4.5 stars rounded up

As if your twenties isn't hard enough: working a boring admin job, living in a less than ideal apartment in Bushwick, and inappropriate sexual encounters at work, Edie gets involved with a married man in an open marriage - with rules. She finds herself slowly getting intertwined with his wife and adopted daughter.

A coming of age story learning about what it means to believe in your talent, trying to make sense of your life, and the unexpected influences that help you find your way.

The writing in this one is beautiful. I found myself reading slower than I usually do to savour the writing. Leilani (a debut author, honestly cannot believe it based on how beautiful and sophisticated the writing is) does a masterful job portraying Edie's loneliness and want for belonging. The more I think about it though, all of the characters in the book represent varying degrees of loneliness, and come together and forge relationships in unexpected ways.

I don't really know what else to say about this one other than it is a beautiful debut!

An ARC was provided by NetGalley and Farrah, Strauss & Giroux in exchange for an honest book review. My thanks to both for the opportunity of reading this addictive debut novel.
Raw, sad, smart and sharp are just a few words to describe Raven Leilani’s writing.
Edie, the main character is 23, black and struggling and has made some bad decisions in her young life. She works for a publisher but longs to be an artist of her own merit. She meets and begins dating an older white man online. Eric, is in an open marriage with his wife Rebecca who provides guidelines to this arrangement. As the story unfolds, Edie becomes entangled in their family life and that of their 12 year old adopted black daughter Alika.
This novel touches deals upon class, sex, race, loneliness and the search for something of your very own.
This is a page turner, a thought burner and tackles so many emotions in 240 pages.
I highly recommend this novel and kudos to Raven Leilani on the terrific read.

I heard a lot of talk about this book leading up to it's release and I was really excited about it. I loved the cover, but right away I knew it wasn't the book for me. I didn't enjoy the writing style at all. Very stark kind of all over the place and long run on sentences all made it hard to read. I also couldn't really connect to the characters. However it stuck with me and I felt like I needed to really take my time before reviewing. I think this might be one of those books that I come back to later and change my opinion but my first impression was not favorable.

*Thanks so much to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.*

The story is brutal and honest — raw like an open wound. It is, at times, haunting and painful to read, but also impossible to turn away from. I found it completely addicting from start to finish.

Luster can be read so many different ways; I mean the title. Is it the luster of a new job, a prestigious one, or the relationship, or the value of something precious. Does life lose its luster? Or should it be read as someone who lusts after someone or something? Beats me.This is an account of a young woman who falls into an open marriage where she is bother buddy and f..buddy. Plus she’s a role model for a youngster, or at least an object of curiosity and wonder. As for the sex, II think it’s more neurotic than erotic. I definitely was not a luster but I was looking to find the luster, and failed. Interesting experiment though.

Luster was a riveting incredible story that stayed with me long after finishing. Edie is a 20 something barely surviving in New York when she begins a relationship with a man in an open marriage. What follows is a life changing journey for her, one in which she begins to find herself particularly through her interactions with his wife and his adopted daughter. I can’t wait to hand sell this book.

This book caught me by surprise and I flew through it! The beginning was so strong and stayed that way but the end kind of left me wishing there was a different ending - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

This story is about a young woman who is trying to navigate life and finds herself in an interesting situation with an older man and his family. This book touches on a lot of relevant topics including sex, love, companionship, and so much more. This author does not hold anything back (language, POV, etc.) which is one of the best parts about this book. I don't know if it's a true story, or loosely based on one, but I feel as though a lot of individuals can resonate with something in this book.

A great book of 2020, I look forward to reading more from this author.

Stumbling through all of Edie’s decisions with her will make you feel like you’re back in your post-college years, trying to figure out — well, basically everything. This is an uncomfortable read — but it will make you think about all the ways life changes, and all the darkness that ensues along the way. It’s raw and frankly disturbing in places, but written with a transparency that makes you actually feel like you are honestly in Edie’s brain. Life is messy and ugly and uncomfortable and Raven Leilani’s debut manages that message beautifully and disturbingly. Also appreciate that the character in her 20’s isn’t any more fucked up than the characters who have bank accounts and homes.

