Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Luster

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Luster by Raven Leilani

85 reviews

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

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.

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kellylynnthomas's review against another edition

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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.

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risqkae's review against another edition

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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.

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valrunin's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

oh, yeah, this book was made for me

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bail33's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. I feel like I know the characters, and even though I didn’t particularly like Rebecca, I feel like I miss all of the characters now that I’m done reading because I had such a sense of being there. Leilani’s writing is just beyond incredible. She uses many words to explain things that could be summed up in just a few, which imo goes against the trend in literary writing right now, but because of it I know and love and understand her setting and cast more. There were so many passages that I have highlighted because how how much they inspire me to write. Such a beautiful and meaningful novel.

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al_davies's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

5.0

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ninawilson49's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

2.75

The first and second half are entirely different books. There was absolutely no let up with the grief and sadness the MC experienced to the point where I was not reflective and dreaded reading each chapter. This is a book that White women love and I unfortunately think they are reading it for the trauma porn under the guise of a moody, chaotic woman's story.

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