Luster by Raven Leilani

The debut novel from Raven Leilani, Luster follows a young black women in her 20s who becomes involved with an older white man in his 40s.

It is an edgy and compulsive read that keeps you on the edge of being unsettled and off balance throughout. There were definitely moments where I was like "WHAAAAAT", and I entirely understand when other reviewers have said you'll want to laugh and cringe all at the same time.

Luster is part of the burgeoning new genre of "millenial lit" with its realism and troubled main female protagonist. I thought it was an ambitious and interesting novel as it touched on the realities of race, sexualisation, office politics, work success, poverty, addiction, marriage and motherhood.

I found the relationship between Eric's wife Rebecca and the main female protagonist to be the most compulsive sections of the book. Their relations didn't unfold in any way that I expected and often felt bizarre. There was a certain hollowness I also felt in these moments and it was very unsettling.

Luster is a very open-ended book and I have so many unanswered questions by the end. This definitely kept me hooked from start to end. I can see why the book is getting lots of hype for sure, it's probably not a book I'll return to but I think a really solid debut for sure.

Thanks to @netgalley and @picador for the e-copy in exchange for a review. Out 21st Jan '21.