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littleyarngoblin's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book was an interesting one for me. I really liked Starling's other book, The Death of Jane Lawrence, but this one had a completely different atmosphere. At times, I got quite bored and frustrated with the corporate science speak, but that is a part of the main character. The book, while atmospheric, just didn't grab me the same way as TDJL did. While the idea of the doppelganger was cool, and I enjoyed the not-quite-wrapped-up threads at the end, I'm afraid it doesn't make my top 10 for this year. I'd recommend it if you like books about characters who have questionable senses of reality.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death
Content warning for agoraphobia, if that's triggering to anyone.inamerata's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
4.5
The only me is me, are you sure the only you is you?
Legit, a lot of fun. I enjoyed the messy characters and their batshit power plays for control -- both Tasmin/Lachlan, and Tasmin/Prime. The way Tasmin's growing paranoia mirrors the city/her basement's physical descent was great, and just all the ways lies/truth/control/sense of self are explored. There were soo many good conversations and I loved the title's source.
The ending was somewhat abrupt and I was left with some questions, although leaving them unanswered feels appropriate. Overall, a fun read, especially with the bestie.
Legit, a lot of fun. I enjoyed the messy characters and their batshit power plays for control -- both Tasmin/Lachlan, and Tasmin/Prime. The way Tasmin's growing paranoia mirrors the city/her basement's physical descent was great, and just all the ways lies/truth/control/sense of self are explored. There were soo many good conversations and I loved the title's source.
The ending was somewhat abrupt and I was left with some questions, although leaving them unanswered feels appropriate. Overall, a fun read, especially with the bestie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Gore and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts
Characters experience memory loss, sometimes worsened by gaslighting. A character has agoraphobia and has panic attacks. A character loses an eye and the injury is described in some detail. There is amateur "surgery" donekylosten's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death
randiofborg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
I really struggled to start my reading challenge for 2024, and I'm glad this book was the first one I picked up this year. I really enjoyed the Luminous Dead, another of Starling's novels, but I was absolutely blown away by this one.
The premise: a narcissistic and ambitious scientist, Dr. Tamasin Rivers (great name), realizes that the city of San Siroco is sinking. She has been working on cutting edge communications technology, and the sinking—dubbed the subsidence by her and her team at the company Myrica Dynamic—seems to be related. The subsidence is occurring throughout the city center, but also in the basement of her own home.
It is soon revealed that Tamasin is hiding something from Myrica, and her handler, Mx. Woodhouse: a door has appeared in her basement. She cannot open it, but it looks like every other door in her house. Soon she notices other changes: her cat, Penrose, is suddenly friendlier. Wait—now there are two Penroses. Her cat's doppelganger soon has a companion of his own: a woman who looks just like Tamasin emerges from the door.
The plot quickly picks up from there. Tamasin's doppelganger, whom she dubs Prime, is the polar opposite of her. They both have the same level of intelligence and procedural knowledge, but Prime is sweet and malleable whereas Tamasin is hard and manipulative. Tamasin struggles to hide this development from Mx. Woodhouse and her employer, while also figuring out what is causing the subsidence. Soon, her own memory and sense of self begins to slip.
This is a novel about complexity: the complexity of how we develop and validate knowledge, how we categorize ourselves and others, and how we observe the world around us. Starling masterfully weaves scientific concepts in with gothic romanticism, capturing the spirit of 19th century science fiction in the shape of a 21st century character piece. Her characters are deep and shifting, and straddle a fine line between unlikable and lovable. I appreciate that she doesn't feel the need to give us a reason to like her characters—Tamasin, Prime, and Mx. Woodhouse are all complex and we never get complete answers about why they are the way they are.
I loved this book, and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a blend of complex character development and nail-biting plot. And if you liked this, check out The Luminous Dead!
The premise: a narcissistic and ambitious scientist, Dr. Tamasin Rivers (great name), realizes that the city of San Siroco is sinking. She has been working on cutting edge communications technology, and the sinking—dubbed the subsidence by her and her team at the company Myrica Dynamic—seems to be related. The subsidence is occurring throughout the city center, but also in the basement of her own home.
It is soon revealed that Tamasin is hiding something from Myrica, and her handler, Mx. Woodhouse: a door has appeared in her basement. She cannot open it, but it looks like every other door in her house. Soon she notices other changes: her cat, Penrose, is suddenly friendlier. Wait—now there are two Penroses. Her cat's doppelganger soon has a companion of his own: a woman who looks just like Tamasin emerges from the door.
The plot quickly picks up from there. Tamasin's doppelganger, whom she dubs Prime, is the polar opposite of her. They both have the same level of intelligence and procedural knowledge, but Prime is sweet and malleable whereas Tamasin is hard and manipulative. Tamasin struggles to hide this development from Mx. Woodhouse and her employer, while also figuring out what is causing the subsidence. Soon, her own memory and sense of self begins to slip.
