3.5 stars.
This was, once I got into it, a relatively compelling read that at times felt held back by the constructed aloofness of the main character. Having had many a novel about twenty-something white women engaging in destructive relationships pressed on me and found them wanting, reading Edie's experiences as a Black woman navigating similar spaces and relationships made for a more considered take on a genre that has often left me cold.

The book really started to grab me once Edie and Rebecca met and it is their relationship -- in all its pushes and pulls -- and their tensions regarding Akila that I found ultimately most engaging. Edie's almost unwilling tenderness to Akila is also really well drawn. I found the ways in which she sees herself in Akila poised against Akila's real sense of self a particularly effective approach to a relationship that ought, by rights, to be filled with greater tension. I particularly enjoyed the moments where Leilani really explores Edie's halted and healing relationship with her own art.

What is frustrating about this book is that I felt it didn't entirely commit to any of the emotional or relationship strands it sets up. Edie's relationship with Eric is, for me, the least interesting part of the book and while Eric's two-dimensionality hardly bothers me, the surface level engagement with Edie's relationship with violent desire as explored through Eric felt half-hearted.

In many ways, I expected more of the relationship with Edie and Rebecca and felt a bit like this plotline ran out of steam precisely when it oughtn't. At the same time though, I suppose this reflects the way that life rarely follows neat plot turns and timelines.

Edie's emotional detachment does a lot to help depict this character who's been held in traumatic stasis, although this isn't always an enjoyable narrative experience, I did appreciate what this was doing structurally.

All in all, I wished at times for a little more depth and perhaps a greater commitment to deepening or extending these relationships but, perhaps their transience and Edie's wavering ability to connect is the point.

This is one of those books that is so hard to me to review. I appreciate the excellence in the writing, but the content is definitely not to my taste, and the main character is so incredibly unlikeable that my first reaction was to give it a much lower rating. But instead I thought about it for a bit, read an interview the author gave to Kirkus and decided to give it the rating it deserves.
This book is getting a lot of buzz and excellent reviews, so I think the best thing to do is read it for yourself .
It would make a wonderful book club choice because I imagine everyone will have a opinion!

The word that comes to mind when I think about this novel is manic. The narrative was all over the place and the characters were extremely unlikable. I felt like I was talking myself into finishing the book throughout the entire time I was reading. There's no doubt that the author is a good writer, but it's all just thrown together into a sporadic, depressing heap of self deprecating internal monologue.

There’s so much to say about this wonderful debut, from it’s no-holds barred careening through the early-twenties perspective of Edie, a young Black woman in her early twenties whose narrative opens with a series of “sexy times in the workplace” encounters at a publishing house. She seems to stumble from unemployment into the fulcrum of an open marriage, becoming embedded in the life of the couple and their adopted daughter.
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While the plot itself makes for a wildly captivating read, what really grabbed my attention early on (and from reviews I’m reading, i’m definitely not alone here!) was the prose and Leilani’s ability to imbue so much in each sentence. Her observations and narrative style were viscerally literal at times, providing little respite or levity for Edie, while simultaneously carrying an incredible depth in the broader commentary. For example, in describing her grandmother—“walking proof of American industry, the bolls and ships and casual sexual terrorism that put a little cream in the coffee and made her family loyal to the almighty paper bag.”
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I loved the way that art and it’s creation was used in the narrative—from commentary about the artwork on a wall in a hospital during a moment of extreme trauma, to the way Edie mixes paints and this creative process that is fueled or hindered by what is going on in her life, to the way it becomes a communicative language for Edie to describe her feelings about other characters. It was stunning to see this paralleled against the primary narrative, and how much it drew out the complexities in how racism and sexism and violence and trauma were written.
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There’s so much to unpack and discuss in this, I’ve loved reading reviews and hearing what other readers have taken from this. Many thanks to FSG for gifting me this (and the gorgeous nail elixir!)

Oh the twenties. I hated my twenties. I had no idea of what I wanted or how to figure it out. This story is beautiful in it's way that showcases the many mistakes we commit and how she's trying to figure it out as she goes along. Very well written with strong characters. Happy reading!

