Gyre Price bent the truth a tad, to get into an expedition that sounded simple enough, on the surface anyways. Working towards a handsome reward was all that was on her mind. It didn't hurt that this expedition takes place on another planet, away from her mother.

Enter Em, who sees no wrong in controlling Gyre's body or keeping back information that is very sensitive to the team. Em also has secrets buried beneath the surface that could turn out to be deadly for all.

Little things keep happening, not enought to cause alarm, on their own. Gyre starts to lose her grip on her control and the mission as well, She must get a grip on everything around her or it might turn out to be too late.

I really enjoy the premise of this book and like how this book was pitch as Gravity/The Martian meets Annihilation. This book was one my most anticipated reads of 2019. I enjoy some things about the book and something was boring. Overall I did like it but was let down as well.

Huge thank you to NetGalley, and HarperCollins Publishers/Harper Voyager for the review copy.

Gyre Price wants one thing, to find her mother. She’s been MIA for years, and Gyre wants answers. To get the money for her search, she lies on her resume and takes a dangerous caving job under the mysterious handler, Em. As Gyre get deeper into the caves and she and Em become closer, Gyre will find she’s not the only one lying, and the secrets Em’s hiding could very well get her killed.

I have been trying to read this since it came out in April, but I definitely think it’s a better fall(ish) novel. I waited for the audiobook to dive in this week, and it was so worth the wait. Narrator Adenrele Ojo is amazing, and if you are teetering on whether to read this or listen, I definitely recommend giving it a listen.

To me, it felt like a radio play. Gyre and Em are the only two characters, and it’s difficult to build a solid story around only two people, but Starling does an excellent job. There were a couple of laggy parts, but overall, the pacing was excellent. Tense. Creepy. Intriguing. I couldn’t stop listening. I needed to know what was going to happen next.

I’m a huge fan of unreliable narrators. As Gyre’s mind begins to betray her the deeper she gets into isolation, we’re not sure if we can trust her. Add all of Em’s mysterious secrets to the mix, and you’re not really sure who to trust. I live for these types of narratives.

I also enjoyed the relationship between the two characters. It’s easy to fall into a trope when isolating two characters and making them slowly fall for each other, but the constant conflict between their wants, needs, and secrets plays very well into the story, and though it’s a little dramatic a couple of times, overall I enjoyed the development of their relationship. It’s definitely not a romance, but the intimate relationship between two people who can only communicate with each other adds to the story.

This one is out now, so no wait, and as the temperatures drop and we put on our cozy sweaters and get ready for all the creepy things in October, I definitely recommend adding this to your must list for the season.

A fun paranoia-fueled read. Somehow the ending lacked something for me, but overall it was suspenseful and hard to put down. .

Brooding and claustrophobic, with characters whose traits and psychology develop unpredictably! For this reader, I found myself mired in the minutiae of climbing techniques, which became repetitive, thus taking me out of an otherwise tight narrative.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I absolutely adored this book! Despite being labled as scifi it is really a scifi thriller/horror novel. The scifi bits are interesting and really dive into how science would go about solving the problems of sending cavers into this environment. The horror was a nice slow build. The author was able to really capture the claustrophobia of cave diving. The romantic subplot felt relevant and did not feel like the author tried to elbow it in. I am incredibly impressed that the author was able to write an entire novel with only two characters and still make it interesting and have true character development. Overall a terrific novel!

Gyre is willing to do anything to get off her deadend backwater home. To make enough to pay her way offworld she takes on a dangerous cave exploring mission. Em is her only contact while Gyre is in the cave system. But Em proves herself untrustworthy, drugging Gyre against her will, withholding information, and making some very suspect judgment calls. But for either of them to get what they want they'll need to work together and, worst of all: trust each other.

This was an absolutely amazing debut. Fantastic character work, atmospheric writing. I stayed up WAY too late to finish this book. Gyre and Em are incredibly well drawn characters, original, compelling and both deeply, deeply flawed. And yet you're still rooting for them by the end.

I thought the horror element on this was very well done without being too much for me personally. (And I am a bit of a wimp about horror.) I definitely had a few times as I was reading where I scolded myself for reading alone in the dark. What was I thinking??? This book has some seriously creepy moments.

I strongly recommend this book and I can't wait to see what Caitlin Starling does next.

