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A review by yuripiano
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
As a Locked Tomb fan, I sure do love me the combination of mentally unstable toxic lesbians ft. ominous caves with mysterious hidden away secrets and the threat of terrors within.
Reading the book admittedly felt like a bit of a slog though.
The opening? Great, compelling, foreboding, mysterious! You're quickly introduced to Gyre and Em, who are also the only two real characters in the book, and backstory and motives for them both are woven throughout the story as they delve deeper into the Tower-
Sorry, the cave.
I meant the cave.
Coming hot off reading Annihilation, though, there are definitely some sorts of inspirations that I can see there, and I believe there's a blurb on the back of the book noting that it has "the creeping dread of Annihilation." I definitely do think it had some amount of dread, but there was a sort of repetition to the book that left me spacing out or thinking "didn't we read this part already?"
A lot of the book was basically just this sort of Metroidvania series of checkpoints following a flowchart of "Caver, proceed through the next sump to the next checkpoint" -> "Fuck you but okay" -> "Caver, next sump" -> "You're a monster" -> "Caver, it's sump o'clock". There were definitely interesting things going on with Isolde appearing, the mystery of the Tunnelers, etc., and this kept me reading for that payoff, but
1 - the slog to get there felt like its own monotonous sump, and
2 - the payoff wasn't nearly satisfying enough
Part of that was me fully expecting there to be some sort of more paranormal explanation for what was going on. While I enjoyed that there weren't actual ghosts or anything like that, I also felt like I wouldn't have minded that, and maybe I would have been more interested in the actual plot. It felt like a lot of foreshadowing and buildup for some sort of actual run in with the dead cavers, and the title of the book made me think as well that there would be some sort of rebirth, but that didn't really seem to be the case. This isn't even talking about the Tunneler, which happened right at the very end and was just... fine? idk, it just sort of... appeared, and then Gyre did #JustGyreThings and somehow this worm that literally exists to survive in this environment accidentally killed itself? like. idk. it was so "whatever" that I just didn't really care since the Tunneler didn't give a huge sense of foreboding for me personally.
However, that could also be coming off of having read Annihilation - it didn't feel as though theTower Cave really had that same sort of... "life" to it? Like, near the end, when Gyre felt compelled to stay in the cave, THAT felt like it was a Real Entity and was trying to push into that gothic space, but I didn't get that sense throughout most of it.
Still, the characterization of Gyre losing her shit near the end was probably the best part for me - her amputation, the delirium, etc. That was all strong, and the gay fangirl part of me really wanted to buy into this Gyre/Em romance thing, but I didn't really get the part of why Em had these strong feelings for Gyre? Like, I'm all for the power dynamic mismatch between Gyre and Em, and I loved the idea of Gyre having this weird sort of Stockholm syndrome type attachment for Em, but I didn't get a lot of it from the other end, and also Gyre's affections swapping back and forth was irritating as she would repeat the same thoughts over and over at different parts while tackling Legally Distinct Sump #7.
I liked a lot of parts of the book - just some of the repetition between Gyre's thoughts, the "I can trust her" -> "I can't trust her" -> "I hate her" -> "I need her" on repeat felt a little bit "fanfictiony" to me, as well as the repetition of the cave itself made it difficult to get through the main portion of the book. There was a map at the beginning of the book, but the caving-focused scenes still felt like I had read the general gist of it already. That said, even if I got annoyed with Gyre on the whole, I liked how messy she and Em both were in their own ways, and Em not being entirely redeemed in her own right was.. refreshing? Idk, I also wouldn't have minded that though. That's kind of a selfish take for me though that comes from feeling like the book read like a well put together fanfiction in parts, and I need my fanfic gays dammit.
If I could rate particular parts of the book, I'd say that the beginning was great, and the ending was also really solid, but the middle was kinda "eh". Kinda like a burger with really good bread on both ends, but when you take off the top bun, it's Oop! All Sumps inside, and I'm not sure that was the meal I wanted to spend 400 pages getting through.
Reading the book admittedly felt like a bit of a slog though.
The opening? Great, compelling, foreboding, mysterious! You're quickly introduced to Gyre and Em, who are also the only two real characters in the book, and backstory and motives for them both are woven throughout the story as they delve deeper into the Tower-
Sorry, the cave.
I meant the cave.
Coming hot off reading Annihilation, though, there are definitely some sorts of inspirations that I can see there, and I believe there's a blurb on the back of the book noting that it has "the creeping dread of Annihilation." I definitely do think it had some amount of dread, but there was a sort of repetition to the book that left me spacing out or thinking "didn't we read this part already?"
1 - the slog to get there felt like its own monotonous sump, and
2 - the payoff wasn't nearly satisfying enough
Part of that was me fully expecting there to be some sort of more paranormal explanation for what was going on. While I enjoyed that there weren't actual ghosts or anything like that, I also felt like I wouldn't have minded that, and maybe I would have been more interested in the actual plot. It felt like a lot of foreshadowing and buildup for some sort of actual run in with the dead cavers, and the title of the book made me think as well that there would be some sort of rebirth, but that didn't really seem to be the case. This isn't even talking about the Tunneler, which happened right at the very end and was just... fine? idk, it just sort of... appeared, and then Gyre did #JustGyreThings and somehow this worm that literally exists to survive in this environment accidentally killed itself? like. idk. it was so "whatever" that I just didn't really care since the Tunneler didn't give a huge sense of foreboding for me personally.
However, that could also be coming off of having read Annihilation - it didn't feel as though the
Still, the characterization of Gyre losing her shit near the end was probably the best part for me - her amputation, the delirium, etc. That was all strong, and the gay fangirl part of me really wanted to buy into this Gyre/Em romance thing, but I didn't really get the part of why Em had these strong feelings for Gyre? Like, I'm all for the power dynamic mismatch between Gyre and Em, and I loved the idea of Gyre having this weird sort of Stockholm syndrome type attachment for Em, but I didn't get a lot of it from the other end, and also Gyre's affections swapping back and forth was irritating as she would repeat the same thoughts over and over at different parts while tackling Legally Distinct Sump #7.
I liked a lot of parts of the book - just some of the repetition between Gyre's thoughts, the "I can trust her" -> "I can't trust her" -> "I hate her" -> "I need her" on repeat felt a little bit "fanfictiony" to me, as well as the repetition of the cave itself made it difficult to get through the main portion of the book. There was a map at the beginning of the book, but the caving-focused scenes still felt like I had read the general gist of it already. That said, even if I got annoyed with Gyre on the whole, I liked how messy she and Em both were in their own ways, and Em not being entirely redeemed in her own right was.. refreshing? Idk, I also wouldn't have minded that though. That's kind of a selfish take for me though that comes from feeling like the book read like a well put together fanfiction in parts, and I need my fanfic gays dammit.
If I could rate particular parts of the book, I'd say that the beginning was great, and the ending was also really solid, but the middle was kinda "eh". Kinda like a burger with really good bread on both ends, but when you take off the top bun, it's Oop! All Sumps inside, and I'm not sure that was the meal I wanted to spend 400 pages getting through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit