The Luminous Dead: A Novel

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If you had the skill for it, then why wouldn’t you trade a little bit of bodily autonomy for enough money to feed your family or to start a new life? She has no illusions about the job she is offered by a shadowy company to conduct preliminary explorations into Lethe. It took reading to around the 61 percent mark for anything decent to happen and even then, it was lame.

The Luminous Dead - Spooky Reads! — Horror Bound The Luminous Dead - Spooky Reads! — Horror Bound

Many thanks to the publishers Harper Collins, the author Caitlin Starling and Edelweiss for the ARC.

She has to have surgery before getting into the suit to reroute her digestive system because the suit does everything for her. Occupational hazards are common enough to be calculated into the cost of mining explorations—a quantifiable number is all that Gyre’s life will amount to if she doesn’t make it out alive.

War of Images, Images of War: Technology and Labor in Caitlin

One scene in particular has Gyre locked out from communication with Em, her battery down to 4%, starving, terrified, alone in the dark fighting for her life to get to a stache that can save her. There is always something to extract, and this very circuitous lack of closure means that no one ever escapes the cave. She implants canisters into the suit that feed her, it continuously hydrates her, cycles out her waste, and can lock into place providing a bed for her. It didn’t matter that there were no hiding places in this passage, that it was impossible for anybody to have followed her. What Gyre doesn't know yet is that her contractor and only lifeline to the outside world Em has motivations of her own that aren't simply mining for ore.The contract is evoked when the bounds of their relationship twist and turn—from partnership to grudging understanding and, finally, co-dependency. Starling has written a tightly-focused novel, part psychological thriller, part deep character study. Each repetition leaves behind its own history—a series of bright and blinding bodies, computer code, graphic glitches, scratchy feedback.

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the repetitiveness here makes the story drag a bit, but luckily the scary parts provide enough entertainment throughout. Supplies have gone missing, tunnels completely shifted, and as she encroaches deeper into the darkness Gyre begins to suspect that she may not be entirely alone. So when I had the opportunity to receive an advance reader copy of the book from the publisher, I couldn't download it fast enough. Instead, the laboring body can be controlled by the employer’s will—stopped and moved, injected and manipulated from afar.Despite the many forces that horrify and wreck Gyre, there is hope in the tangible and material reality of a body. At times, the hopelessness of Gyre’s situation really got to me, not to mention how all the uncertainties had a way of messing with your head. as gyre descends further and further beneath the surface, both she and em discover just how far they can push each other -- with devastating consequences.