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risqkae's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, and Abandonment
its_hanya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Blood, Police brutality, and Abortion
Moderate: Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Abandonment
jkreads's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Sexual content, Blood, Abortion, and Abandonment
bail33's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Police brutality, Abortion, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Medical content, and Car accident
pikkumarja's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Kirjasta muotoutui kuitenkin erittäin ansiokas ja tarkkanäköinen tutkielma Ediestä ja hänen suhteistaan Rebeccaan, Akilaan ja Ericiin. Tarinassa käsitellään limittäin rakenteellista rasismia, fanitusta, hyväksikäyttöä ja lohtua ja se muodostaa erittäin erityisen kokonaisuuden.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Racism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Abortion
Moderate: Death, Blood, Police brutality, and Medical content
Minor: Mental illness, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
novella42's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I just need to say... Please don't take this book's depiction of non-monogamy as representative of how to do an ethically open marriage. Holy hell. I feel at a loss to list all the ways Edie and Eric and Rebecca torture each other needlessly. It's a fascinating train wreck to watch, and I found myself looking at my own polycule with renewed gratitude and affection. Leilani doesn't let any of the characters off the hook, and if a lot of their behaviors seem inexplicable to you, well, you won't be alone.
As to the book itself, I appreciated the lyrical, almost psychadelic writing. (If you don't like pose poetry or stream-of-consciousness writing, maybe pass on this one.) Leilani revels in dark Millennial existential dread that kept shocking laughter out of me. She's fantastic at descriptive phrases that catch you off-guard with their originality. I marveled at some of them, their poetic pacing and expansive assumptions, so much I started collecting a list:
"I am suspended in a lurid hypnagogic loop."
"It is impossible to see another black woman on her way up, impossible to see that meticulous, polyglottal origami and not, as a black woman yourself, fall a little bit in love."
"A sudden and swiftly contained conniption."
"Hooked into peripheral intuition."
"The city's breakneck, multilingual carousel."
"Some inconceivable boss-level of concentrated loneliness."
"The bike lanes in Manhattan already terrifying at 11:00 a.m., filled with delivery boys and girls who jet into traffic with fried rice and no reason to live, along with the sentient abdominals who do this for fun."
"The lawn buzzed and alkaline, the vinegar in the wine and carnage in the dew, everywhere the perfume of things that want to live."
I can't imagine what it's like to narrate this as an audiobook, because the rhythm of the words is beautiful and also relentless. Leilani is skilled at pulling you deep into the bewildering internal labyrinth of mental illness and immersive, uncomfortable experiences.
If you carry any traumas, I recommend browsing the full list of content tags. I almost couldn't make it through the scenes with gore and body horror, though Edie's dissociative skills and the eye of an artist made it slightly more bearable. I'm glad I got it in hardcopy instead of audio, so I could skim over difficult dark passages. There were lots of those. I'm not sure why I kept reading, except that I was fascinated. It was hard to look away.
One last thing, a recommendation for anyone who likes disco. I genuinely think one reason I enjoyed this book as much as I did was that in the first 15 pages, Edie references her connection to Idris Muhammad's 1977 song "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This." On a whim, I made a Spotify station out of it and I have to say, it complimented the book and let me surrender to the undertow.
Beautiful writing about broken people living a surreal, twisted story.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Vomit, and Car accident
Minor: Cancer, Rape, Excrement, Stalking, and Abandonment
avocadotoastbee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Edie, a 23-year-old black woman living and finding her way in New York, tries to fill the void left by her loneliness with sex.
The title "Luster" makes sense in this regard. However, the novel wasn't just about sex and lust. For most of the time, the novel depicts the pain and anguish of each character.
Edie: loneliness, loss of her job and apartment, living with her (much older) lover's family, daddy issues, childhood trauma
Rebecca: marital problems, dealing with her husband's younger lover, not wanting to be a mother but having a child
Eric: substance abuse, marital problems, infertility
Akila: childhood trauma, abandonment issues due to multiple adoptive families, the only black kid in the neighborhood, disordered eating
In some ways I hated all the characters and didn't find them likable, but I could also identify with small parts of each character.
While I loved how Raven Leilani described the dynamics between the characters and Edie's thought processes, I didn't like how stuffed with "internet wisdom" the book was. It felt to me like Leilani was trying to sprinkle a little self-help book vibe into the story.
Also, the power dynamic that results from the massive age difference in Edie and Eric's relationship wasn't romanticized, but it also wasn't portrayed for what it really is. Throughout the book, everyone blamed Edie, but really Edie is a victim of Eric.
At least by the end of the novel, Edie admits this.
"He is the most obvious thing that has ever happened to me, and all around the city it is happening to other silly, half-formed women excited by men who've simply met the prerequisite of living a little more life, a terribly unspecial thing that is just what happens when you keep on getting up and brushing your teeth and going to work and ignoring the whisper that comes to you at night and tells you it would be easier to be dead."
Overall, Luster was a good debut novel that deals with important issues and the life experiences of young black women. I can't wait to see where Raven Leilani is going.
Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Abortion, Abandonment, and Classism
vrcreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Vomit, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Dysphoria
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, and Death of parent
Minor: Gun violence and Abandonment
shannonnrosss's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Abandonment