Luster
Raven Leilani • 2020
Devastation Rating
trauma injustice literary fiction loss
Our Take
A young Black woman falls into an open relationship with a white man and ends up living in his suburban home. Leilani writes power, race, and desire simultaneously without resolving any of them. Edie is chaotic and self-destructive and the system that built her is larger than her choices. Leilani refuses to let any character be a simple villain. The damage is structural and that is harder to write.
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