#read me as a woman. anyway it bothered me but i didn't rly want to get into a discussion so i let it be

[tkbrokkoli]

:v

[unproduciblesmackdown]

chatted abt it a bit earlier w/someone and i liked this book i finished the other day enough to toss out another Rec to anyone who wants it........”the luminous dead” an avg-lengthed ~300pg Scifi Suspense/Mystery/Thriller/Horror sort of novel ft. a Cave Exploring(ish) situation and also a gay romance. in fact it basically Completely takes place within that cave situation since it kicks off with the protagonist entering the cave. and if you would be like “hm sounds great” to find out a protagonist is a Not Extremely “”Personable”” Lesbian, good news. i had mentioned how i don’t ever exactly seek out scifi stuff very much but when you set it Underground i’m more into it lol, mostly the scifi here is “yes this is a cave on a not-earth planet” and “people can space travel. but capitalism is here too” and like, is mostly relevant in some of the fucked up cave shit being Extra weird and wild (this is relevant always but not often Directly. it’s not a journey of like, increasingly Bizarre Scifi Stuff down there) and the fact that the protagonist, who is the only person entering the cave on this Dangerous Mysterious Mission, has to constantly wear a high-tech suit which not only provides like, assistance re: the physical demands of moving through the cave, but also is Required b/c around here, for some reasons that aren’t Exactly known to anyone yet, if cavers go down Without their body completely encapsulated at all times, they tend to get killed / disappear, wuh oh. also Uh Oh b/c the protag’s one source of contact with the outside world, the woman monitoring her from the surface, has some remote control over the functions of this suit that the protagonist can’t take off, and if you would believe it, her agenda and the purpose of this caving mission quickly become more mysterious and questionable and the capacity to interfere with the protagonist’s physical functions is more of a problem than ever in proportion to that. and if you’re thinking back to “hang on, gay romance, but that is Not Romantic” like yeah that all of that stuff is def regarded as a negative / a big problem

im not good at a well-formatted anything much less novel rec but yeah it was real Well-Paced where the suspense / tension / Problems never really like, got stale / less effective cuz the situations were evolving / changing and each [problem] like, overlapped with / played into other ones real well i felt lol......and yknow expected Cave Things like “hope i don’t fall” and “hope i don’t experience effects of long-term isolation / lack of stimulation in a dark and quiet and yet hostile environment like hallucinations or paranoia or anything” and “there are going to be some Metaphors in this story”.....if you can believe it, death is relevant, and not just in the [protagonist trying not to die] way, although there sure is That. anyways i found it very Readable and engaging and kept feeling like “oh this rules” at many points and like, for example, there was this one moment really even prior to the most climactic sections of things where i was like wow damn this is striking me as so effectively Ominous even though it was during a period with no immediate threat / dread-inspiring issue, things had just been built up to / set up well enough that i was already like, gripping the figurative armrests over some foreboding sign.......i mean i tend to read things as All at Once as i can but i sure charged thru this in like three days or smthing. so if it sounds Interesting again the title is “the luminous dead”