Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for gifting me a review copy of Luster by Raven Leilani.

Edie is young, and trying to make her way in New York. She works in publishing, but what she really wants is to move to the art department. She wants stability, a sense of normalcy, she wants…something else.

She starts seeing a man she met online, who is 23 years older than her, and married (in an open relationship). Their relationship is complex and messy, and doesn’t become any more straightforward when Edie loses her job and ends up moving in with Eric and his family. And, well, you’ll just need to read this for yourself.

This book is lyrical, real, complex, and raw. It’s dark and gritty, but there’s some comedy in there at times too. Somehow this book both punched me in the face and also lulled me into an almost meditative state. It felt like more of an experience than just a book, and I’m amazed that this is the author’s debut novel. It also made me super glad I’m no longer in my twenties, yikes.

I don’t think I’ve done an adequate job of telling you all the reasons why you should pick this one up, but you should. The audiobook is a quick listen at just over six and a half hours. Ariel Blake’s narration is wonderful, with amazing cadence and flow. You can grab a copy of the audiobook via the button below, or get a physical copy here.

Synopsis:

Luster sees a young black woman figuring her way into life as an artist and into love in this darkly comic novel. She meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage. In this world of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics, Edie finds herself unemployed and living with Eric. She becomes hesitant friend to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie is the only black woman young Akila may know.