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A review by tenten
Luster by Raven Leilani
emotional
funny
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
Luster might be one of my favorite reads of the year. recommended to me by both a partner and friend because of a few similarities to a short story i'm working on, i was hesitant to read Luster at first. when a book gets a lot of hype (or when i hype it up a lot in my mind) sometimes i get scared to read it because i'm afraid it won't meet my expectations. sometimes, they don't. other times...
other times, i read a book like Luster: a book that makes me laugh out loud, cringe with secondhand embarrassment, nod in recognition. a book that makes me really feel, really emote. a book with characters that feel real, that feel like people i know personally. and damn did i know Edie.
a 23-year old black girl who paints and lives a kinda pathetic but surprisingly typical life, Edie enters into a sexual relationship with a married white man who is twice her age. Edie is representation for us hot girls with IBS (see this TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kcunderc0v3r/video/6968468583047351558?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1) Edie is amazing in all her Gen Z glory—and yes, i'm claiming her as Gen Z because the story takes place as early as 2018 and as late as 2019, which makes her around my age—she's broke, she's lacking direction, she's sarcastic and sad and painfully relatable.
when i say her life is kinda pathetic, this is what i mean: after getting fired from her bottom-tier publishing position and replaced by the Other Black Girl in the office, she applies for just about any job she can, including a proofreading position for a gun magazine based in Staten Island and a secretarial one at a clown school in New Jersey. yup, clown school. she considers a dermatologist who has ads all over certain subway lines to be a 'famous person.' she's a hot mess.
i engage in a lot of conversations about black art and its audience. one criticism that people have of some black art —and art by people of color in general—is that some of it can feel like it's written in a way that explains things to folks (read: white people) who wouldn't get it. like, slang is used but also explained when it shouldn't have to be, or a character becomes a mouthpiece for a social issue that real life Black people deal with, or there is a hesitance to portray Black characters in a way that might make them look bad, thus "reinforcing stereotypes." Leilani doesn't seem worried about this.
Edie is not likable. she's nosy, she can be mean and jealous, she's even stalked someone, and trespassed in someone else's home. she has no impulse control. she starts problems. she is the definition of chaotic energy. i have read and wanted to fall in love with far too many stories of Black protagonists who are just too nice, too perfect, too rule-following, too flat, whose lives feel less like lives and more like plot devices. Edie has a life, a sucky one at that. her interactions with others are realistic. the people around her are real, too, not just stock characters that only exist to prove a point. all of the main characters are complex and messy in their own ways and i lived for it.
i also loved the writing style, the stream-of-conscious quality to the narration, the imagery. in my reviews, i tend to focus less on how something is written (style, structure, etc) and more on what is being written about, but Leilani didn't disappoint on either front. i'm looking forward to reading this book again and again again.
other times, i read a book like Luster: a book that makes me laugh out loud, cringe with secondhand embarrassment, nod in recognition. a book that makes me really feel, really emote. a book with characters that feel real, that feel like people i know personally. and damn did i know Edie.
a 23-year old black girl who paints and lives a kinda pathetic but surprisingly typical life, Edie enters into a sexual relationship with a married white man who is twice her age. Edie is representation for us hot girls with IBS (see this TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kcunderc0v3r/video/6968468583047351558?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1) Edie is amazing in all her Gen Z glory—and yes, i'm claiming her as Gen Z because the story takes place as early as 2018 and as late as 2019, which makes her around my age—she's broke, she's lacking direction, she's sarcastic and sad and painfully relatable.
when i say her life is kinda pathetic, this is what i mean: after getting fired from her bottom-tier publishing position and replaced by the Other Black Girl in the office, she applies for just about any job she can, including a proofreading position for a gun magazine based in Staten Island and a secretarial one at a clown school in New Jersey. yup, clown school. she considers a dermatologist who has ads all over certain subway lines to be a 'famous person.' she's a hot mess.
i engage in a lot of conversations about black art and its audience. one criticism that people have of some black art —and art by people of color in general—is that some of it can feel like it's written in a way that explains things to folks (read: white people) who wouldn't get it. like, slang is used but also explained when it shouldn't have to be, or a character becomes a mouthpiece for a social issue that real life Black people deal with, or there is a hesitance to portray Black characters in a way that might make them look bad, thus "reinforcing stereotypes." Leilani doesn't seem worried about this.
Edie is not likable. she's nosy, she can be mean and jealous, she's even stalked someone, and trespassed in someone else's home. she has no impulse control. she starts problems. she is the definition of chaotic energy. i have read and wanted to fall in love with far too many stories of Black protagonists who are just too nice, too perfect, too rule-following, too flat, whose lives feel less like lives and more like plot devices. Edie has a life, a sucky one at that. her interactions with others are realistic. the people around her are real, too, not just stock characters that only exist to prove a point. all of the main characters are complex and messy in their own ways and i lived for it.
i also loved the writing style, the stream-of-conscious quality to the narration, the imagery. in my reviews, i tend to focus less on how something is written (style, structure, etc) and more on what is being written about, but Leilani didn't disappoint on either front. i'm looking forward to reading this book again and again again.
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Abortion
Minor: Animal death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Suicide, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Pregnancy