First and foremost, I really enjoyed Leilani's writing. It was colorful and witty and was beautifully written. I just struggled with the story itself. The beginning hooked me in, and the narrative told her story well. The main character is complex and intriguing, but really, she’s a hot mess. I found it be unbelievable, and it became very distracting.

The basics of the books is a story about a young Black woman who is an aspiring artist. She was just fired from a publishing job based on her conduct and is living day-to-day. She then gets evicted from her apartment. Eric is someone she met online. He is a white man who is older than her, successful, and has an open marriage. She eventually meets Eric’s wife, Rebecca, and this is where the story takes a bizarre turn. In another twist, the couple has an adopted daughter who is Black.

I feel like the author tried to accomplish too much in writing this book. That left it feeling unfinished. I would read Leilani again. I just couldn't get engaged with this story.

Thanks to Picador for an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is incredible - it's funny, in a twisted way, and every character is at least a little bit awful, but it's so hard to put down! As Edie gets caught up in increasingly bizarre situations, she can't seem to find her way out: she's, in some ways, letting her path take her where it does, all while noting the racial and sexual subtexts to how people interact with her. This book is smart and compelling - it goes beyond the standard "disillusioned young New Yorker just going through life" trope, with moments of domesticity that counter montages of New York experiences.

It is so uncomfortable to read about someone else’s sexual journal. Especially when they are being judged on their actions. And they put weight on those judgements. However. This book was empowering and necessary on when you should say no, a woman finding her life, love and a family. Many twists and turns. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and FS&G for this incredible read!

This book is an absolute fever dream! Raven Leilani is a supremely talented writer with the most unique and painfully observant voice I’ve read this year. Through Edie, she writhes on all the discomfort and stress that comes along with being in your early 20s, seeking where and how you belong in the world.

Leilani drops you in a mind of a woman with no impulse control, and therefore, leaves you worrying about how she’s being taken in by the world around her (like we are wont to do in our twenties). It’s a clever device that both endears and repels you to Edie. She’s so alone with every card stacked against her, she’s a millennial, a starving artist living in New York City, she’s predisposed to be obsessive, volatile (mom) and detached, absent (dad) and so, grasps for connection and stability in all the wrong places. This calls for quite a visceral engagement as Edie repeatedly falls down treacherous rabbit holes and you can’t help but squirm, wishing you could hold your hand out and catch her.

What an astonishing debut!! Raven Leilani is one to watch!

Could not get into this one at all. Soooooo much hype for this book and it just wasn’t for me. Read a few chapters but the characters seemed so fake. I could not anticipate where this was going but had no patience to follow.

A stunningly good debut novel from Leilani. It perfectly encapsulates how weird and awkward relationships can get, albeit within the context of an open marriage. Edie seems to make one terrible decision after another, but somehow it works. Rather than getting annoyed with her I wanted her to keep going on her trajectory, because it was sort of working, this fiery dismantling of everything a life in your twenties should be. Edie is hilariously and searingly insightful, the observations she makes about love, sex, race, jobs, apartments, are spot on. I loved this! I can't wait for Leilani's next book.

This was a hard book for me to read, feel like i didn't get the point for most of the book, like why was she lusting after this man, and reading about three detached people in a detached style, while there were moments that were interesting and towards the end i started caring about her, it was a struggle for me to read the book. I like to be more emotionally involved with the characters

* I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review *

WOW. Let's start there, shall we?

I have seen a lot of buzz about this book on Goodreads. Based on the tiny blurb on Goodreads, it didn't immediately register as a title that sounded like it would be my usual kind of read (blurbs, man, they can be deceptive.)

2 lessons reading Luster taught me:

1. Was I ever wrong
2. Don't let a vague blurb dissuade you from picking up a great read

I subscribe to Electric Lit, and about 2 weeks ago they published an excerpt from Chapter 2. I figured, "What the hell, I've got 10 minutes, let me see why this book is everywhere." So lesson 2 is -- read things you subscribe to. And suspend what you think your own expectations are. I was thrilled and surprised that the publisher provided a review copy, though I am 100% going to buy a copy as well and probably gift it, because it's that good.


