Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

51 reviews

danimacuk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Blood and Medical content

hzamrzla's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

3.0

I loved the premise and voice of this book, but the pacing and actual plot were so hard to stick with. There is only one REAL conflict: whether or not Gyre trusts Em, and we revisit it about 8 times with no real resolution. Reluctant trust, big betrayal, insistence on doing it alone, horrible failure due to the decision to do it alone, rinse, repeat. 

Specifically, I got so frustrated with Gyre by the end because of her

constantly refusing to let Em guide/medicate/STOP her, doing something stupid, and then being in a rage that Em didn’t guide/medicate/STOP her

. This happening once or twice seemed reasonable, and then for it to KEEP happening, as the only source of action in the book, felt contrived. 

Also, I hate

“turns out it was all in your head”

books. 

It got old, which is sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

pichetteemmons's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.25

It’s like if Colleen Hoover wrote lesbian thrillers

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

aranmn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

What I liked: the atmosphere, the horror aspect, the sci-fi elements, the originality of the setting. What I didn't like: the characters; they read very juvenile and melodramatic. 

If you can get past the characters and like slow-paced, psychological horror, I would say this novel is totally worth a read, though. I personally enjoyed it quite a lot even though I can see why many people don't.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Moderate: 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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical trauma and Murder

Minor: Vomit

raincloud35's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Vomit, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

yuyuv's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

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

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 -

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.

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Content Warnings

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

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

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Content Warnings

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