LUSTER...... Had me in all my feels.... JUST WOW! After reading the summary I was very inrtigued on how an open marriage worked. I WAS INTRIGUED BY THE OPEN MARRIAGE PART!!!! SERIOUSLY???? Anyway, this book is OOOOO MY GOOODNESS good! A Raw addictive read that is just jaw dropping good.

Often times, I feel Debut novels can be a hit or miss. Even with this one, I felt... Hmm... I am not sure this book will depict a story line about open marriage as well as it should be written. But, once I dove into this story. I COULDN"T STOP.

Meet Edie, A black woman in her 20's employed by a publishing company,who's life is utterly a mess. One bad decision leads to another and so on. She Meets Eric.

Meet Eric, Eric Also works for the publishing company. He is married to a lady named Rebecca... Here is the kicker, They have an open marriage... What does that mean? That means, they are allowed to step out of the marriage to meet their needs within the guidelines mutually laid out by the married couple. When Eric meets Edie is when the story takes place.

Edie seems to be a hot mess, but she is seemingly doing alright... Until everything crashes down. Edie finds herself broke and no job. They only people she can turn to is the couple who she might not want to get to close too. She finds herself mixed up in an open marriage and now mixed up in the suburban home of the open marriage couple that she is involved with. Little did she know just how unhappy the couple is. The couple also has a child who edie grows a close bond too. Can you predict the ending?

What a strong debut novel for Raven, Well developed characters, and a FANTASTIC Unique story line to write about. I can only hope Raven carries this writing style into her next novel! If that happens, I will be back for more Raven Leilani reads!

Thank you to netgalley and Farrer, Straus & Giroux for My ARC Copy in exchange for my honest review!

First, I have to start with a disclaimer. I generally hate books with gross descriptions of sex, and I don't mean explicit, I mean gross as in a bit disgusting. Another two good examples of that are The Pisces, and Paul Takes a Form of A Mortal Girl. Another thing that makes me DNF books a lot is the main character that lives for abusive sex or is entirely fascinated by it. Be it in the romantic sense or enjoy being humiliated and physically assaulted in scenarios outside of what one thinks as a healthy BDSM relationship. So, this is the reason this book is not five stars. However, I kept reading and truly made myself read this slowly so I could highlight every beautiful and insightful sentence on the page.

Leilani is a master of beautiful prose that no one can say otherwise. I found myself annotating this book so often that at one point, it took me an hour just to get through a 24-page chapter because I could not stop writing notes and highlighting. This makes me wish I had a physical copy, just to be able to visualize all the beauty in the text at a glance.

Luster explores the relationship between a young Black woman, who, for the exact fact that we are the same age, made me feel at both times really mature and naive, Edie, with her lover Eric and later on his wife Rebbacca and their adopted daughter Akila.

Edie has not had an easy life with a mother who was a drug addict that died by suicide and a distant and emotionally abusive father. Edie has always been attracted to men who are at least not ideal, and most of the time tend to be just plain wrong. Through the book's development, we see Edie's life fall apart as she loses her job, for being 'sexually inappropriate' and involved with several co-workers and subsequently losing her apartment.

As she becomes more involved with Eric, she also begins to develop a relationship with his cold and almost robotic wife, Rebecca, and their adopted daughter Akila. When Rebecca and Edie meet for the second time, Rebecca invites her to live in their house until she can find a new job and place to live, and it is there that things get both weird and interesting.

When Edie first moves in, Eric is away on business and is unaware of the arrangement Rebecca has. In this brief period, the books become a masterpiece. The relationship between Rebecca and Edie is always at arm's length; both women aware of the nature of their involvement with Eric and how unorthodox that is. But the fact that we can only see things through Edie's perspective tightens the tension a lot more. Rebecca is a cold person, on the surface, a woman who has had her personality curbed by her marriage. Plus, she never wanted to be a mother but decided to adopt because her sterile husband, who most of the time is not home, wanted to be a father. With that in mind, we start seeing the possibility that Edie is being used as a surrogate mother to Akila, the couple's adopted child who happens to be Black, and has lived so far in an entirely white community. Akila was my favorite character, she is complex and brave, and by far the only person who is not trying to pretend to be someone she is not. Even if she is a very self-conscious 13-year-old girl, she rarely takes bullshit and does not take well on the pity and implied notion that she and Edie should have some form of connection because they are both black. Instead, she makes Edie work for her friendship, which we later see is the only healthy relationship in the household.

