The Luminous Dead: A Novel Paperback – April 2, 2019

I will start by saying that, despite my five-star rating, The Luminous Dead is not perfect. However, it kept me thoroughly hooked to the point that bumping it down a full star for some minor gripes seems disingenuous. I'm going to start the review with spoiler-free impressions and give a warning before moving into spoiler territory (out of necessity).First off, the book is generally described as sci-fi horror. I would strongly contest this, as the novel is too light on horror for me to recommend it to horror fans and, while it is set against a sci-fi backdrop that definitely ties into the action of the novel, that's not the crux of the novel. The novel is 100% about the characters: protagonist Gyre, a caver who accepts a lucrative offer to explore a large cavern; and deuteragonist Em, Gyre's employer for the job who communicates with her via radio and acts as her backup in hazardous situations.The real meat of the book is in the way these two characters relate to each other, and anyone who thinks their dynamic is petty, childish, or toxic must have extremely binary views of human beings. No, these characters are not entirely altruistic and good people, but their incredibly flawed natures are what make them so compelling. If you love nuanced, complex, three-dimensional characters with serious flaws, I honestly don't know that I could recommend The Luminous Dead more strongly.I do have minor complaints with some of the description of the action, which grew admittedly tedious because it was too detailed for people with no knowledge of caving/spelunking (like me) to fully grasp what the author was describing but not detailed enough to paint a clear picture of what was going on. The descriptions also don't change much despite the protagonist doing A LOT of climbing. These are the novel's weakest moments, though author Caitlin Starling typically injects character-building into a lot of these moments to keep things from feeling too monotonous.The biggest failing of the novel is in the lack of horror, which really could have been used to break up the monotony in the action. The novel starts off with a premise that makes claustrophobics like me uneasy, both in that Gyre is stuck underground and also that her body is confined to a climbing suit she cannot leave (even to sleep, eat, or use the bathroom) for the duration of her journey (which is over a week long). Sadly, it doesn't do anything particularly scary with that, and I was able to disengage enough from that to not feel any genuine fear.**SPOILERS AHEAD**There are also light horror elements when Gyre realizes she might not be alone in the cave. Yes, there is an enigmatic, largely unseen creature alluded to early, but when some supplies mysteriously go missing, she concludes another human is in the cave, but it's never exactly played up as horror. When they mysteries begin to ramp up in the third act, it is unsettling, but by this point it has played out for too long to create any genuine terror. Likewise, the climactic showdown between Gyre and the aforementioned creature (called a Tunneler) wraps up a little too quickly and neatly.**END SPOILERS**All that being said, The Luminous Dead is a gripping story with compelling, flawed characters that kept me glued to the page, and the themes of loss, grief, trauma, and loneliness are handled with the deftness of a veteran author (this is Starling's debut novel). If that sounds like you're thing, definitely check this one out.

I was positively hooked within the first two pages and devoured the book in two sittings. The Luminous Dead gives me similar vibes as Contagion and Pitch Dark, but let me tell you that Starling nails atmosphere: this book is utterly claustrophobic and nerve wracking. This is a book best read in daylight with the lights on and the sound of people surrounding you."Everything was painstakingly, extensively designed to protect her from... elements in the cave."The stakes and danger are established early on: caving is dangerous but the money is good; most in the profession only do a few jobs before retiring. Life on Cassandra-V isn't a good one: it's a population overflow planet in near constant drought. Desperation has led to Gyre taking some... training shortcuts so she can do one big caving expedition and earn enough money to retire afterwards. Turns out this job is more dangerous than she thought and she has to fight her way out alive.I just love the quiet unease of the story from the beginning. I felt anxious, unsettled, and claustrophobic and the tension is tightly wound within the narrative. I found myself needing to look away from the book every few pages to break the tension building in my body. The book has a slower pace with growing unease that turns into full-blown paranoia. I love how the tension builds; the paranoia grows thick and becomes all-encompassing. What is real? What is imagined?"Now it was a bone-deep dread, a sickness in her stomach. It strengthened in waves, and the more she fought it, the stronger it grew. She felt it like a presence, like a tug at her center, like she was forgetting something she shouldn't be."The number of times that I audibly gasped while reading this book or simply annotated with the word "NO!" is rather astounding. Mistakes were certainly made and I was like Randy in Scream yelling "behind you!"Readers who like a lot of worldbuilding may find The Luminous Dead lacking: the focus of the plot is the cave and Gyre's fight for survival within it, along with the mysteries surrounding Gyre's mother / Em's parents. I do wish some more time had been spent building up the world/universe that Gyre and Em live in, but to be honest I was so captivated by the tension that it didn't bother me as much as a lack of worldbuilding typically does."A fleshy bulb squelched beneath her boot, and then deflated in a sudden burst, bioluminescent dust - no, spores - erupting from it and coating the ankle of her other leg with a fine, glowing mist."Despite worldbuilding not being a big focus, the writing is vivid and descriptive. I could easily envision the setting: the dark, cramped space with faint sounds of water. This would make an excellent movie and I hope will one day be adapted.Ultimately, The Luminous Dead is an astoundingly claustrophobic thriller that delves into the minds of the two characters. It's gripping and full of tension and a book I will undoubtedly think about for a long time.

