Just Finished Reading Luster by Raven Leilani

everyone ted here and today i want to talk about a book i just finished reading luster by raven lalani now this is the first book i have read covered to cover in like four years so feeling kind of big about myself although to be fair the book was um unexpectedly short i can't tell like a book length when i put it on a kindle i did borrow the book from my local library so because the book is so new i had i had them order the book and then once they ordered it they let me borrow that it's just like in a span of 48 hours so libraries for the win ladies and gentlemen check out your local library i heard about luster from my skimmed newsletter it's just a newsletter that talks about all the current events that happen throughout the world you can check it out in my description below it's a very nice concise news easy to consume reading format to be honest it actually caters to women but i've actually liked it all these years a rough synopsis on luster luster the main character is a millen black millennial um edie uh she has a she's in a relationship with a older gentleman uh who is white and she ends up getting entangled with you know his uh family uh probably from the way i'm talking about it it sounds a bit more insidious it's not although while i was reading this book i didn't actually ever get a handle on where the book as in where edie was going where it finally ended where the author finally decided to end the story was um was actually a bit interesting and novel my but my overall thoughts on the book was i do think it is good literature and it it was a bit enjoyable i do have one small minor critique it's um i i don't know how i can like voice it there are some you know intense moments in this book or and also intense emotion emotions as well with it and sometimes i just have a feeling i just got the impression that the author or maybe edie didn't just you know describe all of it as she's live experiencing that moment that's unfortunately that words are escaping me on how to describe it but as a photographer okay as a photographer imagine a histogram of course only photographers are going to understand this but you know where you have you know data from your highlights to your shadows and generally we'd like to have as much data as we can you know so you'll maybe see you know all the data from you know the shadows to the highlights sometimes though we might encounter a situation where there's data missing there's no data like had there so there's you know less data in a photo that's where i that's what i've experienced you know some moments intense moments where edie didn't really describe her moments or she doesn't really like narrate what she's um going what she's going through uh i think there's two particular moments in that in this book you'll probably realize now that's really the only critique i have on this book um i noticed it because you know sometimes i'm reading reading then i'm like oh the thing happened and then like did i miss something then i read it again like oh no no that was the natural sequence of events and um but that's my only critique um positives of this book was that what i enjoyed reading what i enjoyed about reading lesson was that it actually offered me a narrative from the perspective of a millennial black woman and not just like a an exceptional millennial black woman but you know a black woman who struggles you know in a metropolis you know that is new york or new jersey and lord does this woman struggle i mean she struggles in every which way that you can almost can financially relationship wise medically prof like professionally like it's it's a whole lot of struggle and um and you know what i do appreciate it's not like one of those drama points where it's like oh whoa is the protagonist like precious or give me shelter and i do realize those are actually movies but you know it's been a really long time since i've read a book um no the edie's um narration is um she kind of like lets you know flow through her throughout process and even lets you um enter her emotions but somehow she's able to like keep you not not like waddle in in in her struggle i think part of the way she does is with like just a little like at the dashes of brevity as she talks but yeah there's also another thing i've noticed um she's also you know she's more like a reactive sort of protagonist where you know she's just reacting through all through her life it's just like she just seems to be like dealing with i guess fires or you know the circumstances of her life whereas you know she's not one that to go and actively engage all i was kind of you do really hope things do work out for edie and really all you're left with is hope uh there was um i did talk earlier about you know what direction the book was going to and i did think it was going to follow like those hollywood that hollywood trope where a family reluctantly brings in a stranger into their into their home whatever and you know throughout the duration and wacky circumstances once the arrangement is set once the family and the stranger are separated you know they're both made stronger by their experiences together that trope is not really realized at all in this book and i am grateful for that another thing but um i think yeah my biggest takeaway from luster was um again seeing a narration through a young woman's perspective that is black i do feel i can't ever i like going reading through this narration of 3ds narration i do see what a woman young millennial woman can go through and you know like it's one thing to like you know you think about it like okay like you know women have all these other like different avenues especially for like making money like um the author does like give a touch of the of the avidi going looking for work and especially in the gig economy and it was just interesting how it is you know the mindset of how a woman go go through it versus a man and also you know edie is a bit is promiscuous um she delivers herself like the office but you know her financial means is uh so low that you know she can only afford places where she's always going to be constantly worried about getting raped and i was just like i don't actually hear that you know that that thought that concern that financial mindset of well-being that i i don't really read about that i've never read about that often actu actually and it's um one weird thing i did notice i've realized about the book now is um despite everything that edie goes through it multiple you know struggles i keep saying she never nothing's really discussed about therapy it's like not in her it's never brought up in the book never mind but anyway luster by raven lalani uh it's raven laulani's first book and i do hope she writes more maybe even more about edie you know i do want to hear more for a moment because raven alani did leave edie in a better place than she was i suppose in than when she started but i would say marginally and i'm not gonna i'm not gonna spoil like you know what that better place was because personally i think that better place is really just fickle and so raven i mean luster by raven lolly i totally recommend it i it was a worthwhile read and thanks for watching stay cozy

Channel: Ted Talks

Views: 29

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Book review, Thoughts, Luster, Raven Leilani, Kindle, Audible

Id: YDJm8Cy1JYU

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 17 2020