Grim Readers Book Club discussion

Final discussion post of The Luminous Dead with spoilers.

Hmm ... so I just finished the book and I'm undecided on how it's left me feeling. It was really strong leading up the ending but then I felt as though things were wrapping up too quickly. I like that we finally found out what the Tunneler was but after all the build up to the reveal it kind of fell a bit flat for me. I guess maybe I should blame that on seeing too many movies where things bolt forward and grab it's victim by the head? Ha! And the whole scenario with Eli ... there was a TON of build up and suspense for him to just be dead? Did she cut him loose on that drop or? I would have preferred to know. The author definitely did a solid job of making the reader think someone was going to jump out at some point. I had this feeling Eli was going to ambush Gyre and take her suit ...

Can't wait to hear everyone else's thoughts!!

I agree with you it wrapped up too quickly. My biggest issue that I still can’t get over, is that she was leaving camp 3 for camp 2 when the tunneler came and she was caught in the collapse, cut off from camp 2, being told she only has a day to live and to go back to camp 4. At the collapse she kept saying 2 more days and she’s out. Yet she can be pulled out from further in, at camp 4, in less than 24hrs?!?! I just can’t see how that was possible. It annoyed me from the moment M said she’d come in to get her until the final word of the book.
From that point on i didn’t care what happened.

I also feel like the tunneler reveal was meh. That could be because I had already checked out of the story due to the implausible rescue.
I must have missed something.

I didn't really have any issue with the tunneler reveal. I don't know, that didn't bother me at all. I think for me it was that I do think everything seemed to go super fast at the end. I was really loving it up until about the point where she amputated her arm. I'm not sure why THAT was the thing that bothered me, but somehow it was. I think it was because, even though I was aware that she was delirious and dying and basically everything was falling apart, I was like "WHY? WTF!? No! Listen to your handler! Why are you cutting your own arm off needlessly!?" Haha. And then Em said it was the right call? But I still wasn't buying it.

I also know this is dumb, but I didn't love that there was this mini-love-story in there. And that she got out okay and they sort of...fell in love and were going to lean on each other and that they "found each other" through this terrible process? I suppose in general that's fine. But I am just not the sort of person who wants romance at all in my horror. To me, that took some of the horror out of the story. I felt like, if I'm being honest, Käthe is correct. She never should have been able to get a rescue at that point. She should have died down there. It would have been much creepier.

It made sense to me that she would develop feelings for Em when she was all alone in the dark of the cave and Em was the only contact she had. I could definitely see that. But the whole "now you got me out and let's go off world together and live a happy life" thing was problematic to me. After everything that Em had put her through, and realistically, yes. The rescue should not have even been possible.

I actually really loved the bit where Jennie's corpse starts to drag her toward the drop and she sees Isolde and Eli and she starts to believe that she belongs there down in the dark...but then she gets rescued and then...I don't know.

I have some feelings about this and I am still wondering if the "ghosts" were ever even real or just hallucinations? WAS the cave really cursed?

For me this was a 5 star book all the way until the last 25 pages or so. And then it lost me a bit. I could complain all day but my thoughts are not very well organized (as I'm sure you can tell from this post) and I'm not even entirely sure what I want to say! I'm just frustrated.

Checkpoint 3 questions are coming early this month because I have already finished the book, and I see no reason to hold them back! Enjoy! :)

1 Did you like the way this book ended? Why or why not?

2 What do you think was the scariest/most disturbing part of this book? Why?

3 It is revealed that the “person” in the cave with Gyre has been Eli all along. We do not get a chance to see him, however, and it is assumed he has died. What are your thoughts on this?

4 Is the cave actually cursed? Is Gyre seeing the ghosts of the dead, or hallucinating from the spores and prolonged time spent underground?


Sorry everyone. I don't really have a lot for the end of the book. I think there's plenty to say, but really the question I want to ask is just #1: Did you like how it ended? I feel like that is going to be the big one here! I'm interested to see what everyone thinks of how this played out!

