Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Die leuchtenden Toten by Caitlin Starling

27 reviews

solleron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional relaxing fast-paced

5.0

i was in a cafe reading this. i think i was alone. i flailed like crazy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gaslighting, Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Grief, and Toxic relationship

wrenny03's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

Do not go into The Caves. The Caves are alive and malicious and they want you dead. This book fucks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Drug use, Body horror, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

nic1894's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting

celina246's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I had high hopes for this book but I’m a bit disappointed. It was by no means awful; it’s what I call a “quiet” horror, which means not a lot is necessarily happening but the atmosphere is kind of creepy and tense. But it teetered on boring too many times, and all the climbing jargon and descriptions of the cave routes made my eyes glaze over.

 I wish CS had done a bit more with it, plot-wise, but it was character-centric and the characters were very annoying and unlikeable.  Still, I feel like it could be a good movie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Mental illness and Toxic relationship

zakura317's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Meandering would be a kind way to describe this book. And the two leads have an incredibly toxic and dangerous relationship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Abandonment, Death of parent, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Suicidal thoughts

concertconfetti's review against another edition

While the character relationships are interesting, I feel like both of them are going in such tight circles around each other. The suspension of belief that the main character would every trust Em is too much - they never seem to build up enough trust to properly hit beats, and I come away from each chapter exasperated with the both of them. It's a thrilling concept, but not for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

smarzipan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Drug use, Medical trauma, Vomit, Death, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, and Grief

kaiju_krispies's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.0

I told storygraph that I was interested in dark stories involving unreliable narrators, complicated power dynamics between women, in dystopian settings, with a side of horror, grief, and hurt/comfort. Proving that their algorithm fucking works, it suggested The Luminous Dead.

Truthfully, the book suffers a little for want of a slightly more experienced author. The pacing of the overall story comes out all right, but the pacing of individual scenes often isn't. This mostly came through in feeling that a particular scene could very easily have been much scarier or horrifying than it actually was. The theme is set up so well to touch on extremely common fears, yet flies through descriptions of those scenarios so fast that there isn't time to build up those feelings to their full extent. Describe the sensation of being trapped by your own horrific exoskeleton in a fat man squeeze! or the fear of falling and wedging headfirst into a narrow hole! There are so many true stories of actual cavers and cave divers dying in the saddest, scariest ways to have drawn inspiration from; my hands are sweatier from reading the Nutty Putty Cave Wikipedia page than they ever were from The Luminous Dead. It also wouldn't be the worst thing to include a little more exposition for those who don't know much about climbing in general--I do happen to know the difference between a cam and a bolt and the pros/cons of each, but not every reader will, and there's again some benefit in building up tension this way.

The author does get this right with the body horror aspects. So much description of the stomach cannula and the horror of being trapped in goo and unable to even scratch your own nose!

The characters are not completely believable. Their motives feel a little flimsy and tend to change at opportune moments to justify the plot continuing. There are points at which the characters--Gyre especially--act so stupidly that it felt like a letdown.

Starting a fire in the graveyard sump springs to mind, as does purposefully fighting the Tunneler--maybe the Tunneler is just a symptom of the cave's desire to keep Gyre, but the fire felt like recklessness for no reason. Ah and wading through the spores too, and doing the water exchange in moldy water.

All that said, I devoured the book. I looked forward every time to reading more and was genuinely invested in these broken characters, their awful emotions, and their ultimate conclusion. It was an enjoyable, interesting read, and I think this is why some of my criticisms feel harsher than they are meant to. The premise is so good, and the themes so specifically of interest to me in particular, that I wanted it to live up to its fullest potential. It didn't quite, and that's all right! I hope the author has more books left in her, and that they have equally degenerate premises but with the weight of more experience and lessons learned behind them. Linger on the things that make your readers sweat! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, and Confinement

Minor: Vomit

yuyuv's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment