Gyre Price may have lied her way into this expedition, but she wasn’t exactly an inexperienced climber. There was nobody there.” The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling “She toggled back to her full reconstruction view, half expecting to see a figure at the end of the tunnel. (The only thing more terrifying to me is being at the bottom of the ocean but we’ll get more into that when I review Into the Drowning Deep.) It weaves the same lonely panic of Gravity or The Martian together with one of the worst things I can imagine, being deep, deep underground. Way deep down underground where you never ever want to go. Still, The Luminous Dead is a commendable debut and a unique survival horror story.TW: death gore body horror mental, medical, and family trauma toxic relationshipĬaitlin Starling’s debut novel, The Luminous Dead is an atmospheric, claustrophobic, totally fucked up slam dunk. I wish there is an epilogue to show the fate of the characters. The book doesn’t explicitly describe the dystopian world it is set in but I thought the brief mentions are intriguing. While I appreciate the representation of LGBTQ+ characters, I was not wholly convinced of Gyre and Em’s relationship as it progresses. There’s a map of the cave system and I found myself frequently having to refer to it so that tainted my enjoyment. However, I had an issue with the repetitiveness of the scenes. As Gyre begins to doubt her sanity, the reader is also pulled into questioning the realities of her situation. The book dwells in the lasting impact of trauma and shows the psychological effects of a solo expedition. I thought her motivations are believable and the scenes where things go wrong are pretty terrifying. She discovers disturbing new information and has to decide whether she can trust Em. I liked that the reader is kept in the dark as much as Gyre as she goes deeper inside the cave. The book is claustrophobic, spine-chilling and has some intense moments. The Luminous Dead is a survival horror taking place entirely inside a cave with a cast of only two characters. The only sounds were her breathing inside her helmet, the soft pulsing of the alert system displayed in front of her face, and the groan of her suit against rock as she contorted her spine and pressed through another few centimeters. But she soon realises there is only a woman named Em keeping her alive. Her suit is surgically attached to her body, and she relies on a team to monitor her stats. Set in a dystopian future, Gyre is tasked with mapping an intricate cave system.
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