Just finished this tonight and holy heck it was an amazing read. I do agree, it wrapped up a bit too fast. The tunneler reveal both fell flat for me, but also made me happy just to freaking know what it was lol. All in all, I was happy with the ultimate ending. The most disturbing part of this for me was that final stretch of Grye to make it back only to continually have something happen to prevent her from getting out of the cave. That and cutting off her own freaking arm!
I wish there had been more with Eli, did he really die or is he still running around? I want finality for this knowledge personally. I'm thinking Gyre hallucinated a lot of what happened. She's in a cave by herself with virtually no senses that are fully her own; just about anyone would go crazy in that setting.

After I finished this book I read a few reviews online (I never do this beforehand because spoilers, but sometimes after I read a book I really felt strongly about, I want to see what other people have to say). I came across one where the criticism was essentially that it couldn't decide what KIND of horror it wanted to be? And I found that interesting, because I hadn't really considered it until I read this review, but I get what they are getting at.

I spent quite a bit of the story wondering if there were going to be ghosts or something paranormal in the cave. Especially after she started thinking she saw Isolde. But then it turns out probably not? It seems like maybe it was all just in her head? And then I sort of thought that maybe it was going to be a bit of a monster story with the tunnelers? But the tunneler didn't really have much to do with the actual action. It was more just that their existence was the reason she had to go in alone.

Here is an excerpt from that review if anyone is interested:

"The bigger offense, in my opinion, is that The Luminous Dead is never really clear what kind of horror it wants to be.
I kept expecting there to be a ghost story a la Event Horizon, or some The Descent-style monster showdown. (It isn’t, and there isn’t.) There are several gestures made towards ghosts, biological agents, malevolent spirits, raggedy Sunshine-style survivors, it’s all in your head My Bloody Valentine… and there isn’t really any clarity until the end of the book and by then it’s kind of too late."

So yeah. I guess I sort of agree with that point? I still felt this was essentially a 4.5 star book for me. It could have been 5 stars if not for the rushed and awkward ending. But I do wish there had been some more clarification on some of it. Eli, for example. WAS he dead? Was he alive for a while and then...dead by the end? Or was he still in there somewhere? I just felt that the ending was unsatisfying after being such a fantastic book all the way through.

I think I see what everyone is saying about the ending feeling rushed and a bit ambiguous, but that wasn't my takeaway from the end - it might have been because I plowed through the last hundred or so pages yesterday while my toddler was sleeping, so I felt kind of rushed myself. I was overall pleased with the whole book, start to finish. It was so well done for having such a simple palate to work from, and never got boring. The hints of Isolde and other ghosts were just enough to keep it interesting, and the complicated character interaction kept things moving. This was a great pick!

I really enjoyed this overall... this author has definite skills when it comes to creepy suspense and having you wait for something to pop out of the shadows.

The tunneller reveal was okay for me... not entirely sure why their talking got them into trouble now vs. all the long conversations they had had previously... was it just the broken suit bleeding more sound?

I agree I wasn't clear how they could suddenly get her out so fast when they couldn't before, though I wondered if it was because Em could have gotten her out all along, but had to be willing to sacrifice herself and wasn't willing to the last moment.

I would have liked more definitive resolution on Eli and what exactly was making Gyre want to stay in the cave. Like Isolde, will she be compelled to go back in too?

I'm definitely in the 4/4.5 range for rating this one.

Yeah the ending was way too fast and only having like two paragraphs of the actual Tunneler after 300 pages of lead up was disappointing. I don’t know. It was suspenseful... but I didn’t get anything concrete, which I guess is fine, I’m totally cool with an ambiguous ending.

Maybe it was all suspense and too little horror? I just can’t wrap my head around how I feel about it. Like Sara, I think I need to read some reviews to try and nail down my thoughts.

Also, there’s a map in the front of the book and there’s a direct drop from the surface to camp 4, I think that’s how they got Gyre out so easily.