If you’re looking for a new book to read, you’ve come to the right place! Despite having only been published in 2020, Raven Leilani’s novel, Luster, quickly climbed the ladder of emotionally moving and eye-opening novels. While Luster covers a lot of ground with realistic experiences and trauma, it also reveals a lot of the ugly aspects of life, and how we see life in different ways.
Leilani introduces us to a young Black woman named Edie, who is living in poverty with barely enough money to feed herself, and a medicine cabinet lacking the simplest of necessities. She is thriving on nothing but her chaotic, messy sex life and Eric, an older man in an open-marriage whom she is in a relationship with. This story brings to life the difficulties of a woman, not only with success, love, and wealth (or lack of), but also the one thing that we all have in common: survival.
The plot itself is not the only aspect of Luster that makes it such a touching novel. Leilani’s writing style plays a huge role. She uses vocabulary full of strength and power that entices readers with foreshadowing and unexpected events, and she incorporates plenty of backstory to encourage her readers to build a connection with Edie. Sure, the plot is wildly hooking, but Leilani’s ability to display and create emotional reactions both in her book and in her readers really enhances the experience of the novel.
Luster is a novel that sticks with you. It is not a novel you simply read; it’s something you ingest, learn from, and sympathize with. It’s not meant to be light, and that is what makes Leilani’s writing that much more powerful. If you want to delve into the perplexing story of the struggles that life has to offer, then I highly recommend you start with this novel!