Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Jeskyně zatracených

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Jeskyně zatracených by Caitlin Starling

15 reviews

charley34's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

emmdashed's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

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

2.5

The blurb favorably compares The Luminous Dead to Annihilation (one of my favorite books I read last year). For the first section I would say that comparison is reasonable: strong science fiction elements, explorers kept in the dark about the true intentions of their mysterious employers, fraught and suspicious relationships, creepy unexplained events and settings. I was really excited to see where The Luminous Dead would go. However as the books continue on they start to diverge, and not in a good way.

Annihilation was great because I could never quite guess what was about to happen next, but I always wanted to find out. This book I could pretty much figure it out every time and I stopped caring at all. Gyre would wander in a circle, think about how much she hates but doesn't hate Em, do something supremely stupid, get hurt, then blame Em for it. Take your helmet off, rinse it in the sump, repeat ad nauseum. She just does some truly infuriating and foolish things just trying to be defiant (???) or something. I found myself annoyed reading her mental and physical circling while getting nowhere fast. If this book were cut down, removed a lot of this extraneous looping around it would have been a lot better. Maybe the repetition was the goal, to make us feel like Gyre's confused state. However, at a certain point it just becomes tiresome and a slog to read.

Also frustrating was the relationship between Gyre and Em. Trying to take them from enemies to lovers felt so forced, there was basically no chemistry there outside of trauma bonding. All they do is betray, berate, defy, fight, and control each other and I'm supposed to believe they have feelings for each other? There is probably a way to write this well but..... this is not it. No thanks.

I think the reason I criticize The Luminous Dead so much is because it had so much potential but it dropped the ball. The writing itself is decent, there were genuinely creepy moments. Whenever the book got into the Science Fiction and worldbuilding elements I really enjoyed it and wanted to know more about this world. Unfortunately the book falls down with characters and plot.

Tldr: Very cool premise and setup, lots of potential; poor execution and tiresome follow through. Take out about 40% of the circling and the "romance" and the book would have been a lot more enjoyable.

Pros:
- Good Hard Sci-Fi
- Cool setting/worldbuilding

Cons:
- Tiresome characters
- Toxic relationships seemingly portrayed positively
- Too long
- Repetitious
- Seriously though some of the character choices are so had though I still get annoyed thinking about it

Content Warnings