Body horror

Moderate: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, Mental illness, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

ronniethereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Confinement, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood

shiny_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

This really didn't do it for me. It started out with tons of potential, but then seemed content to settle into a very repetitive structure of bickering dialog and sump diving scenes that blurred together into a muddy, poorly described silt out. 

It tried to tease out its most interesting questions until answering them in extremely flat and unsatisfactory ways. The romantic elements have potential at first, but

Spoiler

their relationship dynamic never truly evolves beyond a toxic, back and forth blame game and gives no indication this has changed by the end

.

The most horrifying about things this book were the maturity level of the characters, the continuous bad decision making that stemmed from that, and the absurd gaslighting they put each other through. These are, ostensibly, two professional women in their 20s -

Spoiler

one of whom has been running and innovating a massive business for a decade at this point

- but they act like angsty teens plucked straight out of a YA novel.

It's not a complete wash up, and I'm sure lands better with some people than it did me. But it's far from the same league as The Martian or Annihilation, like the description implies.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

the_mew_of_cathulhu's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

george_tte's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

This was such deeply terrifying horror. It touched every awful thing I’ve ever dreamed up of in the dark. And yet, the characters are so fleshed out, so real. This is also about mothers, cycles, and hurting others. What an intriguing  read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders