Book Review: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Luminous Dead

The Blurble: When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .

As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.

But how come she can't shake the feeling she’s being followed?

My Review:  I judged this book by it's cover so hard, because it's cover was goooorgeous.  One hand in what looks like a space suit, clutching at a cliff face, light emanating only from the glove, and even the text of the title begins to fade. Ugggh, so good. I can't even remember where I heard about this book, but I took one look at the cover and went YES PLEASE, and then was thrilled when it checked all my boxes: queer characters, extreme survival situations, possible ghosts, horror, science fiction. 

It's told from Gyre's POV, and we go in knowing only what she knows, so all the horrors of the cave, of the situation, of her own mind unfold for us as it does for her. Em was a little less fleshed out, but I enjoyed her anyway. What really made this book was the cool tech, and the atmosphere.

Cool tech: Gyre descends in a space suit that she is basically hardwired into and never, ever takes off. Her food is injected directly into her stomach, she can be given medication injections remotely, she IS the suit, it keeps her alive. (Starling never talks about how she itches her nose though, which I thought was a major oversight.) 

Atmosphere: The setting for this is A CAVE. Which is cool unto itself, but it's also A CAVE THAT HAS CLAIMED A LOT OF LIVES AND IS LARGELY UNKNOWN. Which is even better. 100% spooky atmosphere, both because frankly caves are creepy, and it gives an excellent platform in which Gyre gets freaked the fuck out for a variety of reasons.

This book was spooky as hell. I legitly had to put it down and switch another book one night because I was getting too creeped out. I think this might have been Starling's first book, and I'm definitely going to read whatever else she puts out because damn, I liked this a lot. 

Read if: you like creepy books, interesting characters, cave diving, or ghosts.

Don't read if: you're claustrophobic, you scare easily, you think ghosts are stupid.

5 ghost-friendly stars. 

Love, Lady Peekaboo   (who will not be going to a cave anytime soon now. )