I'm not sure how to review The Luminous Dead. Ultimately I enjoyed it, but it was very slow going at first. Gyre is desperate to get off her home planet, so she lies about her credentials and signs up for a risky caving job. She realizes pretty quickly that the job is way riskier than expected, though, when she interacts with her handler, Em, who manipulates her caving suit and hides her real reasons for the mission. The Luminous Dead is atmospheric, and I liked the cave setting. The issue I had with it is that it's repetitive, especially in the beginning. Gyre climbs to different camps and argues with Em (and herself, about Em). I thought that their motivations and relationship was well done, and there were parts that were very creepy. But I did want the book to be scarier and faster paced. It did pick up about halfway through, and I was invested in the wellbeing of both women. I'd recommend it for people interested in caving and psychological thrillers.

The nitty-gritty: A mixed bag of both thrilling tension and a slow, ponderous beginning, The Luminous Dead worked on some levels but failed on others.

This is a hard review to write. On one hand there are things about The Luminous Dead that I loved, elements that the author did really well. But on the other hand, there are a lot of problems with this story, so it’s hard for me to fully endorse it. In the end I decided to give this three stars, which I feel is a good rating based on the mix of both good and bad elements.(And strangely, every time I saw the word "caver" my brain read it as "cadaver." Not sure what that means!)

Gyre is an experienced caver and makes her living joining dangerous caving expeditions on an off world planet. Corporations hire cavers and send them on missions to find precious ores, forging paths deep in the caves for future mining operations. She’s just signed on for a solo job which will give her enough money to quit caving altogether, and enough money to find her missing mother. But upon entering the cave, decked out in a high-tech suit that will keep her alive for the next month or so in the caves, she discovers that instead of the expected team of experts, monitoring her from the surface through a sophisticated computer system, there is just one woman at the controls. Em is terse and combative and seems to have an ulterior motive, although Gyre at first can’t figure out what that might be.

As she makes her descent, the dangers of caving become more and more real as things start to go wrong. Crucial supplies that are stashed away in various “camps” throughout the cave system have gone missing. Water levels inside the cave have risen, creating dangerous pools of water that Gyre will have to swim through. And then there’s the ever-present threat of the Tunnelers, unseen creatures who burrow through rock and leave destruction in their paths. Gyre is tough and determined to finish the mission, but can she even trust Em to keep her alive?

Let’s start with the positives. The Luminous Dead is actually pretty scary at times, and I thought Starling did a great job creating and then ratcheting up the tension. This is a survival story, and at no time while reading it was I convinced that Gyre would make it out alive. In the beginning of the story we learn that Em has sent down thirty-five other cavers before Gyre, and of those, twenty-seven did not make it back. So you know right away that Gyre’s odds at surviving are not very good. She has all sorts of things to contend with: the inherent dangers of rappelling down walls; the possibility that her suit or equipment might malfunction; the constant worry that she’ll run out of replacement batteries which are necessary for her suit to maintain life support; getting lost; running into a Tunneler; injury—the list goes on and on. In short, this is a dangerous—one might say foolhardy—mission, and Starling conveys that danger really well.

I also loved the cave setting. I thought the author did a pretty good job of describing the cave, with its dank air, slick walls and floors, the ever present darkness, penetrated only by the glow of Gyre’s headlamp or her equipment. The whole story had a claustrophobic feeling to it, as Gyre moves through tight spaces and is forced to traverse some areas under water. I did get a little confused about the logistics, though, and I would have loved a map in the beginning of the book for reference, as Gyre moves from Camp One to Camp Four and then back to Camp Two, etc. I did see mention of a “map to come” on my Kindle version, so if you’ve seen a finished copy and can verify a map, I’d love to know.

But for such a thrilling sounding story, The Luminous Dead is actually quite slow-paced, at least until you hit the halfway point. Up until then there is a lot of repetitious action, while Gyre makes her way slowly through the caves, backtracking when she runs into obstacles, arguing with Em about what her next move will be, etc. There are several mysteries going on, and I never got sufficient answers to those mysteries, which was disappointing. We hear Em and Gyre talking about the Tunnelers early on, but it isn’t until about the 90% point that we actually see a Tunneler. Gyre is also seeing strange things in the caves, and you aren’t really sure whether they’re real or not. I did love the way Starling drew that element out for such a long time, although it sort of petered out at the end and the explanation just didn’t satisfy me.

