First page in this book and I was hooked. Life got in the way of The Luminous Dead. I want to give Caitlin Starling a double high five. This is my favorite read in the last 365 days and that's saying something.
I felts as though this book was Alien mixed with The Martian in a survival horror-like plot.
The book follows Gyre, a caver on another world in a sci-fi like future. Her job is usually to find mineral deposits for future removal. Her "handler" goes by Em, but isn't quite as straightforward about the dive. Gyre isn't completely straight about her business either. The two women go through immense struggles of survival before revealing everything about themselves, but is that enough to save them from the past or the present monsters.
Like I said above, I could not stop turning the pages. The characters were amazing! So real and so thoughtful, filled with flaws and fantastic qualities.
It's no big spoiler to say they develop a relationship and it's so well done! It's subtle and so raw.
The ebb and flow of tension was filled with tons of dread. It was awesome! It is the first book to warm the cockles of my heart with the creepiness. It reminded me of the first time I watched Alien: glued to my seat, eyes scanning the scenes for everything and anything, my chest thumping in the suspense, and a warm,happy feeling in my heart. This is story telling done right. This is a book that plays like a movie. This is a book where the setting is just as important as the limited cast of characters. It's a fight against death, nature, past, and self.
I cannot say enough good things about this book.
I can't wait until it comes out so I can have an actual physical copy in my hands.
Read it and weep (internally).

Me: Argh, I'm SO in the mood for aliens, gay characters, space, and more gay characters
The Luminous Dead: hi...
Me: OOOMMMMGGGGGG

I don't know what to gush about first honestly? The plot was amazing. It was never dull, nothing missing.. The story is centered around a cave and what goes on within it. IN SPACE. Can I just thank the book gods for such a intriguing plotline because I could read about it all day. Cave exploring in real life is a death sentence but it always make you wonder what in the world could possibly be in the darkness that humans can't reach? Well, this book gives you an idea.

I loved the characters, and especially enjoyed the way that the main characters, They are all from different sides of the personality spectrum, with completely different ways of handling a situation, but when the crap hits the fan, they effortlessly slip into "Let's try to survive" mode, and just kick ass. I loved it. I thought they complemented each other wonderfully. The Luminous Dead is very hard to put down. It's written in an accessible style and is light on the science, strong on the horror. Pretty much everything you'd want from a science fiction adventure story... with lots of corpses.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this early copy!

I wished for this ARC, and was gifted it, because of the stunning cover. I went in blind without knowing much about the plot and was on the edge of my seat throughout it. The atmosphere and suspense was well done. This was a solid debut novel and I will be checking out more from Starling in the future. I recommend checking out if you like slowburn and character focused novels with great atmosphere.

This is absolutely terrifying, but so great. I definitely look forward to more books from Caitlin Starling. The voice of Gyre was especially strong, and I think that's important in a book such as this one. It'd also make a great movie.

Gyre Price is determined to get off her dead, depleted world. So when a caver job with a hefty payout becomes available, she forges some of her credentials in order to be accepted on the mission. She succeeds, but several things begin to seem off as she descends into the depths of the planet. The most startling is her handler, Em, who seems determined to keep Gyre in the dark about the mission. Her motivations are a mystery and soon Gyre can't decide if she can trust her one contact to the outside world. The isolation and dangers of the underground start to take their toll. Gyre has to stay one step ahead or the cave (or maybe something even more sinister) may swallow her for good.

The Luminous Dead was a bit of an odd choice for me, but I'm glad I picked it up. Starling makes a compelling story out of two characters and a claustrophobic cave. Some of the parts were a little dry for me, but overall the constant undercurrent of dread and the sense of not knowing whether anything was what it seemed kept me going. Thanks to NetGalley/Edelweiss+ and Harper for the eARC.

This book had great potential, but unfortunately fell short. The first half or so was really good, but after that the story began to feel tedious. I don't want to spoil anything, but the title of the book led me to believe it would be much more of a horror story than it is. There are strong elements there, but it is first and foremost a survival story. It was a bit difficult to connect with the characters. I think they were meant to be obsessed with their goals, but came off as sort of one dimensional.

Received via Netgalley for review.

Gyre takes a dangerous and extremely lucrative job exploring a labyrinthine system of caves on an outpost planet, surgically modified to rely only on her high-tech suit that she can never take off. When she discovers the reason she's really down there, and how dangerous the cave truly is, she's not sure if she should turn back or continue.

A wonderfully scary and unsettling thriller, perfect for fans of The Descent and Sunshine, or any other plotline where isolated characters are forced to deal with themselves and the horrors of their minds.