A few more things to note: I think anyone reading this whose 20s are behind them will agree, I'm glad my 20's are over. And as someone on the more Rebecca spectrum of identity, I also want to say: it sounds like being in your 20s right now is so much more difficult than it was before -- and for that, I have nothing but respect for Millenials and Gen Z. Your 20s are a terrible, wonderful confusing time full of big heartbreaks and disappointments and all the things you learn by fire.

I'm glad women in their 20s, and especially women of color in their 20s (or about to enter their 20s) have this book. Edie is perfectly imperfect, a work-in-progress, doing her best to build something better for herself in a world that is set up to knock her down at every turn.

Edie is honest (painfully so at times, but also hilariously so). She is funny and petty in equal amounts, she is strong and vulnerable in the same distribution. There are passages that read like a text message from your most sarcastic/smart friend, and I mean that in the best possible way. Edie feels real, in all her glorious "figuring it out-ness".

Luster never has a moment where the suspension of disbelief slips and you remember that this is a story, there's an author behind the curtain pulling all the strings. Every character feels very distinct, very authentic, and has their own arc that reveals some truths and keeps other truths hidden -- which is exactly how things like that play out in real life. There wasn't a neat bow wrapping things up, but the narrative arc felt complete.

Her voice, her sense of humor, her emotional calluses and soft places are all compulsively readable. I read this book in 36 hours and when it was over, I both wished there were more to read and also admired the author for their restraint, for leaving the reader with that sense of wanting -- which is perfect, because that's what Edie herself is left with.

The book description makes a bigger deal of the sex than it feels when you're reading it. Yes, there's sex, a fair amount of it, and some of the descriptions are pretty raw and unfiltered. But for a book whose central conceit is being wrapped up in someone else's open marriage -- in a lot of ways, the sex (with Eric, and everyone else) is kind of an afterthought, which I believe is intentional.

Women in their 20s right now have an overwhelming amount of contradictions they're expected to reconcile, and for women of color this overwhelming amount of contradictions is doubled, tripled, quadrupled. The author, through Edie and her experiences and observations, makes no bones about this. That's a good thing for readers of any age or identity, because no matter where you fall on that spectrum, there's something solid you can take away from this book and integrate with how you move through the world and engage with the people in it.

I love Edie because she hasn't got it all figured out yet, and it's okay. I'm confident that she will, and more than anything, I want her to. That's a message that all women in their 20s should hear, and for some readers, this may be one of the first times they ever hear that message from the main character in a book.

Final note: This is Raven Leilani's DEBUT book. If she's this good out of the gate -- I can't wait to see what the future holds for her body of work.

Just wow! This was magical. Such a unique voice and powerful writing. Incredible character development. Again, wow!!

In the midst of a reading slump, Luster will pull you from your slump and send sparks back into your reading life. With gorgeous prose, unexpected plot development, and more - Raven Leilani's debut will leave you wishing for more, more, more.

Edie is a twenty-something who works a desk job, and wishes she didn't. Sure, it pays the bills - but art? That's what really stirs her soul. The only problem is, she hasn't quite figured out how to pave her own way. Amidst the normal stumbles of a twenty-something life, Edie meets Eric. Eric is married, has a house in New Jersey - and a meticulous autopsist wife. When Edie finds herself unemployed and out of luck, it's Eric's wife who brings her even further into the fold.

Funny, excellently paced, and razor sharp, Leilani writes about the struggles of figuring out who you are with a deft, and skilled hand.

Luster is the kind of book best consumed in one sitting or a few long ones. I was so mad every time I had to put it down. It' the story of Edie, who is young, directionless and black. This book manages to be so specific and universal at once. There are so many passages I highlighted because they're just so candid. Edie feels like a living breathing person and I can't wait to read Raven Leilani's next book.

I did not like this book. I thought the premise was interesting, but the story fell flat for me. The writing was a little hard to follow with extremely long paragraphs and lots of run-on thoughts. It was kind of depressing overall.