I also had issues with the characters. Gyre seems like she’s going to be a tough-as-nails woman, athletic and experienced with caving, yet at some of the most critical moments in the story, her brain seems to shut down completely and she makes some awful decisions. One moment in particular actually made me laugh out loud, even though it was quite horrific! And I really didn’t like Em at all. First of all, her motivation for sending so many cavers to their deaths was frankly, ridiculous. What this story really needed was higher stakes, something that made Gyre’s suffering worth while, but every reveal felt like a cop-out to me. Em also lies a lot to Gyre, and then admits that she was lying. That makes Gyre hate her even more, except then it feels like they’re starting to have feelings for each other? It made no sense to me at all, and I got the feeling that the author was just trying to shoehorn some queer rep into her story for the sake of being able to say “Hey, I have queer rep in my story!”

A lot of things about this story didn’t make sense, in fact, and I had so many questions. When Gyre is in dire straits, why doesn’t Em send in a rescue team? If Em’s never actually been caving herself, why does she seem to know every nook and cranny of the caves? Gyre has several opportunities to abort her mission and return to safety, yet each time she decides to keep going—for very stupid reasons. I found myself wanting to rewrite the story in many places, which isn’t a good sign.

Ultimately, you’ll have to decide for yourself. I know plenty of bloggers who really loved this book, but if you’re like me and you need solid reasoning behind characters’ motivations, then proceed with caution.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

The Luminous Dead is a tense descent into the caves of an alien planet, following a single climber as she attempts to discover a dark secret buried in the caverns. It’s a deeply personal account with only two characters, one climbing and one on the comm system. There are perils at nearly every turn and dozens of moments when it seems like all hope is lost. A sense of dread sets in about halfway through and by the end, you’ll be looking over your shoulder, wondering if that sound you heard is more than it seems.

A few spoilers ahead, so beware!

This is a brilliant science fiction thriller. It starts simply enough, detailing a climb toward an unknown goal. The woman on the other end of the climber’s comm system is impersonal and robotic until things start to deteriorate. Little snippets of this person’s past start to unfold and we realize this isn’t some simple mining expedition but so much more. With every sentence, you’re just imagining being stuck in this dark cave, completely alone. It’s terrifying to imagine and the longer you read, the more that fear begins to build.

I was most impressed by the relationship that grows between these two characters. They’re the only two people experiencing this terrifying journey and they begin to care about one another with each new mission milestone. By the end, there’s a deep connection that transcends most human relationships. It stems from the intensity of their shared experience and the fear that something was so close to being lost. It’s quite powerful.

Overall, The Luminous Dead is equal parts terrifying and heartbreaking. We see the hallucinations of the climber as she struggles to survive, pairing the past horrors of these caves with the fear that she’ll become one of the dead. The book is full of powerful visuals that make you experience the fear of death and the power of surviving against all odds.

I have not engaged with a lot of horror on the written page. I enjoy watching horror movies, good or bad, and sometimes play survival-horror games, but I rarely read it. I have Edgar Allan Poe’s collected works and got turned onto Laird Barron by our resident horror reader Will, but beyond that, I am lost. I think my fear is that the kind of horror novel that would pull me in is harder to find on my own, and the effort I would have to expend feels like it would not have enough of a guaranteed payoff. I want to engage with someone’s psyche and see how they deteriorate under pressures of their own making. I want to feel them spin out of control with no options besides pushing forward, edging closer to their own insanity. So when I heard this book was reminiscent of The Descent, a horror movie I adore, I had to read it. Caitlin Starling, in her debut novel The Luminous Dead, explores the depths of a character’s mind through a haunting and unnerving sci-fi trip that focuses on personal relationships to increase the horror.

Gyre Price is willing to go to any length to escape the life she’s been given. Her mother abandoned her while she was young, and now all Gyre can think about is getting off the backwater mining planet she’s on and maybe find her mother. An opportunity opens up in the form of a cave diving position. Gyre leaps at the chance, sure of her ability to overcome the risks to receive the big paycheck at the end. As she is not a caver, she fakes her resume, surgically alters her digestive tract to conform with the diving suit’s needs and hopes that those hiring will not find out. With the amount of money on the line, Gyre is sure she will have a skilled support team, guiding her every step of the way. Instead, she is stuck with Em, a woman who is unwilling to compromise and will use whatever is at her disposal to make sure Gyre gets the job done, even if it means drugging her at a moment’s notice to make her sleep or force an adrenaline rush. But Gyre signed the contract, and the only way out is down.

