The Luminous Dead audiobook

scary and gaywhat more could i want

Set in a remote dystopic future, The Luminous Dead is the story of Gyre Price, a young woman raised on a mining colony on a distant backwater planet. Gyre obtains a solo cavern expedition job that promises an enormous payout. Almost immediately, she realizes the job is much more dangerous and complicated than she was originally led to believe. Trapped underground, with only a mysterious handler named Em to guide her, Gyre has to battle her way out of the many dangers and something sinister lurking in the caves. It’s hard to describe a book like The Luminous Dead. It’s part science fiction, part psychological thriller with a hint of horror but at the heart of it, it’s a story of two people who are looking for answers. In a sense, it’s a psychological drama played out between just two characters. The author has succeeded in crafting a page-turner while maintaining the tension throughout. The atmosphere throughout the novel is creepy with a sense of something sinister lurking just around the corner. From the beginning, you feel a part of the underground world with some excellent world-building (tunnels, waterfalls, the subterranean cliffs and the darkness engulfing them all). It feels like being transported back to the caves from The Descent or The Tomb Raider. The story revolves around just the two characters and the action unfolds in conversations between the two. Starling has done a phenomenal job in creating a story with essentially two characters and just one POV. The Luminous Dead sheds a revealing light on the extraordinary dark depths that the human mind and body will plumb in search of answers. In a way, the exploration of the cave is the background for the story. The story is ultimately about these two women and their journey. The dynamics between Em and Gyre, their motivations, their secrets and the discovery of their own self is at the heart of the story. Having said that, the narrative too often felt repetitive; especially the interactions between the Gyre & Em and the cave climbing sequences. The romance between Gyre and Em felt forced. I felt the story could have been shorter. Also, more than a thriller, this is a character driven story. So if you are expecting a relentless thriller, it may disappoint you. Overall, The Luminous Dead is a dark and terrifying novel that explores the dark and unexplained – including the dark recesses of the human mind. – really well. The Luminous Dead is definitely worth reading for Starling’s excellent atmospheric writing and character development. 3.5/5 Many thanks to the publishers Harper Collins, the author Caitlin Starling and Edelweiss for the ARC.

↠4.5 starsGyre is part of a one-person expedition mapping a cave system on the mining colony of a distant planet, but after basically lying her way into the job for the substantial paycheck, she soon finds herself in way over her head. The cave is filled with the bodies of past explorers that met an unfortunate end, and the surface team tasked with monitoring her surrounding environment is not a team at all, but a grieving young woman determined to unbury a graveyard. Lured into a false sense of security by the promised payout that will allow her to track down the mother that abandoned her, Gyre continues her descent, but the cave system is not what she expected, and her handler will stop at nothing to push forward. Confused and alone in the dark, Gyre makes one unsettling discovery after the other. Supplies have gone missing, tunnels completely shifted, and as she encroaches deeper into the darkness Gyre begins to suspect that she may not be entirely alone.The Luminous Dead is the perfect combination of spooky and gay, wound up in a psychological thriller investigating the traumas of two young women and the ties that bind them. Told entirely from the perspective of caver Gyre as she navigates the expansive cave system of her home planet Cassandra-V, Starling's confined narrative contests with the limitless scope of the underground. The vast network of caves becomes a nightmare, where the emotions and mental state of Gyre and her inconsistent handler Em begin to fray. I’m a big fan of the use of the surrounding environment as an extension of the emotions of these characters, where unique traumas can be realized and overcome. The Luminous Dead took this to an extreme degree. The plot manages to draw out the horror contained within, with the thirty-some dead cavers, cave collapses, and missing gear, alongside Gyre’s slow loss of sanity. This isolation is fully brought home with there being only two characters in the story, while finicky Em enters and exits on her own agenda, leaving Gyre to fend for herself and parse her handler's inconsistencies. There were so many little moments throughout where I felt aligned with Gyre in not knowing what to believe or trusting anything that was being seen. The general fear of being watched, having her suit tampered with, or being controlled was terrifying to observe. Situating the novel around the exploration of a system of caves was enough to maintain suspense, but the psychological torment of Gyre was even more dreadful. Her hallucinations and the prevailing slow build toward her total loss of self became incredibly anxiety-inducing to witness. Until its unexpected ending, I really had no idea if she would leave the cave alive. Secluded and horrifying, The Luminous Dead is the internal journey of two women united by trauma towards healing by exorcising the past. An unsettling atmospheric read that chilled me to the very core.Trigger warnings: death, parental death, parental abandonment, forced drug use, body horror, vomiting, suicidal thoughts

