5/5 stars — a nail-biting story of the human mind and body pushed to their limits

"You're hitting your limit. You're only human.
Fuck that."

And that's Gyre, main character of The Luminous Dead. This book is many things—a psychological thriller; a survival adventure reminiscent of a video game; a story of man (or woman, actually) vs. nature, self, fellow man, and machine—but at its heart, it's about determination.

Gyre Price padded her credentials to get hired on a days-long solo caving expedition, one that would require her to be surgically hooked into a suit that would serve as both equipment and protection. She'd be guided from the surface by a team of experienced handlers who could, in a pinch, access the controls of her suit to move her out of danger or administer potentially lifesaving medication.

Instead of a team, she gets one woman: the mysterious Em, who proves willing to manipulate Gyre both physically and emotionally if it gets Gyre through the dangerous cave to Em's objective.

Chillingly, Gyre discovers that she is the most recent of nearly three dozen cavers to attempt the mission and that a huge majority of her predecessors have died. Em keeps throwing people at her own personal obsession...and they rarely come back.

But Gyre is strong, driven—desperate, even—and she's been climbing in caves since she was a child.

Author Caitlin Starling does a masterful job of building Gyre up only to meticulously take her apart over the course of the book. The Luminous Dead earns its horror subgenre not only in the trail of corpses Gyre follows through the cave but through vividly terrifying imagery and a visceral view of emotional decay. However, reading about Gyre's foray through the dark, unable to remove her suit, days from the nearest exit and still descending, is as satisfying as it is scary. It's fascinating to step into the shoes of someone so competent and physically powerful.

The dynamic between Gyre and Em shifts as they learn more about each other and are forced to rely on one another to achieve their goals. They're basically the only two characters in the book, so their relationship is a closed system, full of distrust and grudging sharing of information broken at first only by occasional banter.

Watching their codependence wind tighter as Gyre claws back some power—and then loses it again—is probably the highlight of the book for me. The early clues to their eventual attraction were laid with a deft touch.

The Luminous Dead is a dark, fascinating novel—one I highly recommend but will never read again because it scared the daylights out of me (further evidence that it was excellent, because it's normally the fantasy side of horror that scares me, not the psychological side). Against my better judgment with regard to not giving myself nightmares, I'll definitely check out future work by this incredible author!

**I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**