The characters and the atmosphere are the shining stars in The Luminous Dead. Starling’s writing allows the reader to slip into Gyre’s head with ease. She also makes sure you stay there, unable to see the world outside of Gyre’s senses. While Gyre is rough around the edges, she is relatable in her need to escape her dreary circumstances. She has a nearly indomitable will that permeates through her every action. Her thoughts center very much on the task at hand, and she is not written to impress the reader. In a refreshing twist, Em is not the opposite of Gyre. She possesses a similar will but has issues with control. As Gyre learns more of Em’s history, the more she questions her intentions, feeding into her own instability which undermines Em’s need for control. Their tensions are only exacerbated by the fact that their communications are through radio, and to the reader’s knowledge, they have never met in person. This strained relationship weighs heavy on Gyre’s frail but stubborn psyche throughout the book, taking the reader to some dark places.

The horror is subtle and creeping. Starling paces the moments of dread well throughout the book, never quite showing her hand. She relays everything to the reader through Gyre, and it becomes impossible to really know what is happening. As Gyre starts to lose sleep, small nagging thoughts become larger, and what may have been slightly weird before now feels like a conspiracy. I kept waiting for Starling to pull back and show me what was really happening, but she never did. Gyre’s journey deeper into the planet is paralleled by the reader’s dive into her psyche. I never once felt that Gyre was overreacting to the environment or Em’s decisions. It was unnerving to consistently feel the need for Gyre to look over her shoulder, but frustratingly I couldn’t make her. Her suit is designed to completely encase her body, shielding her from the elements and hiding her from local fauna. But it also means she is completely reliant on supply capsules left by divers before her. This leads to another question for Gyre’s mind to play out: who was down here first? Where are they now? And so the vicious cycle of thoughts and lack of information continues.

To add to the tension, Starling made the interplay between resources and physical needs symbiotic in a way I had not seen written before. Missing or broken equipment reduced Gyre’s food and power supply, forcing her to move faster and take bigger risks. But by doing that she depleted her body’s and suit’s energy faster. She slept less, letting her mind wander in the darkness of the cave. As this cycle perpetuates itself, her drive becomes stronger while her mental acuity loses focus, and she becomes less mindful of her surroundings. As I have mentioned in other reviews, I love watching systems play themselves out. But to watch something like that happen on such a personal level was a treat and a terror. It made me root for Gyre, but also fear the reality that she might not make it.

I have barely mentioned Em, even though she is arguably close to half of the story. And as much as I want to talk about her, I think it’s better for the reader to discover her for themselves. But in lieu of that, Starling did write one of the more dynamic relationships I have read recently. The way Gyre questions Em, oscillates between liking her, hating her, finding herself attracted to her, and bounces to dozens of other emotions that made their way into Gyre’s head about Em. The sheer volume of thoughts and feelings was astonishing. How do you deal with someone who your life depends on, but they have gone out of their way to feel unattached to you? Can you forgive someone after they have manipulated your body against your will? Can a personal relationship blossom from a clearly contractual agreement of who is in charge? Watching these two women wade through these questions was probably the reason I read all the way through the book. After years of hardening oneself against the world, the horror of beginning to know someone else, and having them know you in turn, felt stronger than the psychological dread of being trapped underground.

The Luminous Dead is a welcome respite from the galaxy-ending science fiction I am used to. It is a deeply personal story that digs deep. It had its share of slow moments, and I felt I had to push myself through at some points, but Starling stayed true to her characters. They never felt off-base to me, which in this case became more important to my experience than how often I felt fear. There are plenty of metaphors littered throughout, as if Starling left several trails of breadcrumbs, asking the audience to dive deeper on their own. It is a purposefully disorienting read, forcing the reader to explore the darkness with Gyre, but it is worth the journey.

Rating: The Luminous Dead – 8.5/10

-Alex

I love horror movies. I say this, knowing that I sit and watch from between my fingers after having searched websites like DOES THE DOG DIE to make sure that I know what to expect. But I love the unknown, and I love the idea of something just beyond our control choosing to go after someone as normal as me because they were raised in a damn barn and don’t know how to deal with ghosts or monsters.

(Am I claiming to know how to deal with monsters? Maybe. But I know that the moment a ghost pops out, you either accept your new roommate or move. Don’t provoke it into showing itself, or let it “live in the doll” like a certain movie series. God, guys, where is the common sense.)

But horror novels, on the other hand? I can take it or leave it. I always panic and skip ahead and spoil everything. Depending on the book, that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

With THE LUMINOUS DEAD by Caitlin Starling? It worked. I still got spooked. Let’s talk about it.