Well... Half the time Gyre is mad at Em, or blaming Em, or wondering at how she doesn't feel like blaming Em. What's with all the blame?Em... Her being blamed during half the book for a number of disastrous expeditions, makes little sense. Yes, she has some (un)specific goals but don't all mining companies in the book? How come that looking for Em's goals is any worse that plain old ore mining? Felt like the author needed some psychological suspense vehicle and this is what got used as such. Well, it wasn't suspenseful, just read immature.Gyre, she's the worst employee of the decade. She bickers with her employer. Keeps entertaining thoughts of siccing some authority at Em for some half-baked notion of Em endangering her employees on purpose (though, it's clear that if people keep dying on the surface expeditions, they will do so at higher rates on more difficult expeditions). Gyre even gets angry at Em for being professional during one of their crises:Q:“I’m terrified!” Em shot back, and there it was; the stress turned into anger, turned into something honest. “But as far as I see it, I have two options: one, break down and stop being able to help you, or two, be a fucking professional.” God, that was refreshing. (c)Em is close to being the employer from horror film. The girls... their discussions get the all-time low like this:Q:“Stop being so nice,” Gyre added. ...“I thought you wanted me to be afraid. Or to be talking to you.” (c)And Gyre... I can't stand her:Q:The tears were already there, waiting. “I don’t want to do anything for you right now,” she whispered, but she sank to her knees all the same. The last thing she wanted was to serve at Em’s will, but at the same time, it was such an easy win. Follow the command, feed her growling, taut stomach. If she followed every command Em laid out, wouldn’t it take her out of here? (c) At this point I'm like: Yes, Gyre, maybe you do need to follow your guide and employer advice.Add to that all maudlin, at-length, guilt-trip discussions of both girls' family issues... And some totally maudlin interactions:Q:“I almost lost you,” Em murmured.“You still might.”Em’s expression was stricken... (c) Come ooon. You were just whining on about how 27 other people dies on this gal's missions. Just make up your mind if Em's a kitty or a tiger already, will you? BTW where are the other 25 bodies?And, of course, these gals feel the need to get all mushy:Q:“If I’d lost you,” Em whispered, “I don’t know that I could have gone on.” (c)The good points of this book are that original world, the whole concept of cave expeditioning, Tunnellers who swim through rocks... Etc. Excellent read but one that could have made even more stellar.Q:The suit was her new skin, filled with sensors and support functions, dampening her heat and strengthening her already powerful muscles with an articulated exoskeleton designed to keep climbing as natural as possible. She wouldn’t even remove her helmet to eat or sleep. Her large intestine had been rerouted to collect waste for easy removal and a feeding tube had been implanted through her abdominal wall ten days ago. A port on the outside of her suit would connect to nutrition canisters. All liquid waste would be recycled by the suit. (c) Sounds painful.Q:“Walking is the most expeditious way to work off the epinephrine injection, caver.” (с)Q:If you had the skill for it, then why wouldn’t you trade a little bit of bodily autonomy for enough money to feed your family or to start a new life? (c)Q:“In case you’re trapped, and cut off from me, there are . . . kill switches built into the suit. In case there’s no way out.” (c)Q:Luck had seen her born on this godforsaken rock, chance had led to her mother running away, pure providence had kept her from snapping her legs as a kid. Luck might let her finish this, for good. (c)

This was BONE CHILLING and absolutely impossible to put down. I made the wrong choice when I decided to finish reading this alone in my room at 3 am. Besides being ridiculously creepy and engaging from page one, this also has a super complex queer girl main character and the potential for an equally complex f/f relationship full of anger and distrust. Basically this is the fucked up queer horror story of my dreams, The One I have been searching for, and I cannot wait to read whatever Caitlin Starling writes next. *I preordered this copy of The Luminous Dead*

I thought it was a horror book, but I am not mad at it. This is more about one kick-ass woman and her battle to survive one messed up cave system. Having only her wits and her boss on the surface, who is not exactly telling truths, to survive. Not to mention, the boss seems to be obsessive and willing to sacrifice anyone to get what she wants. There were some heart stopping moments, so I gave it a 4-star rating. Recommend!

This made me so goddamn uncomfortable, I loved every second of it

3.5 StarsVideo Review: https://youtu.be/aKNqQ92fgiQThe best word to describe this novel is claustrobic. Blending together science fiction with elements of light horror, this story offers an atmospheric, yet gripping, reading experience. Most of this story involves the ongoing conversation between the caver and her mysterious handler. There is not much action in one. Instead, this is more of a quiet, slow burning novel that focuses on the delicate relationship between these two characters. The novel starts out with a strong sense of suspense. At one point, I actually had to put the book down because I was becoming too anxious by the situation that was unfolding on page. Unfortunately, this feeling of tension did not last. Part way through the story, the narrative started to feel repetitive and I was ready for the ending. This novel would have been so much more suspenseful if it had been shorter. If the book was less than 300 pages, I likely would have rated it closer to five stars. Since the entire story takes place within the cavern, there is very little world building. The reader only gets small pieces of information about the outside world and the corresponding technology. Some science fiction readers might be disappointed by this narrative choice, but I felt that it worked well for the story.As a piece of survival fiction, this is often compared to books like the Martian, but it has a more serious in tone. I would recommend this one to readers who enjoy character focused survival stories with some good moments of suspense.

