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A review by readwithkiks
Luster by Raven Leilani
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
3.75
read this in one evening. i stumbled into it and proceeded forward with a momentum akin to when you've tripped only slightly, but gravity + your weight + your hunched-over posture leads you to pick up speed and eventually collide with the ground. did that make sense? probably not. i didn't realize how far i had gotten in the book until i had only a chapter left (eBook format binge-reading lends itself to this).
at times, the writing was difficult to get through. some sentences felt too short, like important parts of them were clipped away. others seemed to go on for pages and were hard for me to follow. there were some fantastic, sharp sentiments that seemed so specific to the main character's Zillenial New Yorker perspective. Edie is the type of person who seems aloof, but is really just constantly in her head about everything. she is alone in much of the book, even when she's in the presence of others, she's alone. she regards herself with a level of carelessness that made me want to cry. she personifies this mediocre man in ways that lots of us personify men, projecting onto him an allure and intrigue he doesn't deserve. and yet, she has moments of such cutting clarity.
"He wants me to be myself like a leopard might be herself in a city zoo. Inert, waiting to be fed. Not out in the wild, with tendon in her teeth."
i mean, come on. what a sentence, what an image.
reading this made me feel slightly claustrophobic, or like i was being held underwater. you're seeing into the main character's desires and pain and trauma with such intimacy, it can feel nauseating. Leilani perfectly captures the ways that pleasure can slip into disgust and endearment can slip into repulsion. the lines between those feelings are so blurred. it's uncomfortable to sit with.
*light spoiler ahead*
i will end with another quote from the book that i read over and over. near the end, there's a violent interaction with police officers and Leilani writes:
"I know that the moment between when a black boy is upright and capable of speech and when he is prostrate in his own blood is almost imperceptible, due in great part to the tacit conversation that is happening beyond him, that has happened before him, and that resists his effort to enter it before it concludes."
at times, the writing was difficult to get through. some sentences felt too short, like important parts of them were clipped away. others seemed to go on for pages and were hard for me to follow. there were some fantastic, sharp sentiments that seemed so specific to the main character's Zillenial New Yorker perspective. Edie is the type of person who seems aloof, but is really just constantly in her head about everything. she is alone in much of the book, even when she's in the presence of others, she's alone. she regards herself with a level of carelessness that made me want to cry. she personifies this mediocre man in ways that lots of us personify men, projecting onto him an allure and intrigue he doesn't deserve. and yet, she has moments of such cutting clarity.
"He wants me to be myself like a leopard might be herself in a city zoo. Inert, waiting to be fed. Not out in the wild, with tendon in her teeth."
i mean, come on. what a sentence, what an image.
reading this made me feel slightly claustrophobic, or like i was being held underwater. you're seeing into the main character's desires and pain and trauma with such intimacy, it can feel nauseating. Leilani perfectly captures the ways that pleasure can slip into disgust and endearment can slip into repulsion. the lines between those feelings are so blurred. it's uncomfortable to sit with.
*light spoiler ahead*
i will end with another quote from the book that i read over and over. near the end, there's a violent interaction with police officers and Leilani writes:
"I know that the moment between when a black boy is upright and capable of speech and when he is prostrate in his own blood is almost imperceptible, due in great part to the tacit conversation that is happening beyond him, that has happened before him, and that resists his effort to enter it before it concludes."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence and Violence