Our protagonist, Gyre Price, lies on her resume to be picked for a very lucrative cave-diving offer, but quickly finds that she might be a little out of her depth. Her employer – a mysterious woman named Em who speaks to her through her suit – wants her to find a certain part of this expansive cave system. Seems easy. It’s very much not.

Over the course of the story, Gyre encounters steep climbs and drops, glowing fungi that takes every opportunity to grow (including in the chest cavity of the cavers that died attempting Gyre’s same mission), and the haunting realization that she’s not alone in this massive cave. Which is, by far, the scariest part of this whole thing. I mean, there’s even a massive monster known only as the Tunneler that makes a huge climatic debut right near the end of the story, and I’m still obsessed with the second person in the cave.

All because, despite the science-fiction nature of the story, this could happen to anyone in real life. This could happen to you, or me. And despite my panic driving me to skip a paragraph or two (which I made myself go back and read, I promise), that terror didn’t ease. In fact, it grew. Which is how you know you made a damn good horror story.

Check out the podcast episode TERRI-CLIMBING for the rest of the review!

2☆
ARC received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of my opinions are my own, and are in no way affected by the exchange.

TL;DR: Plot was gripping, characters were very unlikable, LOTS of boundary crossing.
TW: Body mutation, intrusive thoughts, murder, gory death, LOTS of talk about death, drug use, gray area/blatant consent issues, past trauma, parental abandonment, I think that's it?

As a VERY condensed and rough summary, this book is about a cave explorer named Gyre, and her handler, Em, and the experience Gyre has while on an expedition. I would recommend not reading the entire Goodreads summary because I think it spoils a lot of the plot.

I dont really read very much sci-fi so this was a book out of my comfort zone. Unfortunately I dont think I liked it very much. I finished it a few days ago and was just kind of meh about the entire thing. Gyre as a main character was an interesting change from typical MCs that i have read from. She is lost and angry and desperate. I thought Em was interesting but neither character was particularly likeable which was weird. They were very toxic towards each other and there was a lot of issues with consent and boundaries that I didnt like. There were several instances where Em would make a decision that was explicitly AGAINST Gyre's wishes and I had some issues with it. I also had some issues with the semi-queer baiting in this. The motivations for the characters was flimsy and toxic.

For all this books negatives, I did really enjoy the bleak atmosphere, inherit spooky factor and the mystery as to what is happening in this cave. Is Gyre going crazy or is something more sinister at play? The writing was strange but it did keep me hooked.

TW: Claustrophobia, paranoia

Gyre Price needs cash. She needs to get off-world. And the best way to do this is by cave-diving—and she's found the perfect expedition. Great equipment. Decent contract. High pay-out. So what if she fudged her experience a little? She knows how to climb. She's strong.

But her support team ends up being a team of one. And that one is Em. Em, who drugs her. Who lies to her. Who manipulates her.

And there's something else.

There's something in the caves with her.
~
What did I just read?!

HOW WILL I EVER SLEEP AGAIN?!?!!

One thing for certain: I will never, ever, ever, ever go spelunking. Or cave diving. Or diving in water with anything solid or liquid over my head EVER.

Do not read this if you are claustrophobic. Do not read this if you scare easily (gah I'm such a wimp). Do not read this if you like tight spaces, aren't afraid of the dark or find cave diving an enjoyable and delightful experience (why, tho).

Lol jk. Read whatever the hell you want.

Read this taut psychological sci-fi horror thriller. Its tense, atmospheric creepiness kept me far up into the night, and since I don't have an unethical handler prepped to administer uppers without my consent, I went to sleep when I got tired, had nightmares, and then woke up and finished this book.

I never thought that I would read a book with only two characters (well, mayyyyybe) that revolves around cave exploration on another planet, much less be entertained by said book, but this was entertaining, riveting and oh so scary.

Have I mentioned this was scary?

It's scary.

Because are you ever really alone?

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Gay sci-i is awesome. This book is original in its contents and plot, has amazing, stubborn, intelligent, unique, strong female characters who don't have to be liked to be unforgettable. They both carry plenty of baggage and none of them are what they say they are. The author has an amazing capability to make us feel claustrophobic and like our bodies don't belong to ourselves anymore. This is an amazing book for everyone that loves to read about alien planets, crazy science and journeys into the unknown.

