![]() Leilani’s prose mesmerises you go with her, wherever she decides to take youĪnd she delivers many killer lines along the way, sharpened by unexpected details and cynical insights. ![]() But Leilani’s prose mesmerises you go with her, wherever she decides to take you. Leilani’s setup, manoeuvring Edie into their family home in New Jersey, stretches credulity, however, as do a few unlikely set pieces featuring the inscrutable Rebecca (dragging Edie into a moshpit at a thrash metal concert, for instance). ![]() Pleasingly, Edie’s relationship with the older Eric soon takes second place to stranger, subtler, more complex ones: with his wife, Rebecca – the cool, capable negative image of the hot mess that is Edie – and with their adopted black preteen daughter, Akila. This is an elevated example of the “millennial novel”, swerving cliche. But Leilani writes with such biting distinctiveness that, while Luster may feel extremely zeitgeisty, it never seems like it’s chasing or overly beholden to it. ![]() There’s familiarity in her messiness: her attempts to fill the void with sexual attention, her devaluing and debasing herself and her body. Edie is the sort of flawed female character we’re seeing much more of in fiction and on screen. ![]()
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