Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Luster by Raven Leilani

118 reviews

salma__m's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Racism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Abortion

ydneysays_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Phenomenal narrator for this audio edition and beautiful prose that cuts like a knife.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion and Toxic relationship

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Addiction, Infidelity, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Body horror, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Abortion, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Car accident and Animal death

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Infidelity, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, and Sexual content

Moderate: Police brutality, Miscarriage, Abortion, Racism, and Drug use

Minor: Animal death and Racism

geesammy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Captivating, like watching a fatal car crash in slow motion.  Spare and sharp.  Some brilliantly written lines.  Not enjoyable through as the subject matter is rough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Abortion, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Eating disorder

nicolaparty's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content and Drug abuse

Minor: Racial slurs

novella42's review

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• 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 noticed this book at my library because of its gorgeous cover, and I took it home because I am polyamorous and the blurb mentioned "an open marriage—with rules."

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Dysphoria, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, Addiction, Animal death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Medical content, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Violence, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Gun violence, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Cancer, Abandonment, Excrement, and Stalking

caughtbetweenpages's review

emotional reflective slow-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

What an absolute masterclass of a novel. I am gobsmacked that this is a DEBUT. Before even getting into the content of Luster, I cannot overstate Leilani's mastery of language and the writing craft. She's sparing with her word count but it never feels as though she's leaving out any important descriptions or moments; every sentence counts, and most of them hold a poeticism (albeit, often a bleak one, though one that the Russian Greats would be proud to call their own) that makes them stick with you even after you shut the book.

Edie's struggle to discover herself and "come of age" without yet understanding what her identity is or what she wants it to be feels inevitable given the culmination of factors surrounding her life. Her attempts to find herself in men, in her art, in jobs she's told she's too Black or too promiscuous or not XYZ enough to be part of, are heartbreaking. She is so, desperately lonely. And then, her internal musings about the absurdity of applying to a million dead end jobs to make rent, or about how older men are not necessarily deep so much as they've just lived more life, pull a painful laugh out of you even if you don't want to be amused. If a reader in your life says they they like stories about messy, damaged female leads, put Luster in their hands. 

My favorite relationships of this book are between Edie and Rebecca and Edie and Akila. There's a complex dynamic with Rebecca where, while Edie might seem to have some power over Rebecca being the woman that R's husband is having an affair with, Rebecca is by far the one holding Edie's life in her hands. The scene where

Rebecca takes Edie to the punk show and they both get beaten up some in the pit

  Rebecca is clearly in control, having chosen to go there herself and being prepared for the violence of the moment, whereas Edie is very much drifting and only there because... well, how can she say no to Rebecca, given that

Rebecca could make her homeless in an instant? As she does later in the book, when she finds out Edie is pregnant!

It's a petty assertion of control, as many of Rebecca's actions are. And yet, Edie is drawn to that in some way, seeking the approval of this older woman whose life is comparatively easy and put together and resilient even to the point of being able to invite her husband's affair partner into her home. And yet! It's clear that Rebecca sees herself as the one who is put upon, the one who is the victim, despite having such control. It's a fascinating dynamic.

And then there's Akila and Edie. In many ways, Akila is who Edie must have been like as a kid--incredibly nerdy, passionate, artistic--and in other ways, she's who Edie is now--lost, a stranger in her own home. Lonely. Black in a context that is deeply unfriendly to Blackness. It was so touching to see Edie nurture Akila, not only protecting her from the racism of the police and her tutor and helping her take care of her natural hair in a way that Akila's (White, Adoptive) parents don't know how to, but in encouraging her art and storytelling and engaging with her on her interests. I think they very much needed each other, and it made it all the worse when

Edie got kicked out of the house and had to leave Akila

and Akila knew about it, and was so matter-of-fact. 

This was a difficult book to read, emotionally speaking. But so well worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Racism, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse

loisholloway's review

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Blood, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, and Racism

ahopper7's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

The book wasn’t working for me, but once I switched to the audiobook, I was able to get into the story more. The characters are not likeable, but I gather that was on purpose. The story is dark, but the way the author handled how trauma shows up in our lives and vulnerability of discovering yourself including your worth was beautiful. Overall, the book just wasn’t for me, but I appreciate what the author was doing with the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Abortion, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Police brutality, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts