Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

76 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit and Classism

blighted_beak's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Stalking, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Medical content

djinnc2m's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Gore, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Abandonment

xennial_reader's review

dark tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

w0lfyfr3n's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

paulrichard's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

attackrat's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

contains fully submerged diving, mentions of being crushed or killed in caves or while underwater, and drowning

leweylibrary's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical trauma

keen's review

dark emotional tense

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Abandonment