Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Luminous Dead

Now that’s what i call toxic yuri!!!!!! Jokes aside this was incredibly effective for me. It was the definition of a page turner, i love a slow burn suspense filled “did i really see that” horror narrative mixed with some sudden terrifying moments and boy did this deliver. I also love the character introspection and the whole grappling with the nature of the one person you have to trust with your life even as they prove over and over again that you can’t really trust them. Ough i love it, i love the horrible yearning and forced trust and betrayal and devotion and i love it when those things are also gay. I saw some complaints about the ending feeling rushed but to me that’s the point: once they’re out of the cave the story is over. They can move on in whatever way the reader wants to imagine, but the cave still looms fresh in the mind. I’m now very excited to read her other books because if they’re anything like this (her first book!!??!!) I’m going to love them.

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

The Luminous Dead calls into question the reliability of its characters' perception and creates such a thick fog of paranoia and confusion that it remains tangible even after the end of the novel. Both characters are terrible people who are terrible to each other.

I don't really know that this was the case, but my interpretation of events is that the tunneler was using the likenesses of those who died in the tunnel's depths to lure victims to reveal themselves. However, Gyre's fever, the spores, and the general paranoia of her time in the tunnels makes it unprovable. Gyre feeling herself be dragged by the sporified corpse of Jenny reinforces that uncertainty of reality. Especially with the pull of the depths like the call of the void made manifest. Em is a terrible person. Sympathetic, but still terrible. She killed so many people in the search of corpses she wasn't sure would still be there, and ran when Gyre found them. They're so toxic for each other - Gyre holding the kill switch to Em's livelihood and future and Em having broken Gyre's body and mind. Not to mention Gyre's willingness to mutilate herself for the sake of getting a job for the money to get off planet and find the mother who abandoned her and whom she grows to hate, and Em's willingness to desecrate her mother's memory by sending caver after caver down into the depths that swallowed her parents, only to turn away and leave Gyer alone in the dark when her father's body is found. They're terrible people and terrible for each other, but in this sort of off world horror, you kind of have to root for them.

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anracli's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The book is quite long and repetitive, much, I suppose, like a cave. It took a while for anything to really happen, and by the time that point came around, I didn't really care for either of the characters. The back and forth wasn't particularly enjoyable, and the ending wasn't particularly satisfying.

I almost certainly won't reread this book.

Content Warnings