Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Luminous Dead

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

63 reviews

gia0203's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was absolutely delicious. On the surface, this story is a claustrophobic nightmare about a caving mission that, from the outset, should be completely doomed. Beneath that, the narrative represents the cyclical nature of trauma and how grief can make monsters of us all.

The twisted and codependent relationship between Gyre and Em is the strongest part of the novel. Even as they betray one another, they must rely on each other, and this dynamic means that the long climbing sequences and continuous fights for survival never seem dull. They’re so messed up and yet you root for both of them, despite everything.

There is also always hope. Against all the odds, Gyre and Em still believe things will work out. And I’m thankful that

this hope meant something, and that the author honoured it in the ending.

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djinnc2m's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Slow-build but never dragged. This hooked me from the start and never let go. Characters were complicated and flawed but felt so real and I couldn’t help feeling attached. Will definitely read more books from this author!

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acatastrophe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

4.5

(from my personal reading journal, Jan. 12, 2024)
This was a recommendation from Cav!
The Luminous Dead is a science fiction/psychological horror piece, following a caver--Gyre Price--who advances into a dangerous cave in promise of a huge payday, which she plans to use to get off her shithole planet. Instead of the industry standard team supporting her and her high-tech suit, she gets only Em, her mysterious, reticent boss, who's sent her down for reasons unknown. As she advances through the cave, she grows progressively more and more paranoid that the previous cavers, entombed in the suits and eerily preserved, are following her through the system.
I loved the technicality behind the caving portion of this book--too often I read books with a clearly underexplored scifi hinge theme, but the real and constructed elements of the caving sections are refreshingly solid here. Additionally, the nature of Gyre's delusions remains very unclear throughout (this is a good thing). Overall, this novel kept me guessing at every plot point, which was very refreshing.
However, as Cav and I both agreed, the ending was very disappointing. The story was a no-punches-pulled, dark, psychological tale with a subplot of a deeply messed-up, imbalanced, codependent romance between Gyre and Em, and yet in the end they get to be together, happy and normal and working towards Gyre's goal of finding and showing up her mother. It feels like a misunderstanding of why someone would read this story in the first place. I wish the end was more gorey and upsetting, in keeping with the rest of the book's tone.
Overall, though, a thrilling story. Dr. Sargent saw me listening to this and took down the title, so we'll see if he can stomach the gore (or the lesbians).

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w0lfyfr3n's review

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

3.25

To this book's credit, I genuinely felt like I was down in the caves with Gyre, and it really delivered with the horror aspect of being trapped/isolated underground. Some of the caving equipment and terms were difficult to understand in places, but not in a way that impacted the overall story too much.

However, especially after around the 70% mark, the story was so long and sometimes frustrating that I expected somewhat more from the ending, and it fell short.

The part I had been most interested in, i.e. the walking dead folks, were never fully explained and I'm still unsure if they were ghosts, hallucinations or shroom zombies. Also, with regard to the conclusion, it feels super unnecessary for both MCs to retraumatize themselves just to confront Gyre's mom ? Did they learn nothing from this expedition ?! A similar trend is followed throughout the story, where Gyre and Em have some nice interactions but they both then make inexplicable U-turns with their character growth.

It still gets points for the creepy underground adventure but I was left unsatisfied.

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ghosthermione's review against another edition

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3.75

I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first time around. I thought the audio format would make it spookier and really bring out the huis-clos effect, but it didn't really. It was more impressive when I was reading it on paper and imagining the atmosphere for myself. Also, I have a lot more complicated feelings about the ending than I did the first time around.

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raisinreads's review against another edition

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3.5

absolutely one of the most horrifying concepts for a horror novel for me, so kudos for that alone, the book was executed decently

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not_another_ana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense 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

3.75

She'd heard somewhere before that pride came before the fall. But she wasn't going to fall. She was going to climb.

Gyre Price is a liar. She's not an experienced caver and she's never been down on her own but for such huge payout? Well, she's willing to do anything. Sounds simple at first, and with a state of the art suit she expects to be working with a big seasoned surface team. Instead, there's only one person monitoring her, cold and analytic Em who is aware of Gyre's lies and is ready to deceive, blackmail, and drug her in order to get what she wants. As Gyre goes deeper and deeper into the cave, she comes across unexplained situations, like missing equipment, that combined with the harsh geography of the cave and its challenges makes the trek a harrowing experience that might prove deadly.

This was a page-turner that got me out of a mild reading slump. The stakes felt high all the time, I think the author's writing is so atmospheric in a way that really sets the reader in the place of the action. The descriptions of Gyre in the suit, of the cave and the sump, the small crevices, etc., it all worked for me. It felt claustrophobic but also wonderful and new, like we were discovering the cave alongside Gyre and feeling that fascination turn into disgust and terror. However, it was too long and got repetitive at points, this could have easily been 100 pages shorter.

The excess of pages was clear in the relationship and conversations between the two main (and only really) characters. They rehashed discussions over and over again, Gyre changed her mind on Em multiple times, and yet this didn't make their feelings for each other believable. I liked that, due to the circumstances, Gyre has to rely on someone she wasn't sure she could trust and that even with all the suspicions and outright evil actions taken by Em she was a lifeline and connection to the outside world making everything more complicated. But,

I just cannot believe that it would lead to a believable romantic relationship, and more importantly, that I should care or like it. If you're going to commit to fucked up shit then fully commit. Give me toxic yuri or give me nothing.

This is also why the ending didn't work for me.

It wrapped up too nicely and quickly, I expected more trauma. Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I kinda wanted it to end badly lmao, maybe with Gyre dying or with Em turning away from her after all they went through.

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.75

Ngl I'm shocked I finished this one 😅 I think I really just wanted to know for sure whether

Em's mom was actually down in the cave or not.

Basically, it was just way too slow with too little of consequence happening to keep me interested, especially since the WHOLE BOOK except the very last chapter are in this cave. I kept losing track of where the MC was in the cave and why because it all just felt the same?

AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT

THE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP??

NO. Just no. On so many levels wtf. I kind of want to recommend this book to someone just so I have someone to hate on this part with 😅 it makes absolutely no sense for the characters and feels incredibly forced on top of being toxic AF.

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rain02's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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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bespokecompost's review

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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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