But let's talk more about Rebecca and Edie, look I spent half of this book wishing they would pull a Thelma and Louise and the other half waiting for something sinister to happen. Neither of it did; instead, Leilani shows you how real life is terrifying in its subtleties. I could see horrific elements of Get Out, the Edie first moves in, and we start to see clearly a commentary on race and fetishization of Women of Color, as well as on the neighbor across the street that keeps watching Edie's every move. Specifically, between Edie and Eric, that although have a consenting relationship seems to be focused on how much power and control and physical and emotional abuse, he can impose on her. With that said, I also kept thinking of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The women in these three stories are different; their roles in society are different. But the fact that the storyline fit so beautifully to tell the same story of post-colonial ownership, race, and gender, as things that inhabit being only at the corner of the mind of White male thoughts, but very much at the center of their aggression and lust.

I have gone back and forth on all the imagery and remarkable structure in this novel. The entire mystery and, at the same time, brutal honesty between these women, that don't ever speak plainly with each other but seem to see one another. As if the crazy woman in the attic were to have shared her life with Jane, although if you asked which of the women Rebecca or Edie is, which I would not tell you for sure.

Another remarkable thing I want to point out about my reading of this book is the use of violence, death, and bodies. Rebecca is a medical examiner. When she first meets Edie outside of her house, she immodestly tells the audience everything we have to know about her, even if we don't immodestly see it. She deals with death, with gruesome things, but isn't aroused by them. She does not require that to be part of her relationship with Eric. But she is also into punk rock and takes her clothes off as if her body was never truly exposed. She is plain, but she is not by any means boring. Heck, as I write this, I still wished she would have run away with Edie, even if I never expected them to be romantic. I was so invested in their communication and relationship, that when at the end Eddie has a miscarriage and Rebecca takes care of her, and later helps her move, I never thought for one second that this was strange. The fact that they had developed a secret language and communication was at all unrealistic. They are never friends per se, but they are both trapped in a house and in a life that neither wants to truly be. When it is implied that Rebecca killed the dog, and this leads to the brutal and criminal action of the police in arresting Akila and Edie in front of their house. Edie never asks Rebecca never blames her because, at this point, they both see that there is so much about the other's suffering and rage that they can never understand.

I loved this book, and I cannot wait to see what Raven Leilani does next. This review might have been a bit unstructured, but to me, that shows how much the book accomplished. I still have theories and thoughts, drawing comparisons, and having epiphanies days after reading it. This book might not be for everyone, given the many traumas and violent things on the page. However, Leilani's writing must be read, because the beauty that overcomes such mundane settings and such horrific scenarios and still leaves you in awe, is the highest form of art.

Edie is struggling. At twenty three years old, she’s in a publishing job she’s hardly thrilled with, is having sex with a run of people she feels even less about, and then embarks on an affair with an older married man in an open relationship.She says, “if I’m honest, all of my relationships have been like this, parsing the intent of the jaws that lock around my head. Like, is he kidding or is he hungry? In other words, all of it, even the love, is a violence”.

I mean!

The fact that Edie is black and Eric white initially seems less of a focus than their age difference, until she meets his teenager daughter Akila and suddenly finds herself potentially thrust in a pseudo mentor role by Eric’s wife Rebcca.

So. Much. To. Unpack.

First off, Raven Leilani is a fantastic writer. Like her protagonist her writing is frenetic and hyper smart, and volleys from thought to action and back to alternate thought which leads to opposing or maybe similar action. She has her pulse on literally everything, containing, but not limited to: race, gender, sexuality, sexual violence, suicide and privilege. At times there were so many things coming at you, I found I had to stop and reread certain passages again to get it all. It’s both exciting and exhausting, and people that tap in-which I can certainly imagine many Millennials will, will enter the matrix of her mind and be nodding with recognition and agreement. My only downside to the book was I really wanted to like someone by the end of this. Yes, Edie at times made me laugh, and her observations are incredibly spot on and delivered with wry directness, but I found myself recoiling from one domino drop to another as her decisions and those of Eric and Rebecca seemed to feel steeped in deep rooted pain. This is definitely a book to evoke lots of conversation and I think it could be polarizing. But what is very clear is we’re seen the start of what is sure to be a remarkable career from a hugely talented writer.

