Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Die leuchtenden Toten by Caitlin Starling

85 reviews

evelikesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.5


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afterplague's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

 The Luminous Dead was an experience I wasn't expecting. If you're looking for a heart-pounding horror novel I'm afraid that you're going to be disappointed. If you wanted zombies or alien creatures I think you'd better look elsewhere.

Fundamentally, this novel is a character driven one. If you look at the plot at a surface level you'll probably be a bit bored and little disappointed. It's not that there aren't scares or tension, there is, but most of the plot is just climbing, talking, and a nervous breakdown. By describing it like this it might seem like I don't like Luminous Dead, but I think that's not true.

It's difficult to parse out my feelings and my rating of the book. I thought for ages about whether to rate this four stars or three. Objectively versus subjectively my feelings differed. I think there's something at the center of The Luminous Dead, but I don't think that it's typical of the horror genre. I don't think I was ever really scared. I was nervous at times, and maybe tense, but more than anything I just felt this creeping despair. This is not a "scary" story. It's just depressing, and it does that very well.

I'm going to go into more depth below, so please beware of spoilers.


Like I said, this is a character driven story, and so the characters have to be good to carry it. Luckily, I think they are. Gyre is our main and perspective character and Em is her woman in the chair. And that's it. There are only two characters in this entire book, and the story is just the two of them having conversations and attempting to navigate the cave.

Gyre is an excellent climber, but she has very little experience with caving jobs. She's worked as a technician, but has never actually undergone a real cave dive. She lies about her experience for a job worth more money than multiple other caving jobs combined in an attempt to get off planet and find her mother who abandoned her years ago. I like Gyre a lot. She's tough and smart, and she has a certain arrogance that drives her character into death defying scenarios. Because of this, though, she can be hotheaded, stubborn, and dangerous. She believes in her abilities and instincts, and she's usually right, but being in the cave for weeks on end definitely tests her psyche.

Em is completely different. She's very cold and extremely secretive. Her motives for sending Gyre into the cave are a complete mystery, and she is extremely controlling towards her. Em doesn't see Gyre as a human at first, violating her bodily autonomy by controlling the suit from afar. Gyre hates this and demands that she stop, but Em still occasionally sneaks her some drugs or assistance to the suit.

Their relationship is so weird and toxic, but it grows and changes into something that is closer than I could have imagined. They build trust and share things about each other. They find common ground when Em reveals that she's not exploring the cave for resources or anything valuable, she just wants to find the bodies of her parents cave diving team from twenty years ago. It's a really human moment, but Em reveals that twenty-five previous cavers have died trying to accomplish this task, and I was torn. Em's feelings and desires are valid, but her callous disregard for anyone in her search for closure makes her a monster. Gyre does call this out.

It's an interesting dynamic, and I really enjoyed one moment especially, after a lot of relationship and trust building, Em needs to fully take control of the suit and Gyre lets her. It was a really tense scene and demonstrated that even though Em sends the cavers down to the depths, she cares about them, remembers them, and feels their losses.

The cave itself is unfortunately not a very interesting environment. There are sections that are notable and memorable, like the fungi that burst into spores or the Long Drop that takes twelve hours to climb down, but most of the cave is just grey walls. The part of cave diving that really scares me is tight, enclosed spaces, but we don't really get much of that in the novel. Instead, all of the most tense parts take place in the sumps, underwater caves. Obvious cave diving is terrifying, but it just didn't hit the scarier parts of the caves.

Tension did build throughout the story and I did feel like there were legitimate threats, but I do feel like those threats were ultimately a disappointment. The Tunnelers were a frightening concept, and when we finally saw one I do believe it was well described. I just don't understand how it was defeated by being thrown off balance? That was weird. There's also the idea that someone else is in the caves, but that doesn't really go anywhere. The cave itself is also implied to be some level of haunted or supernatural or maybe it was hallucinogenic spores? It's not explained super well.

There was also a lot of back tracking which did make the pacing slog. Gyre has to progress through six camps and once she gets to six, she treks back to four, then back to five, then back to six, then back to five, then gets swept back to six, then back to five, then back to four, then back to three, then back to four and if reading this was tedious just imagine it going on for two hundred pages. The things happening are relatively exciting, but we are literally walking in circles.

The writing and intrigue were good, though. I don't want to insinuate that they weren't. The technology was also pretty cool. It's not so far advanced that it seems like a deus ex machina, but it is distinctly futuristic. The idea of not being able to feel anything or touch your own body for weeks at a time is a horror in itself.

I feel like I could talk about this for ages, contemplating the good and the bad, but I have to stop at some point. Maybe now you can get a bit of an idea of why this book was so difficult to rate.

I did enjoy The Luminous Dead, but it is kind of a vibe more than a horror novel. I wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for action and excitement. I would recommend it if you enjoy character focused stories, ambiguous supernatural events, and a slow burn. 

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thelittlestrobot's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5


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nic1894's review against another edition

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challenging 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

3.5

I really like the writing style and I would read more of this author's work. It was also fantastically tense and really interesting concept.
SPOILERS
However, there were some issues with the pacing, plot and characters. The pacing dragged at points. It felt like there were too many plot points, with some being underdeveloped and others over. The potential body horror of the suit, the spores and the tunneler was missed. The capitalist commentary was interesting, but again underdeveloped. What the main issue was that it felt like the author didn't truly understand how terrible Em is. Lots of potential and good writing style, lots of missed opportunities.

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hzamrzla's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

3.0

I loved the premise and voice of this book, but the pacing and actual plot were so hard to stick with. There is only one REAL conflict: whether or not Gyre trusts Em, and we revisit it about 8 times with no real resolution. Reluctant trust, big betrayal, insistence on doing it alone, horrible failure due to the decision to do it alone, rinse, repeat. 

Specifically, I got so frustrated with Gyre by the end because of her
constantly refusing to let Em guide/medicate/STOP her, doing something stupid, and then being in a rage that Em didn’t guide/medicate/STOP her
. This happening once or twice seemed reasonable, and then for it to KEEP happening, as the only source of action in the book, felt contrived. 

Also, I hate
“turns out it was all in your head”
books. 

It got old, which is sad. 

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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

This is not my typical read but I actually liked it. It is tense, interesting, and a little trippy. I am not entirely satisfied on how the mystery ends up but the characterization and relationships more than make up for it. I really like the main character and think everyone reacts in ridiculous but realistic ways of a person in these circumstances. I had to stop listening a few times because I was stressed out, but I still really enjoyed it.

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aranmn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What I liked: the atmosphere, the horror aspect, the sci-fi elements, the originality of the setting. What I didn't like: the characters; they read very juvenile and melodramatic. 

If you can get past the characters and like slow-paced, psychological horror, I would say this novel is totally worth a read, though. I personally enjoyed it quite a lot even though I can see why many people don't.

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disnelyse's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-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

3.25


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smarzipan's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5


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cryptidenthusiast's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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