Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Luminous Dead

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

90 reviews

mcbadger's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

5.0

A harrowing and yet beautiful depiction of grief and fear. This is everything I love about horror.
Also love the casually queer protagonist and deeply flawed but lovable characters.

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blighted_beak's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

Fun read though hard to get into right away. Loved when it started to get spooky though. Horrifying to think about, but great to read. The ending felt rushed/forced IMO, and that was a bit disappointing but I enjoyed the book as a whole. The world building and storytelling of spelunking on a foreign planet was fascinating and cool as hell.

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kidprezident's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

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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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meg_thebrave's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I really liked the premise of the book. I think Gyre and Em are well written characters. This could have been a shorter story; sometimes too repetitive, as Gyre wandered the caves. The biggest horror of the story was the body horror, Gyre’s suit, and the claustrophobia of the tunnels.

The Tunneler reveal was underwhelming, but I appreciated that most of the climax involved Gyre’s waning sanity and physical injuries.

I’d definitely read something shorter by this author, who is skilled at character exploration.

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attackrat's review

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medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes

4.5

lying toxic gay women, climbing, space caves, fungus, and possible hallucinations? yes pls :)

I do think this could have leaned into its own elements of horror a bit more, as I was uncomfortable any time I thought about the situation she was in but not quite horrified. it’s often compared to Annihilation which I can see but it doesn’t quite get there. it has the pieces but doesn’t quite go all the way, which honestly? I didn’t really mind. I just don’t think it should be compared to Annihilation. I loved this book and its atmospheric tension, I loved the characters and how they interacted and changed each other. I just think if you went into it expecting a horror book it might disappoint you. me personally? I was here for the girlies and the caves so I did notttt care

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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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