Luster by Raven Leilani is one hell of a debut novel. It took a bit of an adjustment on my part to get used to Leilani’s writing style, but once I was in, I was in. I found myself cursing Edie throughout (she reminded me of me at 23 at times...) but she was so well-written that you couldn’t help but want her to come into herself as a young, black woman. I highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in women’s fiction and the like. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.

4.5 stars

This, dear reader, is one heck of a debut novel, and I already eagerly anticipate what Raven Leilani does next.

You may see yourself in Edie. She's 23 and unmoored. She doesn't like her job and wants a promotion, yet she can't muster the energy to put in the work needed to get that promotion. Where she does expend energy is her love life, sleeping with coworkers who should have been left in solely that role. She comes home to a roach-infested apartment that she can't be bothered to clean. She moves through life, letting it happen to her rather than making choices that could help her. For instance, when she wants--needs--to feel something, she chooses pain over emotions that could guide her toward something more whole.

Edie begins seeing Eric, a married man in an open marriage, albeit one with rules written by his wife Rebecca. When she loses her job, Rebecca invites her into Rebecca and Eric's home with the hope that Edie, a Black woman, can help their Black adopted daughter Akila.

I loved being in Edie's head. It isn't always a pleasant place to be, but Raven Leilani challenges you to think more, feel more, consider more. She pursues race and gender issues, showing you gaping disparities. For instance, Edie is judged for her sexual pursuits with coworkers, yet the men are not. Edie is also judged by another Black woman at work, who judges her for her lack of drive. Living with Eric and Rebecca, Edie's role is clear: help our Black daughter find a connection. If only Edie could find a healthy one for herself.

Edie's relationship with Eric is approached with a cold eye. Theirs is a transactional alliance, giving each something they think they need. Eric is as unmoored as Edie, particularly where his marriage is concerned. Whereas she seeks out unhealthy sexual dalliances, he reaches for something perhaps even more toxic. Rebecca, too, has lost her way. An autopsist, she's used to closely examining people and drawing conclusions, yet she can't see the forensics in her marriage.

Parts of this book are caustically hilarious, and others have a bittersweet sheen. You dearly hope that Edie can pull herself out of her morass, and you want to pull Akila close, hoping to shield her from her parents' confusion.

Let me know what you think of this book and if you, too, are a Raven Leilani fan.

This weird, wonderful book is a spectacular debut novel from Raven Leilani. Unlike anything I have ever read, the writing is sharp and funny and unsettling. Edie, a 23 year old Black woman, is stumbling her way through life as she under performs at a publishing house job, has extremely casual sex with coworkers, and ends up meeting a man twice her age in an open marriage. It starts off straight forward, seemingly a story about a gen z-er coming to terms with her age and her socioeconomic standing, but then makes an unexpected sharp left turn as she becomes a strange part of the family of the married man she is sleeping with.

This is an important and timely book about race, as Edie develops a relationship with Akila, the newly adopted Black tween daughter of the white family she moves in with. The circumstances of this new family are odd, and Rebecca (the wife of the man she is sleeping with) almost takes Edie under her wing more than her own daughter. In turn, Edie teaches Akila about how to manage and style her hair, and provides a level of understanding and care that her white parents clearly cannot. I don't want to give too much away as the beauty of this book is how it unravels and how Edie deals with her identity, career, and belonging in the world. Edie is an unforgettable character and I loved the way Leilani treats her with such care and gravitas. She is one to watch for sure.

Leilani’s debut novel is filled with razor sharp wit and is a smooth, fast paced millennial novel. The flaws of the protagonist is at the forefront but this makes her a fully developed character and Edie becomes like a real person in your mind. She’s just trying to make it through life in her early 20’s and figure out what she wants and who she is and along the way we get plenty of steamy open door scenes.