First of all, saw this on tiktok as a “recommended if you love the Dead Space video games you should read this book”. I’ve played all the games, and I own two Dead Space books, so this was right up my allyIt was so well written, slow at first but wonderful. Really picks up halfway through and I couldn’t put it down.I wish I could have my time back to read this again for the first time as it was just so wonderful and loved every bit of it.HIGHLY recommend!! Even if you aren’t a fan of the games, or never heard of them. Really good thriller!

A story that masterfully keeps a haunting and ambiguous air over the grounded moment-to-moment practicality of exploration and the to-and-fro of maintaining and breaking down emotional and interpersonal walls.The setup of being locked in an armoured suit, unable to feel one's own skin, relying more on a digital recreation of one's surroundings than seeing them directly, goes from being tense to mundane to horrific and back. The book is wonderfully paced and while it escalates, it remains grounded, gritty, keeping the threat of small, mundane challenges.In addition to mundane threat is the psychological, the mysterious, and the inexplicable, but also a very potent human story incorporating themes of isolation, conection, loss, control, ambition, empathy, and trauma. It is very much appreciated.Unfortunately I found the first page or two the weakest, slightly, in terms of prose. It very quickly improves and maintains a flow throughout the rest of the book.10/10 - read it for down-to-earth (heh) sci-fi, early Lovecraft-like spooks, tense, well-paced horror, and human empathy amid isolating conditions.

Fantastic! Creepy, tense, nerve-wracking - with just two protagonists, it will keep you gripped to the end. Highly recommend.

The premise was interesting. The journey inside a cave. I was tempted to read it to see how does a storyteller weave such complicated tale and what happens to the internal monologue of a person trapped in a cave. And then luminous dead? Ghosts? Could it get any better? Does it get any better?No, really, does it?I kept reading to see if it did. I hate leaving a book halfway through. I was tempted to quit, but I continued, much like the main character, sometimes dreading if I'd lose my sanity. I didn't. It has a couple of moments of greatness--nothing in the tiresome description of the cave or the climbing and descending, but on how the author is able to express the slowly descent into madness of this woman; on how trust is gained and lost and gained and lost again. OK this is not that interesting, but the commentary on how we build trust is. I won't go into the ending. Needless to say, maybe if you're into climbing or spelunking it might be more interesting. But I was just glad I could finish it and move on.

The Luminous Dead hat mich von Anfang bis Ende gepackt wie sonst wenige andere Bücher. Dabei ist es kein Action-lastiges Buch. Das, was passiert, hat trotzdem einen immensen Effekt sowohl auf Gyre als auch auf den Leser. Man wird mitgerissen und kann sich nicht wehren, und muss sich dann irgendwie wieder aus dem Loch herauskämpfen, in das einen das Buch mit Gusto stößt.Ein hartes Buch, das den Leser nicht mit Samthandschuhen anfasst, ohne dabei jemals zu graphisch oder grotesk zu werden. Klaustrophobischer Horror mit einer klaren Leseempfehlung.