RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewThis is a realist novel and a novel about ghosts; an immigrant novel about what it means to return home; a novel of women that may actually be a novel about men ... Each character here is richly and deeply drawn, with histories and personalities so fully realized that it’s a pleasure to get to know them ... Evans’s writing stuns, showcasing a flair that turns even dying into poetry ... The most brilliant element of the novel comes at the close of the book, where the story ends, and then ends again. I won’t spoil it by revealing more.
Raven Leilani
RaveThe Times Literary SupplementI am tired of cynical books about intelligent but self-destructive young women who try to make their lives in New York City and then end up getting, both literally and figuratively, screwed. Raven Leilani’s debut novel begins in such a fashion. True, it is, for a change, narrated by a young Black woman – but there is also a white saviour at its centre, so that novelty is swiftly cancelled out ... the novel’s pivot to earnestness doesn’t come at the cost of emotional integrity, and even in her newfound capacity for self-love, Edie never loses sight of the pain. Brilliant in terms of voice, Luster is equally strong on plot and structure. In her leavening of cynicism with hope, Raven Leilani writes as if she were three books wise, at least. I closed Luster feeling a little more cynical than when I’d opened it – but I loved it nonetheless.