THE LUMINOUS DEAD, Caitlin Starling’s haunting debut, features a caver, the voice in her helmet, and the cave she explores. An ambitious set up for a 432-page sci-fi/horror novel that Starling more than masterfully nails. She took what seems to be a small-scale story and made such a complex world and emotional landscape out of the three characters. I say three because by the end of THE LUMINOUS DEAD, the cave has firmly established itself as a character. Starling’s novel is filled to the brim with exceptional prose, compelling characters and a creepy, unsettling plot. If ANNIHILATION by Jeff VanderMeer had you on edge, this is exponentially more stressful (but in the best way). I had to release the ever-building tension every so often by yelling in my empty house and once throwing my Kindle across the room (you’ll know the moment when you read it). Starling is well on her way to becoming a cornerstone of the sci-fi and horror genres; THE LUMINOUS DEAD is too terrifyingly brilliant not to get her there.

“This cave whole cave was cursed.”

The reader descends into a cave with Gyre, a 22-year-old caver who wants to get out of the life she has been dealt. This expedition is her ticket to that escape, even if she has to deal with the ramifications of lying her way onto the job. The parameters of the mission are unclear in the context of the typical caving jobs (finding mineral deposits) in that so far her instructions are to ferry gear down and get as far as the map labels the camps. What’s more, Gyre only barely understands the high tech suit provided to her that both protects and imprisons her. She definitely doesn’t understand the protocol of dealing with a single handler instead of the typical full team. That handler is Em — shrouded in secrets and a deadly obsession Together, never fully trusting each other, Em and Gyre navigate through the cave. Of course, everything goes awry with the added creep factor of feeling something following Gyre/ The suspense and sheer horror of the cave is unending and yet I find myself now wanting to take a tour of the cave near where I live…

“She’d heard somewhere that pride came before the fall. But she wasn’t going to fall. She was going to climb.”

Gyre and Em, independently, are among the most complicated, twisted, and downright beguiling characters I have ever read. Gyre is stubborn & self-reliant to a fault, emotionally stranded, and ambitious. The only thing she knows in life is caving and her search for her mother, but as both near their conclusion during her expedition, Gyre faces the hard truth of having to find something more. Her inner torment over the isolation of the cave and her mistrust of Em makes for a compelling, if heartbreaking, read. It’s Gyre against the world and then Gyre against herself.

“But now that she was underground, she was beginning to wonder if she had made a giant mistake.”

Em is solitary. Obsessed with the cave. And smarter than anyone around. She’s the woman you want to have your back on a perilous cave expedition, even if she might be a monster and is assuredly not giving you the whole story: she keeps her cool in tight spots, always focused and analytic. As with any good character arc, that rigid control cracks wide open the further down into the cave Gyre gets and the closer the two women are forced to become.

“She sounded so calm, so confident, so in control, like she could only function when Gyre’s life was at risk.”

Together, these women are something else entirely. They are broken, unhealthy, yet complete and the only people who could possibly understand the other.The two women become bonded beyond any normal definition of a relationship after everything they go through together. IT changes them, but they also change each other. Gyre and Em’s relationship is nowhere near romantic, yet it’s so much deeper than a professional relationship or a friendship or hating each other. They’ve been through a harrowing journey that no one alive could understand or relate to. So no matter how much they clash and sometimes hate each other, these women are stuck together.

“She understood Em — more than she wanted to.”

As a queer woman myself, it was difficult to read that thread of the story because I spotted the gay undertones by Chapter Two, but I wasn’t sure if they were really there or if I was being hopeful. As a reader who doesn’t see a lot of representation of my identity in media, I’m always on the lookout for it, but often disappointed. Not by THE LUMINOUS DEAD, though. The gay was hashtag confirmed in the book and the author even tweeted about it yesterday, so it’s not a spoiler! The lack of early clarity suits the story structure of the novel, though; I am not criticizing it (I’m criticizing straight media for making me desperate for any queer rep). There is a deep connection between Em and Gyre, but the book doesn’t play it like a romance. The ambiguity in the reading of their relationship is exactly what Em and Gyre are to each other. They’re not open about their feelings in regards to anything, so it makes sense that whatever their relationship is, is unclear and complicated. And I loved every second of it.

“This cave killed people. It was best to remember that.”

