Reviews

Die leuchtenden Toten by Caitlin Starling

fullyfoley's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.25

owenreads's review against another edition

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3.0

 I didn't find this book anywhere near as claustrophobic as I had assumed I would, or probably should have done. So because of that, the horror and tension elements were mostly lost on me.

What we are left with is a caving story where Gyre seems to be going round in circles... whilst being determined to carry on, watch videos of strangers, and avoid reading a digital folder she'd asked for. Then also trying to encourage Em to change her motive.

The conflict at distance over comms is quite interesting in its own regard. How would you deal with someone you've only just met, who has very different motives, but you have to rely on for your life?!

The story itself stands up reasonably well. There's just enough mystery, in that we don't really know whether Ghia or Em are reliable narrative characters, and what happened to the previous expeditions?

I didn't particularly like either characters. The stockholm syndrome and attachment issues are incredibly strong in both. They're also total dicks the whole way through. 

indrad173's review against another edition

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1.0

I had such high hopes for this book as the premise was intriguing but it ended up being a slog to get through and relentlessly repeated itself. My husband and I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Adenrele Ojo, and agreed that the vocalizing and articulation were totally off and made the entire experience that much worse. There were moments when a character cried out a line in anger and was portrayed the opposite or the expression was contradictory to how the narrator spoke. The plot was one-dimensional and I was so sick of hours the same two characters that I wanted DNF it a long time ago. I mean, there's only so much that can take place in an isolated cave. This needed to be put out of its misery 200 pages ago.

fruitface's review against another edition

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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

5.0

rinnnles's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

valsoceans's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

posies23's review against another edition

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4.0

I liked this one quite a bit, although the ending seemed a bit more dragged out than I would have liked. I don't have too much to add to what others have said -- this is a science-fiction thriller, and the idea is something like "The Descent" meets "Alien," meets "Tremors," although that's not really being fair to any of the individual works being discussed. There's a lot of strong writing and characterization, and I wouldn't recommend reading it if you are in any way, shape, or form claustrophobic. I don't think that's a spoiler?

tomstbr's review against another edition

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3.0

DNF - 25%

Yawn? Seems boring, don't care.

alceriniel's review against another edition

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

4.0

Hood enough to listen to in one day. Wouldn't really call it horror though.

gorbon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

Toxic lesbians in a claustrophobic nightmare.