Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Luster by Raven Leilani

40 reviews

madelinedalton's review

challenging 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Police brutality, Self harm, and Blood

Moderate: Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Racism, Abortion, Drug use, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol

bookishcookiemonster's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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

3.0

When I was reccomend this book, i wasn't given too many details and I'm glad for that.
Where it started and where it ended, not at all what I was expecting. 
I love messy characters and this book is FULL of messy characters. 
Made me reflect on how we really don't know what is happening in the lives of people around us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, Vomit, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Infertility, Abortion, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

Minor: Gun violence and Suicidal thoughts

snavehannah's review

challenging dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Suicide, Gore, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Drug use

Minor: Animal death

itsbumley's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Abortion, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Drug use, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Racism, and Sexual content

laurenkimoto's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A complex disaster of a women living her complex disaster of a life 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Gaslighting, Drug use, Eating disorder, Racism, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

mekaylynn's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Violence, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Infertility, Eating disorder, Suicide, Infidelity, Cursing, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The last third of this book saved it from getting a lower rating. While I can appreciate the poetry and extended metaphors in Leilani’s writing, I can’t help but feeling it comes across as rather constipated and convoluted in parts. I quite often found myself completely lost and having to reread to regather the thread of the prose.

The actual premise was intriguing - the commencing few chapters were not particularly enthralling, but the pace did pick up later on in the novel. The portrayal of nihilistic self-destructive sex was raw and ugly, knitted together in a web of nuanced discussions on race, sexuality, feminism and capitalism which I found very interesting and affecting. These are the parts that dragged this book up in its rating.

However, I overall found this to be quite a slog to get through. I powered through the final half in one sitting, and the concluding chapters were immaculately done. But in the end I wasn’t particularly enthralled or interested in Edie as a character.

I stand by my appreciation for Leilani’s prose, and I finish my review with this quote that I found powerful:

I am inclined to pray, but on principle, I don’t. God is not for women. He is for the fruit. He makes you want and he makes you wicked, and while you sleep, he plants a seed in your womb that will be born just to die.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Fatphobia, Grief, Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Vomit, and Addiction

arys_library's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Such an incredible debut novel. In this book we follow a 23 year old black woman named Edie as she joins an open relationship with an older white couple. During her visits and experiences with the couple, she notices that have an adopted black daughter that Edie is immediately drawn to. Edie realizes that she may be the only black figure in this girls life and wants to help navigate her through the world, even though at times, Edie seems to need help doing that herself. 

I absolutely loved the narration throughout this book. It’s scattered, insecure, and inadvertently funny. The way she thinks reminds me of parts of myself, which is why it felt so familiar and how I read it in one sitting. 

The beginning of the book was funny and sexual and the relationships that were formed bordered on unhinged. It was so easy to get through. The ending half could have easily been a different story, and I mean that in a good way. The ending focuses on Edie and her relationship with herself and the family she inserted herself into. 

I loved the ending half of the book even more than the beginning. It was a bit tiring though. The writing style is beautiful, and requires you to read it slowly to absorb the information. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Racism, Sexual violence, and Abortion

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Infertility, Body shaming, Police brutality, Vomit, and Toxic relationship

joanaprneves's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-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

3.75

This is a compulsive read. Which I honestly am starting to question. Is that a good thing? The book is very well written to the point where I felt it was almost too well written. I associate this book with Taddeo’s Animal where the writer’s virtuosic writing is too present and thus performative. Sometimes the descriptive somersaults are spot on, and a lot of the times they seem to be there for effect. Same with the plot and the characters. Of course the wife works at the morgue and many scenes will develop there; of course the husband is an archivist, talking on the phone about weird specimens, of course there is

a pregnancy and its inevitable miscarriage.
All this while there is very little character development and no real incursion into the characters and their behaviour. The middle-aged characters have the most movie-cliche middle-age crisis, whereas the young twenty-something is critiqued for the instant-validation typical of her generation. Of course

the character’s weird behaviour is explained as a journey into becoming an artist. I felt that this was an excuse that prevented a real excursion into trauma, aspirations, sexual desire and  the hardships of working terrible jobs.
Just like in Animal, this seems like a very well produced hit song lacking the depth of an indie first album.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Infertility

Minor: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

ashleybeereads's review against another edition

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Blood, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Alcohol, Body shaming, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, and Infertility

Minor: Vomit and Abortion