Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Die leuchtenden Toten by Caitlin Starling

12 reviews

beereadingbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautiful, tense deep dive into some really nuanced and interesting characters. Love the setting, love the leads. I want to kiss them on the forehead. I want to study them like lab rats. 

I support women’s wrongs

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, Mental illness, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

opinkb's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, and Blood

eldritch_archivist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Gave me real life anxiety reading this, absolutely shitting myself during the back half. I'm now much more afraid to read more books by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Gaslighting, Suicide, Classism, and Cursing

hybridpubscout's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Gaslighting, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Murder, Abandonment, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Excrement

Nonconsensual drugging, loss of bodily autonomy. Overdose. Hallucinations, paranoia, surveillance, unreality. Descriptions of bodies in various states of decay. Limb loss.

ariet's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I picked this book up as my book to work on throughout the week, but Caitlin Starling kept me glued to my kindle all night. 

Quick plot summary: Gyre, our protagonist, accepts a job caving big enough to let her escape her home planet. Things go downhill. 

I love the small cast style. While we see a few other characters in bits and pieces, The Luminous Dead really focuses in on our caver, Gyre, and her handler

and daughter obsessed with the loss of her parents in said cave

Em. While often a small cast can feel tedious, Caitlin uses it to her advantage to build the sense of isolation and tension. 

There's a fair amount of body horror, and those who are squicked by thoughts of claustrophobic spaces or being trapped should probably avoid this one, but if those aren't serious turn-offs, I'd definitely pick it up.

Other random things I love(spoilers):

wlw and a somewhat hopeful ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Abandonment and Suicide

hyliansee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

if mommy issues were a book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

dusty_mothman's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gore, Medical trauma, and Suicide

madarauchiha's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

 ✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

Ok. I don't understand why people were so hot for this book. Kinda lesbian flavored horror set in a cave. The writing is ok, I thought the author portrayed the environment very well and didn't lose me on the technical details. 

The  toxic lesbian relationship  felt shoehorned in and oddly placed. Personally I prefer lesbian relationships in media without the toxicity or the unhealthy, abusive dynamics. It's not unrealistic but ehhh let's do better. 

I haven't read much cave based horror but I think this was fairly creepy and tense. I think the tension was more based in the environment than anything paranormal or supernatural, however. After a while it got pretty repetitious. Like.. nothing really happened lol.

If you want a horror story where the horror is mainly supernatural or paranormal, you may not appreciate this one. There is definitely some fungal body horror if you like that, though.

I don't recommend this, just go in knowing what you want.

Wrt diversity. Yes they're black characters or characters of color. Not sure which is intended. It rarely comes up outside of descriptions, so temper your expectations. Don't expect [spoiler name] to mention eating pig feet and collards as a child.

Character descriptions [mild spoilers?]

▪ The camera shifted, Em’s mother turning it around to face herself. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties, maybe the same age Em was now, and looked eager and happy, foreign expressions on her daughter’s face. She was pale-skinned, her blond hair curling gently against her cheeks, and her green eyes glittered. She had the same small notch in her chin as her daughter. “You hear that? Laurent says we’re all going to be rich.”

▪ Em’s eyes darted from side to side, too ashamed or panicked to meet Gyre’s gaze. She had dark circles under her eyes that looked like they had been there long before Gyre had entered the cave. Her hair was thick, pure black, haloing around her face in a mess of tight curls. Her skin was darker than Gyre’s, a rich, warm brown without freckles or moles. She was stunning, even in her exhaustion, even though her full, doll-like lips were chapped and torn from chewing at them. She pursed them as she thought about what to say next, the motion deepening the small cleft in her chin.

So I guess. Em is part white? idk it's confusing and shoehorned in.

The conclusion was a happy one. I didn't have everything answered but the character arcs ended well and I appreciate how it was handled. If you want answers to everything, you may be disappointed.

Content warnings
minor suicide, drug abuse, vomit, 

medium medical content, 

major injuries, psychosis, vomit, amputation, medical content, gore, paranoia, death, medical abuse, death, body horror, fungi horror, parasite horror, claustrophobia, 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Vomit

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Drug abuse, Suicide, and Vomit