It’s hard to explain exactly what makes this book so great besides Leilani’s incredible writing. The main plot to this story is...unique. It’s a situation like nothing I’ve read in a book but is ripe for an HBO show. Edie is a young, Black woman working a menial job in publishing that she doesn’t love and begins seeing a middle aged white man in an open marriage and this creates a portrayal of classism and how it affects people of different races, gender, and ages. Through a sequence of events she ends up becoming a family...friend? Acquaintance? She becomes a sort of guide or just positive influence on his foster daughter who is Black and needs someone in her life who can relate to her. Edie teaches her things like hair care (think twist outs and relaxers) and the unfortunate lesson of how to interact with police officers.

I haven’t read anything like this and I loved everything about it. Leilani is an incredible writer that crafts a scene with fully fleshed out characters and presents them with flaws and all and isn’t afraid of showing both conflict and joy and the awkward moments in between. If you’re a fan of the TV show Insecure then you’ll enjoy this book.

4.5/5 Stars

Get your highlighters ready! Luster introduces us to Raven Leilani, a new voice in fiction that will knock your socks off. I had to force myself to slow down when reading because one minute you’re talking about the L train and the next sentence contains a pivotal revelation about our MC, Edie. The writing is so fluid and unpretentious, yet carries such depth. Ms. Leilani has incredible talent and will definitely be added as an auto buy author.

As for the story, this is a book that held my attention from the beginning. This could easily be any 20-30 something today. Edie is struggling and wryly aware of her circumstances. Edie’s observations and commentary gave me great pause and urged me to look at things differently.

Lastly, no character in this book escapes feeling lost. I think it demonstrates that you can fall off your center axis no matter your age, race or socioeconomic status. We are all human. However, the battle to overcome is longer and harder for some; especially those without a strong support system. Watching Edie uniquely navigate each situation thrown at her was eye opening, inspiring and heart breaking. What a book!

Thanks to Jonathan Woollen at Farrar, Straus & Giroux for his generosity in providing me with a print copy to read and review. Thank you also to Raven Leilani for the sharing your story with all of us.

Review Date: 08/04/2020
Publication Date: 08/04/2020

I've pondered this review for a few days as I really don't know how to describe this one. I found the writing to be unique but it won't be for everyone. It was stark, messy and beautiful. Quite different from anything else i've read which is a plus for me as I found it intoxicating but some might find the moments a bit too much, too raw, too something for their tastes.

Told from the view of a twenty something drifting through her young adulthood falls into a relationship with a man in an open marriage. It was not nearly as racey as I was expecting but rather touched more on underlying questions of race, age, and relationships. The writing was more provacative than the actual story. I didn't find any of the characters redeeming and this may be a put off to some but I found their story interesting and enjoyed the almost voyaristic unflinching look into their messy lives.

Edie is a 23-year-old Black woman in NYC who is basically a hot mess. She’s making sexual choices she is regretting, having trouble at work, and starts something with an older man named Eric. Eric is married, and after Edie’s life begins to crumble she ends up staying at his house - but not through his invitation. As Edie navigates being around Eric’s wife and adopted Black daughter, she tried to find herself and her way.

Through the first third of this book I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but as I kept reading I became more invested in Edie and her life. I wanted her to find herself and her way in life and I wanted her to be happy. This is a character-driven novel so it won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it a lot and I know many other people who will as well.

This book was just ok for me. I found her main character to be odd and a lot that happened to her was very unrealistic to me. All of the sex going on at work then an affair with a married man where the wife makes the rules. The writing was good. I just had a hard time with the story.

Thank you to Net Galley for my very first e-ARC!

First of all... this book was clearly not meant for someone with my reading taste, but with nothing to indicate that was so just by the synopsis. So I was excited for this book - I mean a girl gets involved with a married man in an open marriage then somehow gets drawn into their family dynamic? Yes please!

“I want us to fight in public. And when we fight in private, I want him to maybe accidentally punch me.” This statement is made at 3% into the book and at this point I can am already questioning how I will ever connect to this narrator because clearly I cannot relate. Thus began my mid-book thoughts seen below.

