The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

 

The Luminous Dead is a futuristic science fiction novel with some suspenseful moments, manly claustrophobia feelings.  It does a really good job of bringing out the feeling of being closed in, especially for a book. It also does a decent job of giving off an isolation feeling as the main character, Gyre, explores the underground caves. Unfortunately, those were the only areas where I felt this book shined. The two characters we have in the book is Gyre and Em. Gyre goes into the cavern system while Em is on the outside and oversees the mechanisms in Gyre’s explorer suit. They are in constant contact with each other. The thing for me though was that I really did not care too much for either character. The author did try to flesh the characters out but for whatever reason they still felt flat to me. The book also was a slog to get through at times. I do like a slow burn that starts to heat up more as the story goes on. This story felt like trying to start a fire in a heavy rain, no matter how hard it tried to catch it just was not going to happen. 2 out of 5 stars.