This is a novel about complexity: the complexity of how we develop and validate knowledge, how we categorize ourselves and others, and how we observe the world around us. Starling masterfully weaves scientific concepts in with gothic romanticism, capturing the spirit of 19th century science fiction in the shape of a 21st century character piece. Her characters are deep and shifting, and straddle a fine line between unlikable and lovable. I appreciate that she doesn't feel the need to give us a reason to like her characters—Tamasin, Prime, and Mx. Woodhouse are all complex and we never get complete answers about why they are the way they are.
I loved this book, and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a blend of complex character development and nail-biting plot. And if you liked this, check out The Luminous Dead!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
sarah984's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
This took everything I liked about The Luminous Dead and dialled it up to eleven. Claustrophobic, tense, ambiguous, and the characters are great. It dragged a little bit about halfway through, but the ending was worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Medical content, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Gore, Blood, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
jessereadsthings's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting
Minor: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts
booksthatburn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM is the story of a generally unlikeable person whose life is utterly upended when the anomaly she's been tracking for her work begins to have strange and personal consequences.
The narrative stays focused on Tamsin. She’s a very focused scientist with relationship-savvy and political awareness as it relates to the flow of power, but she seems not to appreciate or care about the emotional toll of her plans on the people around her. She’s very calculating, as shown in an incident early on where she maneuver someone else into a position of blame after making it seem like a positive thing for them to attempt. Because her personality changes so much over the course of the story, her starting point has to be shown in swift, bold strokes, getting at the essence of her very quickly so that a point of comparison can be established. Moreso than even her research team, her most meaningful interactions are with Lachlan, who is somewhere between a minder and an enforcer. Lachlan's background stays pretty mysterious, with Tamsin, wary of her due to her position of power and her force of personality, Lachlan has technologically enmeshed her and Tamsin's life in a way that’s skirting the edge of what can be excused based on their positions in the company. Especially early on, there’s an uncertainty over what Lachlan might do if she’s displeased, with Tamsin ranging between specific concerns about being fired and a general unease because she can't predict what the consequences might be.
One of the first signs of Tamsin's memory loss, at least the first one that I noticed called out in the text, was about an incident that happened before the book began, which put me in the strange position of not quite being able to confirm whether the memory loss is real. Gradually, however, the discrepancies and lapses in memory become decidedly less subtle as Tamsin deteriorates.
I've loved Starling's previous work, and this swiftly drew me in, holding me to the very end. Beginning with the section, "Nought", the story takes a turn from merely excellent to brilliant. As much as I was fascinated by the beginning, the ending blew me away. I love books that deal with memory distortions, or changes in personality, things that mean that someone who is nominally the same character becomes a very different person throughout a story or a series. It touches on dynamics related to ableism in the context of physical disabilities and brain damage, as well as whether memory is essential to personality.
LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM is the story of a generally unlikeable person whose life is utterly upended when the anomaly she's been tracking for her work begins to have strange and personal consequences.
The narrative stays focused on Tamsin. She’s a very focused scientist with relationship-savvy and political awareness as it relates to the flow of power, but she seems not to appreciate or care about the emotional toll of her plans on the people around her. She’s very calculating, as shown in an incident early on where she maneuver someone else into a position of blame after making it seem like a positive thing for them to attempt. Because her personality changes so much over the course of the story, her starting point has to be shown in swift, bold strokes, getting at the essence of her very quickly so that a point of comparison can be established. Moreso than even her research team, her most meaningful interactions are with Lachlan, who is somewhere between a minder and an enforcer. Lachlan's background stays pretty mysterious, with Tamsin, wary of her due to her position of power and her force of personality, Lachlan has technologically enmeshed her and Tamsin's life in a way that’s skirting the edge of what can be excused based on their positions in the company. Especially early on, there’s an uncertainty over what Lachlan might do if she’s displeased, with Tamsin ranging between specific concerns about being fired and a general unease because she can't predict what the consequences might be.
One of the first signs of Tamsin's memory loss, at least the first one that I noticed called out in the text, was about an incident that happened before the book began, which put me in the strange position of not quite being able to confirm whether the memory loss is real. Gradually, however, the discrepancies and lapses in memory become decidedly less subtle as Tamsin deteriorates.
I've loved Starling's previous work, and this swiftly drew me in, holding me to the very end. Beginning with the section, "Nought", the story takes a turn from merely excellent to brilliant. As much as I was fascinated by the beginning, the ending blew me away. I love books that deal with memory distortions, or changes in personality, things that mean that someone who is nominally the same character becomes a very different person throughout a story or a series. It touches on dynamics related to ableism in the context of physical disabilities and brain damage, as well as whether memory is essential to personality.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Suicide, and Vomit
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