The suspense in THE LUMINOUS DEAD is relentless, just like Gyre’s ambition. The whole novel feels like that impossibly long swim sequence in the original POSEIDON movie. It comes from all sides, too: the first page when Gyre thinks her suit is malfunctioning because Em will not respond to her, the cave’s every obstacle, the threat of Tunnelers, missing supplies, Em’s deception and monstrous ways, the closed off comms channel and Gyre’s own mind. It is a nightmare of an adventure, but one you find yourself falling back asleep in order to finish, There was a lot of stress screaming involved, but I would not have had it any other way.

“She was tired and she was angry and she just wanted to keep going.”

THE LUMINOUS DEAD will grip you with its suspense and you’ll hang on for the character study of two very complex women. It will scare the pants off you wile also making you want to hold these women close. This review took me longer than expected to write because I kept going back to reread a number of passages which almost made me start reading the book all over again. Starling’s writing style is poetic yet so very real in a way that feels like you’re talking to your best friend. It puts you right in that goddamned cave with Gyre. Starling is an author to watch because she is going to do great things in both the sci-fi and horror genres.

I'm glad I knew nothing about this book going in, as it made the world building and story all the more interesting. For that reason I won't go into specifics here, just that the story is sci fi and stars a cave diver on a dangerous mission. Also, I don't think the Martian comparison makes sense at all

The best comparison I can think of is one of my favorite games in recent history, Firewatch, in many ways. The game has a creepy and scary story once it gets going, but the true point is the relationship between the two characters: the MC, and his boss who lives in a faraway fire watch tower. Their dialogue, and their budding relationship between two broken characters, is the reason to play it.

And that's exactly how Luminous Dead plays out, as well. There's a total of two characters (Gyre, and her boss on the other end of the line, Em), and the world building is set aside in lieu of growing their relationship. And it's a well developed one, though Gyre's insistence on righteous indignation frustrated me quickly (she, and others like her, knew what they were getting into, are paid well, etc).

Unfortunately, also like Firewatch, the story aspect for me was anti-climactic and not satisfying. The world building and creepy aspects were a main draw for me, and I walked away wishing more had been done there, or that Em's motives for the trip had been more interesting. Still, this is such a solid debut for Caitlin Starling and I look forward to reading future stories.

*Received a free ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

**This ARC was provided by Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review**

Publication Date: April 2nd, 2019

Execution: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Key Descriptors: horror, scifi, cave exploration, psychological, unreliable narrator, LGBTQ+

Premise: Motivated by a desire to follow after the mother who abandoned her, Gyre Price lies about her experience in order to land a lucrative cave-diving gig. Gyre anticipates a topside team that matches the quality of the gear and paycheck she’s to be given…. only to find that her crew is a single woman, known only as Em. Em has no compunctions about manipulating what Gyre sees, hears, and feels in the cave through control of her diving suit. As claustrophobia and panic settle in, Gyre finds that she can trust no one – including herself.

“THE CAVER AGREES TO SURRENDER BODILY AUTONOMY TO THE EXPEDITION TEAM FOR THE DURATION OF THE EXPEDITION PERIOD, IN ORDER TO FACILITATE THE SMOOTHER OPERATION OF THE EXPEDITION AND TO PROTECT THE CAVER’S WELL-BEING. AT THE EXPEDITION TEAM’S DISCRETION, THE EXPEDITION TEAM MAY PERFORM THE FOLLOWING NONEXCLUSIVE TASKS:

ADMINISTRATION OF CERTAIN HORMONES AND NEUROTRANSMITTERS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ADRENALINE, DOPAMIN, AND MELATONIN.


ADMINISTRATION OF CERTAIN PHARMACEUTICALS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANTIBIOTICS, OPIOD PAINKILLERS…”

Review: I came for the creepy cave monsters and stuck around for the amazing character development and the interactions between Gyre and Em. The Luminous Dead utterly blew my expectations out of the water, and I enjoyed every minute of it. What an incredible debut novel!

I was kept on the edge of my seat by the sheer sense of claustrophobia and terror the author evoked in this novel. I made the horrible mistake of reading this late at night (I simply couldn’t put it down), and was certain that if I looked up into the dark I’d see a face staring right back at me. I recommend reading this novel in a brightly lit, open space that is as dissimilar to a cave as possible. Gyre has to contend not only with the normal dangers of a cave – which are dangerous enough – but also with the growing certainty that there is someone else with her in the cave. Resupply boxes go missing. Bodies of previous cavers are moved. And her suit’s battery is getting low…

“She stared down at the wreckage. The suit had been half crushed. The mask was off, revealing pits where eyes had been, and tight, dried skin stretched over a prominent, masculine chin. The caver’s chest had been split open, and a filamentous white fungus grew from the hole. . . Bile rose in the back of her throat, and she turned away.”

