2 "I will keep the faith despite finding this to be a H.M !" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and both Random House Canada and Farrar Strauss & Giroux.
This was released in August 2020 and I am providing my honest review.

I will start by saying that the author appears superbly bright and talented and so giving this book only two stars is a bit uncomfortable but honest.....I generally did not like this and found it highly problematic in both psychological congruency, emotional impact and believability and plausibility of plot.

Our protagonist is 23 disenfranchised, incredibly bright and a hot mess.
Her married lover is an alcoholic misguided and predatory cad as well as a hot mess.
Her lover's wife is a controlling vulnerable automaton as well as a hot mess.

The love triangle becomes enmeshed in the most unbelievable and implausible ways and is a hot mess.

All the characters are incredibly bright with bizarre emotional reactions that reek of both psychological inconsistency and a lot of falseness that prevent empathy for developing for any of them really....really kind of a hot mess.

So yes this was a hot mess that I did not enjoy but I can feel in my bone marrow that the author has incredible potential and I feel with less stylish masturbatory fireworks the author can create something intellectually stimulating, emotionally resonant and important. (this is why the book receives two stars rather than the one star that I experienced)

This book though was you got it A HOT MESS !

A really strong debut, with a really interesting approach to a complicated subject. The writing style really makes this hard to put down,

Being a reader in their 40s I am not the target audience for this story. Other than Akila I didn't really like any of the characters. I found them to be immature and in desperate need of therapy. None of my feelings towards this book should be seen as a negative reflection of the author. This is a well written debut novel that I would have enjoyed more had I read it while still in my early 20s and I would definitely purchase the authors next book.

“‘Luster’ is a much-needed examination of the intersection of Blackness, class, sexuality and power. The characters are well-drawn and easy to relate to, each with their own take on loneliness: a lack of familial love; a lack of love within a marriage; the lack of others who can relate to your experience.

There are plenty of complicated love stories by white authors out there; ‘Luster’ presents an equally complicated story from the perspective of a young Black woman. There aren’t many books that discuss the nuances of love and loneliness a young woman of colour faces — and that can often make a person feel that much more alone.”

I feel like Raven Leilani is singlehandedly recalibrating the culture's relationship to irony with her prose. Captivating, assured, surreal, of the moment. Luster is Don DeLillo meets Isa Rae. I loved this book.

Lately, I seem to be interested in stories of the messiness, and complex lives of the characters, and this one does that and does it well. Messy is what our troubled 23-year-old main character Edie is. After losing her job, she moves in with her white older lover, his wife and their adopted black daughter. I won’t get into the messiness of all that and leave that for the story.

Raven Leilani boldly and bravely creates a distinct POV with Edie, a black woman who is trying to find herself while searching for human connections. Edie is realistic, flawed, and we see her vulnerable side. She makes some ugly mistakes and sometimes walks the line morally. At times I wanted to yell at her, and other times I wanted to hug her.

Things get a little uncomfortable here with the dynamics between the characters and, at times, maybe a bit too messy for me. There are some turns to the story that turns a little ugly but Raven Leilani handles it well by showing us through Edie’s thoughts without over dramatizing it or makes a point towards anything. However, for someone who loves depth beyond the word written at times, it was a bit deep, complicated for me, and I found myself losing focus with the story, and I did struggle with really connecting to Edie.

Stunning. This book will be on all the awards lists this year, I'm sure of it. Meticulously crafted, compelling, satisfying. The prose is enviable, the pace is perfect. I devoured it in two days. Will buy and recommend without reservation.

I've tried with this book, skipped pages and jumped to the middle but I can't find anything that makes me want to persevere. It is not what I expected at all. Sorry.