While it can get a little dry/technical with all the caving minutia, the fact that there are only two characters (Gyre and Em) never slows down the narrative, and the reader is right there with Gyre is questioning what's real and what's not. Both Gyre and Em are stubborn to a fault, just in different ways, and their clashing desires to continue no matter what provide for an interesting conflict. They're both wonderfully drawn and complex, multidimensional and tragic. The tense moments were incredibly tense, the tragic moments truly tragic.

A great read when you're curled up on the couch during a cloudy evening (for maximum atmosphere).s

I'm a bit torn about this book. It was very well-written -- creepy, atmospheric, engaging. It reminded me of Annihilation, which is a book I enjoyed tremendously.. The characters are complex - I love kick-arse heroines. And the mystery keeps you guessing -- I thought all sorts of things were going to happen. None of those things happened.

With that said, be prepared to learn every detail about climbing and diving and all the other stuff the main character did. Parts of the book were super boring. It could have been significantly shorter while still maintaining the quality.

Overall, I thought it was worth the read. It's definitely a story that will stick with me for awhile.

Science fiction is a versatile genre for creating unique settings and situations to test a character's resolve, and this is what makes Caitlin Starling's "The Luminous Dead" such a thrilling and addictive read. Set in a claustrophobic system of caves on an alien world, the main character Gyre accepts a job diving deep into the caves abyss for a corporation, with only her custom survival space suit and her mission guide Em to keep her safe during her mission. Filled with heart pounding suspense and rich character development, "The Luminous Dead" is a must add title to any sci-fi fans book list.

If you're looking for a well-written dark horror sci-fi lesbian story, the book is for you. The writer took me back to college when I worked at hotel part-time and the security guard was a snarky older woman who used tell great quirky stories about her mishap adventures in dating gone wrong. The joke I remember to this day is the classic,
"Q: What do lesbians brings to a first date?
A: A U-haul."
I think she and the author would get along well. Don't want to give away too many details since there's a number of suprise plot twists, but the main character is a cave explorer on a futuristic dying planet. The story starts deus ex machina with her heading below the surface on a top-secret mission where everything is not exactly as it seems. The writing is well-timed and full of twists and turns that make the reader feel they are stuck in under rock trying to determine if their extremely beautiful handler is leading them to certain death or actually has their best interests at heart. My reason for giving this 4 instead of 5 stars is this story is geared for a niche audience, but definitely could be a fun weekend read.

Warning! Do not attempt to read this book if you are claustrophobic. Do not attempt to read it if your skin crawls in terror from being trapped in small places. Both in its setting and thematically, the Luminous Dead is a narrowly-focused tightly-drawn Story. From Jules Verne to Burroughs to numerous modern writers, there has been an endless fascination with tunneling into the center of the earth, a focus on what lies within the labyrinth of underground spaces. Luminous Dead, with its beautiful cover art and image-provoking title, continues that tradition.

The story takes place on a backwater mining planet, or rather takes place in the planet because the surface of the planet is only important for character development. Almost No action takes place up there. It is important to know however that it is a dry dusty planet of desperation whose few inhabitants will do almost anything to escape to the garden worlds out there. Gyre’s mother escaped long ago, abandoning her to the rocky outcropping and deep crevasses that Gyre spent her childhood exploring. Now it’s Gyre’s turn and, in desperation, she signed a contract as a caver, falsifying her experience because it’s going to take the big money an experienced caver earns to get off world.

Now, here she is in a full suit like a space explorer with a feeding tube to connect her to nutrition canisters and a tube surgically attached to her intestines to quickly carry away waste. It’s dangerous down there and survival means keeping her suit on and surrendering total control of her bodily functions to mission control. Is she now a puppet at the whim of her controller? How much of her humanity has she given up? Is she any more than a piece of equipment to be manipulated into exploring the depths and whose survival is only as important as the completion of her mission?

It will take all of Gyre’s skills in climbing, swimming, and more to make it from one base camp to the next. But, little did Gyre know when she signed her contract how minimal her support team would be, how many cavers had gone before her into these tunnels and not returned, and how the crippling environment below would play havoc with not just her senses but her very sanity. Is she hallucinating or is there someone else down here following her, staking her? And what happens when a native creature who tunnels through bedrock gets close?

There are very few characters in this full length novel and very little change in scenery. Yet, it’s a fascinating spellbinding story of survival, of trust, of paranoia, of the human spirit.

The Luminous Dead is a claustrophobic, heart-pounding story of alien caving and just how far a person can push themselves before they break. There’s an undercurrent if romance and always the question it motivations- what do the two main characters truly want? It’s difficult to put down and deeply fascinating- I’m completely in love.

The writing has a way of propelling itself forward effortlessly, while the characters remain so deeply human and flawed. I should have disliked them, but they have such amazing vulnerability and so much compassion that I felt attached to them all the same- when the book ended, I felt genuine sadness.

You're going to want a copy of this book- seriously. Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Voyager for the ARC.