Gyre Price is the absolute epitome of strong female character. She is, excuse my french, a fucking bad-ass. She panics, she cries, and she falls apart, but by god if she doesn’t pull herself back together as best she can. She responds like humans do to intense stress, but she does not give up. She does what is needed to stay alive and preserve whatever shreds of sanity she has left. Additionally, Gyre takes absolutely none of Em’s bullshit. When Em goes too far in attempting to control and manipulate Gyre through the use of dopamine, adrenaline, and other pharmaceutical injections, Gyre threatens not only to cease cooperating but to pull off the helmet of her suit – potentially calling a Tunneler down and ending not only Gyre’s life, but also the integrity of future missions in that cave system.

“You don’t take control of my suit, and you don’t lie to me. I’ll check. . . I can’t do my part if I can’t trust what I see. If me getting through this is so important to you, then you need to trust me. And in return, I don’t need your help getting to a garden world. What I do need is your help tracking down my mother.”

Gyre was born and raised on Cassandra-V, a planet populated primarily for its mineral deposits. Typically, a caver is seeking out new deposits and possible new mine locations. As Gyre’s expedition continues, however, Em’s motivates are slowly revealed to be quite a bit different from what Gyre initially anticipates. Em’s past issues are slowly brought to the forefront, and the depth of the danger Gyre is in is gradually revealed along with them.

It’s unusual for a book to have a cast of only two characters. I’d consider it to be a bit of a risk, especially for a debut novel. Quite frankly, however, this book thrived off of the limited interactions available to our protagonist. Watching Gyre and Em’s relationship grow and change throughout the novel is fascinating. Gyre’s slow descent into paranoia, panic, and uncertainty drags you right down into the thick of things. Despite her misgivings, she’s forced to rely on Em if she wants to make it out alive. As she gradually realizes she can’t even trust herself, she is forced to accept whatever aid can be offered… yet even as she begins to trust Em, Em is beginning to break down and fall apart the closer she gets to obtaining her goal.

My only real critique of this book was the ending. The ending wasn’t bad, per se, but some bits of it also felt like a slight let-down. That said, I don’t think there were many alternatives to how it ended. I think it only felt like a bit of a let-down due the ridiculously intense ramp up we had moving into it; I felt almost like I’d been slammed into a brick wall with the change of pace.

All in all, I am very excited to read more of Caitlin Starling’s work in the future. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes atmospheric horror, psychological terror, or intense characterization.


The Luminous Dead can be found on Amazon and Goodreads.

If you liked The Luminous Dead, you might also enjoy:

Firewatch (video game, heavily narrative focused)
The Martian by Andy Weir

I really enjoyed the blend of the sci-fi horror aspects of this book. As someone who has been spelunking and scuba diving in caves the setting really gave me pleasure. Overall, to keep this review short before my longer good reads review I would definitely refer this book to others to read!

First page in this book and I was hooked. Life got in the way of The Luminous Dead. I want to give Caitlin Starling a double high five. This is my favorite read in the last 365 days and that's saying something.
I felts as though this book was Alien mixed with The Martian in a survival horror-like plot.
The book follows Gyre, a caver on another world in a sci-fi like future. Her job is usually to find mineral deposits for future removal. Her "handler" goes by Em, but isn't quite as straightforward about the dive. Gyre isn't completely straight about her business either. The two women go through immense struggles of survival before revealing everything about themselves, but is that enough to save them from the past or the present monsters.
Like I said above, I could not stop turning the pages. The characters were amazing! So real and so thoughtful, filled with flaws and fantastic qualities.
It's no big spoiler to say they develop a relationship and it's so well done! It's subtle and so raw.
The ebb and flow of tension was filled with tons of dread. It was awesome! It is the first book to warm the cockles of my heart with the creepiness. It reminded me of the first time I watched Alien: glued to my seat, eyes scanning the scenes for everything and anything, my chest thumping in the suspense, and a warm,happy feeling in my heart. This is story telling done right. This is a book that plays like a movie. This is a book where the setting is just as important as the limited cast of characters. It's a fight against death, nature, past, and self.
I cannot say enough good things about this book.
I can't wait until it comes out so I can have an actual physical copy in my hands.
Read it and weep (internally).