The Luminous Dead: A Novel

Oh WOW. Das war so gut, so so so gut! Es gibt ja so Themen in Büchern, da bin ich einfach dabei – das muss ich einfach konsumieren. Leute klettern und das auch noch in Höhlen und das artet in Horror / Survival aus? Count. Me. In! Nach meinem letzten Space-Horror-Reinfall hatte ich echt Angst, dass auch dieses Buch mich enttäuscht, aber siehe da, ich habs verschlungen. Geradezu verschlungen. Der Erzählstil von Starling ist total angenehm und das Buch liest sich unglaublich schnell – jedenfalls wenn man sich abends nicht in die Hose macht, weil unsere Protagonistin (hoffentlich nur) Halluzinationen hat. Ich mochte es, dass wir sofort im Höhlensystem gestartet sind und dass das Buch auch komplett unter der Erde gespielt hat. Es war von Beginn an klaustrophobisch und hat sich extrem schnell gesteigert. (Und konnte das Level halten!) Es war ein Fest dabei zuzusehen, wie unsere Protagonistin langsam den Verstand verloren (?) hat und sich auf nichts mehr verlassen konnte. Auch war es toll, wie unsere zwei Protagonistinnen miteinander interagiert haben und wie langsam eine fragile Bindung aufgebaut wurde, von der man sich nie sicher sein konnte, ob sie nun wirklich da war. Man konnte sich immerhin nicht sicher sein, was überhaupt real war. Das Buch hat ganz vorn eine Karte, was ich sehr hilfreich fand und ich habe auch sehr viel hin und her geblättert – bin manchmal aber dennoch nicht ganz hinterhergekommen. Man kann sagen, was man will, ich fand es wirklich, wirklich toll! Das letzte Kapitel hätte ich persönlich nicht gebraucht, aber das ist Geschmackssache.

3,5 stars I feel like this type of book would work extremely well as a movie! The claustrophobia I felt while listening to this audiobook sometimes really made my heart pound. We have a very small cast of characters, which somehow made me feel even more claustrophobic than anything else that happened. Whilst I do have some complaints about the book (the length, the pacing etc.) I overall really enjoyed the experience!

Exactly the kind of slow, suspense-building read I like.If you want a <b>tldr</b> to this review, here you go: This book is...creepy, eerie, claustrophobic, atmospheric, suspenseful, slow, terrifying.The descriptions of the cave, the suit, and how the latter distances Gyre from the former, her slow progress down through tunnels and water, the closed environment, the struggle for control, her thoughts and the constant uncertainty, the question if something is real or not - I loved all of these.The eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere in this book is amazing, as is the body horror, and some of those scenes are truly terrifying to read.Sometimes I was even reminded of those story-driven videogames, which is probably because of the close one-person perspective and the alternation between more adventure-like scenes and scenes where we (or the protagonist) get more information.I loved all the descriptions of the suit and how Gyre's thoughts towards it changed depending on her situation. Feeling trapped, then feeling protected and so on. And all those descriptions really created a barrier between Gyre in her cyberpunk-scifi-ish suit that is controlled in every aspect all the time and the completely tech-free, natural and unpredictable environment of the cave. The scenes where Gyre <spoiler>interacted directly with the world outside her suit rank among the most scary ones for me, just because I, too, was so used to the suit being there. First the times where she doubted what the suit was showing her, then when she opened her helmet and in the end when the suit started to break apart. And that scene at camp six where her suit started to power down and she was trapped. That was scary!</spoiler>The exploration of Gyre's psyche was both engaging and horrifying and I did find all of it truly believable. The author does not only play with Gyre's perception of reality, but with ours as well, and she does hit the mark.Some examples: (mild spoilers here)<spoiler>Trying to convince herself what a gread handler Em is, despite not trusting her and knowing perfectly well all the things Em does wrong, just because Em is the only person Gyre has to watch over her. Trying to find reasons to push forward and not turn around, simply because she does like the challenge and the thrill, but she knows this alone would be a rather dangerous and stupid motivation.</spoiler>One of my favourite scenes was when she discovered <spoiler>the line in one of those long drops that was still taut as if someone was hooked to it and she tried to decide wheter to cut it or not.</spoiler> That was so good! Also, the <spoiler>empty suit and feeding canister she discovered that wasn't there before.</spoiler>The Tunnelers are an interesting concept and worked well for me up until a certain point - that point being the reason why I'm giving this book only four stars. <spoiler>When we actually get to see the tunneler, Gyre faces it down and then kills it.</spoiler> That scene really irritated me, it just didn't fit in with the rest. My least favourite. Especially disappointing directly after that super scary and well-crafted scene where <spoiler>the tunneler passed right behind Gyre and everything was chaos. I remember being thankful that it passed so close and yet we didn't get to see it.</spoiler><b>Regarding the ending:</b>I found it rushed, especially in comparison to everything else.<spoiler>I liked that not everything was cleared up and I liked everything that happened until Gyre got out of the cave. For me, the book could have ended there.I'm a bit disappointed by everything that happend afterwards and especially by the fact that the two actually ended up together. But on the other hand, it feels fitting that Gyre continues to tell herself that Em is good for her, because she got her out of the cave. So the massive power imbalance continues ... and actually, whily typing this out, I realized this book could not have a happy ending, so maybe I do like it after all. I was just angry about Gyre's interpretation of everything, the "well, we were both assholes". I guess they are both depending on each other in a very unhealthy way.</spoiler>