Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Luster by Raven Leilani

102 reviews

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Luster by Raven Leilani wasn’t my favorite contemporary novel, but I did like the tension it built throughout. The atmosphere versus the subject matter developed in interesting ways, but still felt true to real life experiences. I wasn’t a fan of the characters in this book, however. None of them felt interested me and I didn’t find myself rooting for any of them. This novel continually made me feel uncomfortable with what I was reading, but it didn’t feel like it was in a productive way. I appreciate books that make me feel uncomfortable as a learning mechanism, but this didn’t feel like it was trying to teach me anything, and if it was it wasn’t clear what the lesson should be. While I liked the writing style, the content of the novel didn’t feel like it was focused. It jumped around a lot and skipped over things that felt like they should be important for others that were maybe not as much. Overall this was a short novel, but it did feel longer than it was. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tanwe's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lilyblum's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This book was nothing like how I had imagined it to be. I thought it was going to be spicey, steamy and chaotic, however, it was depressing, messy and tense. 
I felt so sorry for Edie and I would not have been able to handle her life circumstances. So in a sense this book was written so well that it made me feel a lot, even if negative emotions. Edie reminded me of that one woman in Cleopatra and Frankenstein and the dreamlike story telling of the one in Hot Milk. Messy, flawed and broken female characters seem to be on my radar lately. I despised Eric and felt ambiguous about Rebecca -as you are supposed to probably- but felt so much gentleness for Akila. 
A short and confusing read, not sure if I’d recommend it but definitely look up trigger warnings in advance!!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kellylynnthomas's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a gorgeous novel! Leilani's prose has teeth. Although the book is light on traditional plot, it reads like a thriller. The relationships in this book are so fraught that I found myself holding my breath more than once, waiting to see what would happen next. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

whoisrois's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It grew on me once we meet Rebecca. Overall very well written but I think the pop culture references already date it a little bit 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

risqkae's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There wasn’t too much to the plot, but you wouldn’t really notice because the author’s writing in the book was beautiful and easy to get through. Being only a year older than Edie at the time of me reading this book and also being an African-American woman, it was refreshing to see someone who looks like me so nicely crafted, even with the traumatic and dark parts to her personality and life. Nuanced representation is still hard to come by. It didn’t feel like any of the  heavy topics that were brought up were being forced into the book either, just made it more interesting to read. I’ve read some reviews where they said that the  plot of the book in general was unrealistic, but I would have to disagree. You hear out of pocket crazy stories all the time on the news and on social media so a 20 something black woman ending up in her white lover’s house with his equally white wife and adopted black child actually doesn’t seem too far-fetched in this day and age. Each character was distinctly their own person and their interaction with each other also felt very authentic. My only critique would be I wanted to see if Edie had more pockets of true happiness and joy and I don’t think we ever got that for real, it was always for one split second. I feel like everybody has the capacity for those moments even if their life is tragic. Overall, the book felt like one big intrusive thought and I loved that about it.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I purchased a copy of this book at a library book sale.
"Luster" follows a young twenty-something Edie as she tries to make it in her life. Edie's life seems to be crashing down around her as she is trying to build a name for herself. The only good part of her day is painting, and the married man she has just started seeing, Eric. Eric has an open marriage with his wife and has a teenage daughter. When Edie really hits rock bottom and moves in temporarily with Eric's family while he is on a business trip, her life really becomes wild.
This novel eloquently explores the difficulties women face, especially black women, when they are first starting out in their life. Edie just does not seem to be able to catch a break, and she does not want to rely on Eric or his family, but she really does not have many options.
One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was Edie's relationship with Eric's daughter. Eric's daughter was adopted and is a black girl being raised by white parents. Although Eric and his wife love their daughter, there are just things they do not know, and it is difficult for them to always care for her in the best ways. Edie really steps up as an almost guide and helps the girl come into her own and embrace her blackness. I think this was great to see as a character growth, but I think this also helped Edie with her own life.
Edie is ruthless in her attempts to make it on her own. For example, when she needs to find a new job and nothing is panning out, she gets a bike and delivers food to people. She knows how to scrap by and hustle, but she also knows how to practice self-care and not run herself into the ground. Painting is her release, and she continues to allow herself to indulge in this to maintain her sanity.
I think this is an exceptional debut that explores how difficult it can be to start out in life. I definitely recommend this to anyone struggling to find who they are and who they want to be.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kalyaniwarrier's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Luster has been on my TBR for years, and I regret to say that it was underwhelming and disappointing. 

Let me go through the positives first: the novel focuses on underlying themes of racism and the struggles of the African-American community in a predominantly white neighbourhood. There is a relatability that can be found when the protagonist, Eddie appears to have problems that the youth of today face such as body shaming, lack of self-esteem, and hyper-fixating on the future. 

But apart from these positives, the negatives weigh heavier: the plot involves polygamy in incomplete consensual manner, and presents weird living arrangements that question morality. The plot does not necessarily move forward, as the characters seem to be stuck in a loop of choices that prevents any major advancements in the plot. The characters do not seem to have no clear personality; it's not necessary for characters to have full-round personalities, but the plot, in my opinion, has no significant substance, therefore, it would have been better to have some improvement with the characters; to me, the characters kind of felt robotic.

Overall, it is not a bad book - a pretty average read. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jkreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's been a while since I last felt FED by a book, but this one felt like a whole meal. The prose was so lush, it was such a pleasure to consume. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was great.

Raven Leilani has such an exquisite way of describing the mundane - something as ordinary and dare I say, cliche, as a twenty-something living in a crappy roach and mouse infested apartment in New York is recounted in a way that almost adds a layer of magic and whimsy to it.

Don't get me wrong, nothing about it is glamourised, it's bleakly realistic, but the language used is just so divine.

I'm not usually a litfic girlie, I tend to get bored, but I was HOOKED by Luster literally straight away. I anticipated that I would get bored halfway through like I usually do during anything that isn't a fantasy or a romance, but I was pleasantly surprised that Luster kept me hooked from start to finish. Everything about this book felt cliched or inevitable, which it leaned into, but it's really a testament to Leilani's writing that the story was so captivating because in my opinion this is not something that's easy to pull off. I can't wait to read more by this author in the future!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

growplantsreadbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging funny sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Points off for
the pregnancy scare
even though it was pretty important to the plot. 
Messy messy mess!!! So dark, so funny, (so relatable). My heart aches for the daughter character. 
Can't wait to see where this author goes next!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings