Reviews

Luster by Raven Leilani

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I'm not sure how, but I had the mistaken idea that this book was a modern twist on a vampire story. So I spent the first half of it wondering when they'd cut to the chase and introduce the vampire element. It was quite distracting trying to work out who might end up being the vampire. To be clear, this isn't a vampire story and I am an idiot for reading half the book before I realised that. So, as a vampire novel this book is awful. But as a non-vampire based story it's pretty good.

It's actually an examination of what it's like to be a twenty-something, black woman in New York who gets embroiled in a sort of open relationship with a much older couple. I found it a bit slow going at times and, if I'm honest, throwing in some vampire action might have helped pick up the pace a bit during the more introspective passages.

youngkendy's review

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dark tense medium-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

4.75

cschneid's review against another edition

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challenging funny inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

sydmount's review

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Too chaotic. The writing style was awkward and it jumped around way too much.

victoriangh0st's review

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2.75

Some really really great lines. And some really really “oh I’m living in the 2020s” moments

brandyleigh_reads's review

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Sadly this was a DNF. This just wasn’t for me. I knew it from the moment I read the synopsis, but i heard such great things about it from people so I decided to give it 50 pages. The writing wasn’t terrible so I’d consider picking up a different novel from this author.