Jul 15

Jul 15 Luster - Raven Leilani

If I could give this book 100 stars I absolutely would!! Wow!! Wowowowowowow! I usually try to be more eloquent when I write my reviews but Luster has knocked all sense of grammar and vocabulary out of my system. To read such a fierce, raw and sometimes anger-inducing book was a privilege. I cannot stress enough to my readers how much I would like them to read Luster. And when you do, savor it. Let the words wash over you, let your imagination see Edie, Eric, Rebecca and Akila (oh my dear Akila) and fill your minds and hearts.

It is so refreshing when I read stories of Black people that don’t focus solely on their trauma. We have seen and read SO MANY stories and films about white people trying to figure things out while making horrible decisions during their journey. Raven Leilani has done the same with Edie, a young Black woman learning to navigate adulthood and being an artist in New York. She makes so many questionable decisions in her life (who didn’t at 23?), some that made me say, “Girl, what are you DOING?” several times.

In Luster, Edie becomes involved with a married man named Eric, who claims to be in an open marriage. The relationship is strange, sexual, uneven and unexpected. When Edie loses her job, she ends up in Eric’s home, but it doesn’t happen the way you think. The entire household seems to be walking on eggshells at all times, and I never knew how things would turn out.

The author took her time with each character, fleshing them out and making them fully human. Edie is for most of this book, but she was real. She has a shitty New York apartment (you can’t be a real New Yorker without living in a shitty apartment), hardly any money, a decent job that could have turned into something had she kept it, and lots of past baggage. But she is also finding her way when it comes to her art. Her situation is incredibly weird and awkward, but her art is what she continued to work on, even through some of the more traumatic events that happens in the book. The artist in her is always there, and Edie uses her situation find her.

I really can’t wait for Luster to drop so others can read this incredible work and also so I can talk to someone about it. August 4 is the date, so make sure you pre-order.

I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Where to buy: The Lit. Bar Barnes and Noble Indiebound