A very surprising read. Half horror and half SF with high-tech suits on an alien world, this novel is rife with obsession, spelunking, and a ton of the little inconsistencies that would drive any normal cave diver insane.And then there's all the dead down below. Nearly thirty, all spelunkers like Gyre, sent down to be eaten by this horrid, horrid cave. And it's a rigged game. The lies, the obsession of the woman underwriting each one of these expeditions is the half the novel. The other half is the horror adventure. I don't know what I expected. Perhaps a bunch of undead at the bottom of the pit? But no, this is entirely a survival novel with tons of scares, mistrust, insane amounts of bravery, accidents, and misgivings. Interestingly, it's also a kind of a f***ed-up love story. Abusive, sure, but also rich and honest and desperate. Put it all together and the novel is highly entertaining and sometimes quite scary. I'm happy. :)

I will admit straight off that I’m not a huge fan of action and sci-fi stories. I know, I am terrible. There's no need to tell me. I don’t know why I am the way that I am but that’s how I am. So I went into this after hearing over and over again that it was one of the best books of 2019, and hoping with every hope in my being that the creep factor would be enough to keep me going. If it wasn’t enough and I had to DNF this book I would have to be the lone voice of negativity and I don’t like being that person and truly it would’ve been my own fault. Fortunately for me, the horror vibe was creepy enough to keep me going through all of the action/adventure/sci-fi bits when I otherwise might've noped out but what truly surprised me was how much I wanted to keep reading to find out how everything ended for the two characters in the story. The complicated relationship that develops ever so slowly between caver Gyre and her guide Em was more than enough for me. I’m a sucker for flawed and complex relationships and this is a great one. There’s a lot of pain and hurt and backstory and damage here and I loved getting down into it and watching it all get picked apart and brought to the surface.This book is overwhelmingly claustrophobic and the atmosphere is painstakingly put down on the page. There may even be a monster lurking in the cave! I almost forgot about that bit of added terror. Trust me, you’ll want to read this book somewhere bright. Somewhere with a lot of air. Maybe somewhere you can hear the birds sing a lovely song to you. It is that intense. There is also some squirm worthy and delightful, depending on your level of weirdness, body horror that happens here. Gyre, the caver, has been fitted and physically modified into her suit as were some other folks we meet along the way but I won’t say anything more about that, nor will I tell you about the plot because I don’t want to spoil and maybe I’m a little lazy. But I will tell you that some of that stuff really made me cringe a bit in horror and I love it when a book hits me that way. There are many 5 star reviews for this book and I’m going to be here giving it a four and ½ and I won’t be rounding up because of my personal preferences and because some of it was a little bit of a slog for me, if you want to know the honest truth It is not a book I’d reread again but I wasn’t disappointed with the horror bits and the emotional wringer the characters put me through. Definitely recommended and an incredible debut.

The Luminous Dead is a sci-fi horror that takes us deep underground with Gyre as she begins a solo caving expedition on a foreign planet. It may be sci-fi...but I found this book much more claustrophobic and psychological horror. I felt Gyre's claustrophobia, not within in underground tunnels but within the suit that kept her alive. The detailed descriptions of being physically attached to an outside source was horror for me. There was a line in which Gyre stated that she wished she could rub her eyes or touch her fingers together, and I wanted to crawl out of my skin at the thought. I loved her descent into madness...the question of what is or isn't real is always one of my favorite aspects of horror. My only complaint is that since the entire book took place in caves the details of the environment was mostly unchanging and made the book feel looooongggggger than it really was. I think it may have packed more of a punch, for me, if it was a wee bit shorter.

The Luminous Dead, a science fiction/horror book, was a solid 4 stars. The book centers around main character Gyre, a caver, who is desperate to earn money to find her missing mother. Gyre is hired by a private mining company to map mineral deposits in a cave off planet and thus the story begins. The Luminous Dead is a very creepy read, especially as Gyre starts her solo expedition exploring the cave. Gyre only has one line of communication and that’s through Em, her monitor. Em is a woman who has a lot of power over Gyre-she is her only source of communication, is able to control her suit and even give injections remotely. As equipment is found missing, routes suddenly changed and dead cavers bodies found throughout the cave-Gyre starts to wonder what her mission is. Both women are hiding important information but they must rely on each other to get what they each want so desperately. The Luminous Dead is very well-written and a highly atmospheric read. Recommended to fans that enjoy science fiction/horror books. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

like if the martian and annihilation got freaky in a cave with queer women!!!