At 17% I’m starting to get annoyed reading the absurdly long run on sentences that last the length of half a page.

At 40% I’m tired of reading through all the minute details added about this girls day to day that don’t really seem to continued to the plot (though I’m finding it difficult to identify one in the first place...)

At 50% - wait do... do I actually like this book......?

Annnnnnnnnd at 60% we’re back to literally wtf is happening right now.

69% literally not one thing in this book seems even slightly realistic.

86% and I honestly feel obligated to finish because I’m so close to the end but it’s just not doing it for me. Ugh.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an advanced copy of the book, but this one was just not for me. Though I feel like some important topics were touched on such as racism and disordered eating, it was all overshadowed by the self destructive behavior of the narrator. There were moments where we hear way to much about a minuscule detail, but not enough where something seems to actually be happening.

I wanted to love this so badly, but I didn’t enjoy the writing style enough to even TRY to care about the story.

So good it hurts.

Almost immediately I was grabbed by the sharp writing in Luster. I highlighted so many passages for their brilliance, apt descriptions, and power.

What took me by surprise is by about a third of the way in, I didn't "enjoy" reading much of this book. I still considered it well-written. I still wanted to know what happened. I still cared about the characters. But so much of it felt real to the point that I was uncomfortable, stressed, and frustrated for Edie, the main character. In other words, it's not a fun book, but it's a really good one.

Without giving the plot away, Luster is about a young black woman who had a rough upbringing which has left her at a disadvantage. She doesn't have parents or a financial cushion to fall back on. And she isn't engaging in the best romantic encounters. Luster is about being young and poor and somewhat lost, but also about being a black woman in the United States.

I want to tell you what plays out in these pages, but that'd be doing you a disservice. And while the plot gives the reader much to consider, it's the writing that I really think steals the show.

Don't sleep on Raven Leilani.

Raven Leilani’s debut novel was not at all what I was expecting. The story centers on Edie, a 23-year old Black woman living (and struggling) in Brooklyn. She is impulsive, sarcastic, risky, and ultimately very lonely. This leads her into the middle of the open marriage between an older white couple. The narrative follows these relationships as they begin to blossom and deepen. The sense of pain that each character bears is authentically drawn and fully developed. The reader can easily empathize with each character, identifying with the banal character flaws that lead to extraordinary disfunction. This rich character development is where “Luster” shines.

Leilani is a masterful writer as well, employing a unique sense of prose, marinated in a surprisingly dry sense of humor. That being said, the sentence structure throughout felt a bit overused. Initially, I got the sense that the long, drawn out run-on sentences were paralleling the hectic mind space of a 23-year old. It’s effective to a point, but begins to feel too familiar. It felt like with each sentence I was getting back on the same roller coaster, only to make the exact same twists and turns.

My favorite element of the novel is its brutal honesty. Leilani holds nothing back in constructing a portrait of the grief that leads people to do inexplainable things in order to feel special. Simply put, she goes there. There is no warming up; from the very first sentence, the reader is now a complicit cohort to the quiet madness that ensues. I was expecting more of a thriller, but was delighted by the heart found in the center of this dysfunctional tale. I absolutely recommend.

Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for the eARC.

Lonely is the word that comes to mind when I think of Luster — The characters are lonely and wanting more.

23 year old Edie begins a relationship with an older married man, Eric Walker. She loses her job in publishing due to citations of inappropriate behavior then gets kicked out of her apartment for failure to pay rent. Following an unexpected encounter, Eric’s wife, Rebecca, takes her in.

Edie becomes engrained in the Walker family: continuing to slyly see Eric, accompanying Rebecca to work where she performs autopsies, and forming a relationship with their adopted Black daughter, Akila. It’s an unusual arrangement to say the least — It felt like they all operated individually, ignoring the elephant in the room that was their dissatisfaction with life and one another.

I felt bad for Edie that she was so obviously lonely and didn’t have much of any support system to lean on, or belief in herself as an artist. She also, however, made some questionable choices and it was hard to feel for her and her apathetic effort at times.

Luster is far from happy yet I couldn’t put it down — An interesting and well-written story. Looking forward to seeing what Raven Leilani writes next.