Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Luster

Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

onion's review against another edition

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mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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gracer0sew's review

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challenging funny tense 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

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davidbythebay's review

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challenging emotional funny tense medium-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

3.5

At the start of this book I kept thinking "I'm not a prude, but I am clutching my pearls!" Trust me when I say I am FAR from being squeamish about intimate escapades. But I was still, somehow, shocked by the frankness of the main character. As I read on, I realized what was really gnawing at me was her frankness. She almost sounded like she had already given up and was just an automaton moving about. And I think that was part of the point. As I read, the book grew on me and I really ended up liking it by the end.

Don't get me wrong, I still have some issues with the story. First of all, it was sometimes disjointed almost in that things just happened and felt like there was no thought behind it by the characters. For example - and this is in the description and not a spoiler - when Edie (our main character) becomes unemployed and invited to live with this family given everything that is knowingly going on here by the parties. It just reads as odd. I get setting aside differences and emotions in an emergency situation, but taking someone in whom you think so little of and then seem to be friends with, back and forth on this endless spectrum of what's going on here.

The writing was absolutely lovely, on the whole. Some things were a little over written (poetic to the point of overdoing it) but mostly it was a pleasant read. One issue I had was, and this is something small, the hipster-vibe of acknowledging and naming the patriarchy/capitalism/what-have-you in the middle of a rant. I just don't like a conversation - and I have actually been privy to these happening in real life and even then they feel staged - where something happens and it is named by the grander concept that it embodies. I know this is a patriarchal matter you are discussing and having opinions on. I don't need to be bluntly slapped by that wet fish.

All of that aside, I enjoyed the writing and liked the story. It touched on several important topics and ideas, but sometimes it dealt with them very briefly and it came across as being dismissive. (I'm talking about the key scene in particular. If you know, you know.) As it stands, it was an enjoyable bit of reading but nothing I really connected with. I may just be done with the whole millennial/Gen Z sarcastic "wokeness" even though I am technically called a millennial/Gen Z. It's something that tends to be blunt and generalized without nuance or tact. Luster did not paint with such a wide indiscriminate brush, but it definitely created some bright strokes.

Better than an average book, but just not my taste. 3.5 Stars

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blackloreuk's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-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

5.0

Raven work is brilliant here! We get into generational trauma, the adultisation of young black girls, and the affects of slut shaming.

I didn’t really like the fact that Eric was white but raven may have done that to present the racial and gender power dynamics.

Raven gives a backstory to every aspect and helps us understand Edie thought process in everything she does. She doesn’t justify or try and make her character a victim she simply talks about it. Helps the reader really understand what is happening in the book!

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biancaaabrown's review

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challenging dark reflective tense 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

4.0

I think this book was definitely a challenging read, not lexically at all but semantically. It hurts to see a somewhat innocent woman in pain, especially when black. Raven Leilani writes raw, and doesn’t hold back and almost prods too sharply into your own wounds as a young black woman. Leilani frames city life as fearsome, love as hopeless and unrequited on all ends, and sadness as an inevitable border around all of the above. The fiction of this text is its own hope in my life at least, but a distant cry goes out to those for which this is less fictional.

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