A review by voxvenati
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

While this isn’t perfect by any means, it hits so many notes that are missing from most modern horror: real danger, psychological fuckery, gaslighting the reader, escalation, and phenomenal pacing. I loved it.

I’d like to start at the comparison to Annihilation. While I do think that’s apt, it’s a different sort of building dread, less built on answers.
Things were actually very wrong in Annihilation, and we wanted to know what and why. In The Luminous Dead, it’s a lot of back and forth as to whether there is or is not something else actually going wrong or if it’s all in Gyre’s head.


I’d also like to say, I appreciate our two toxic queens at front and center. We really had the Gaslight and Girlboss elements present here in full force, and you love to see it.
I love that there was a sorta toxic romance? In my scifi horror?? Thank you, Caitlin.


The escalation of danger and tension was superb. The pacing was so good I pushed through the later ~70% in one day because it was impossible to stop. I also quite liked the prose. A few good quotes:
Who would trust her to run a business, when they knew how many lives, how many resources, she’d wasted not for profit but for grief?

The card rested like a leash in Gyre’s hand, a leash that wrapped around her horrible, beautiful monster’s throat.

Two things detracted and couldn’t allow me to give this a full 5 star though: first, some of the actual exploring was a little boring. We are in a cave nearly the whole time, so buckle in and get used to it. Second, and a larger issue (haha), were the Tunnelers.
I am so sick of giant worms. Everything uses giant worms as danger. Stop. Please. Dune did it once and we could move on after that. The entire scene where Gyre killed one was so silly I had to pause and laugh. Could have done without that.


I don’t know how to concisely convey how good this book was. Suffice to say, if you like scifi, psychological, and isolationist horror, Annihilation’s unsettling dread, and/or two toxic women with crippling obsessions trapped with only the other as company, you have got to give The Luminous Dead a shot.