Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Luminous Dead

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

118 reviews

cassie7e's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Just the mix of sci fi and thriller I needed this week! Imagine living on a downtrodden mining planet, being so desperate for money that you take on a solo spelunking job, risking not only the usual threats (cave ins, sensory deprivation, isolation), but also alien contaminants, and a creature like the sandworms of Arrakis but under caves.

This book plops you right into the story without messing about with backstory or context; those are all added as you go. The plot is long and dark and as monotonous as caving and being stuck underground actually would be. It's not the kind of sci fi that has a lot of worldbuilding or depth. It's tightly focused on the caves and the elements of technology and economic context that are relevant to the caving.

There are a ton of uncomfortable and unsettling circumstances that didnt actually scare me, but fictional media doesn't scare me easily.

Critiques:

I didn't find the initial antagonism between Gyre and Em compelling, as it felt a bit over-intense for a pair who've JUST started an expedition, but it feels more justified later once the stakes are raised. I then didn't find the change in their relationship compelling, though trauma bonding is a thing.

The book could have done some really interesting things with leaning more into mycological horror or the supernatural, but chooses to leave it all ambiguous enough that it's very easily explained away. It also could have more heavily expanded on the lure of the deeps (which Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt does very successfully with mountains), being watched, the bodily discomfort of being in the suit (eg itches, phantom limb or phantom touch), or others having external access to Gyre's suit.

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mcbadger's review against another edition

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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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c0sm0p0litician's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

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gia0203's review

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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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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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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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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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thehal's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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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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