Welcome to Litsy!

An interesting fictional account of a young 20 something who is an artist at heat but is trying to juggle a job, living in NYC, dating, her sexual desires, & being an African modern woman with few choices. She finds herself living with her married lover‘s family in suburban, NJ. This raw, straight forward first person POV brings the reader in twists and turns of a modern, artistic young black woman in a world of white privilege.

I jumped in with no idea what to expect. It was wild and witty and entertaining. #book74of2022

This book was really good. It was well written and centred around a really interesting, if not particularly likeable, character. It just wasn't for me or at least not for me right now.

The first time we have sex, we are both fully clothed, at our desks during working hours, bathed in blue computer light.

#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

On to the next. 🧡

(Or not. It‘s nearly 3am😅)

I waited too long to review.

Here‘s what I remember: the prose is captivating & full. I started out thinking I was going to LOVE it…but the weight & unexpected pattern of the sentences lost me partway through, and I ended up just really liking it. It‘s about a young, unsuccessful Black artist who gets involved with a married couple. When she loses her job, she unexpectedly moves in with her lover, his wife, & their adopted, Black daughter.👇🏻

Ummmm 🤨 not sure how I feel about this one apart from I‘d like to slap 👋🏻 Eric ! And edie and Rebecca not that far behind ! 3 of the most annoying characters ever, I‘m surprised this was a must read top pick of 2021/2020 when it was first published it is a far weaker version of little fires everywhere and such a fun age but also at times strangely gripping . Ticked off the TBR but disappointed ☹️

“I am not good at parties…It is a foregone conclusion I will once or twice hurt someone‘s feelings deeply because of something I say or a face I make, which I will of course think about when I ride the train home, and actually, forever, even though I tried to be merry and keep the conversation light, even thought I can‘t sleep and I can‘t shit, and someone is dying but that one song tells you to slide to the left and you have no choice.”

This book has many sad parts on how this woman try to go on in her life without almost any support. But I found some part unrealistic. Sometimes I didn‘t know if I was in the past, present or just in her thoughts while she was thinking about her life. I don‘t know, it didn‘t work for me. 2.5⭐️

This book reminds me of the detrimental impact on one‘s life if they‘ve never believed themselves to be seen. It‘s heartbreaking. It‘s beautifully written. I struggle here because I want a different ending for Edie‘s struggles, but remind myself this is why I read across genres.

3/5 🌟

Loved the writing but couldn't relate to the narrator.

Just finished this, the last book club read for 2021, and feel uncertain and conflicted. Leilani‘s style is often graphic and harsh, but also fluid and beautiful. The story itself, often painful. And I just kept wanting better for, and from, the characters.

Might take me a bit to determine if I liked it. And longer still to figure out if I understood it.

This book was a raw, honest story of a young black woman called Edie who has a passion for art and a brutal viewpoint of the world which is true.
The story is simple, but the ideologies and themes brought up bring an emotional rollercoaster of anger, frustration, gratification and pure honesty. The things Edie deals with, her thoughts and actions are questionable yet understandable, with a unique narration. Though the plot was empty and debatable

"Imagine living life so carefully there are no signs you lived at all."

"Keep something for yourself"

I was into it pretty much the whole way through. This novel gives me Don DeLillo vibes, for sure. (I love DeLillo.) There are a lot of really good, cutting sentences.

I particularly liked one part where the narrator describes scenery as reminding her of “a big-dick postmodernist novel” lol. (And yeah, that reinforced the DeLillo idea.)

A little work on story, and this could‘ve been even better. Leilani is a monster writer though.

You think you should get what you want, when you want it, and life doesn‘t work that way. Art doesn‘t work that way, and that‘s why you‘re not as good as you could be….

This super talented writer allows the narrative in her debut novel to slip and slide on her glossy prose. Reminds me of the lack of restraint in Truman Capote‘s debut. Some readers acknowledge her skill and hope for easier subject matter next time. But a person who writes about a young, black, masochistic sex addict who moves into her older, white lovers‘ house with his wife & his elementary school child is unlikely to step back from the edge..

I get how opinions of this book vary so widely. I spent the first hour or so not sure I‘d stay with it. The writing is noticeably good—there were dozens of phrases or sentences that made me think, “how did she come up with that?” But I had to suspend a lot of disbelief, also. Definitely worth picking up, but may not be worth seeing all the way through for everyone.

Oh wow, this book was excellent. Real page turner. Fascinating to see the complex and complicated story unfold between the main character, the wife, and the daughter especially

When this first came out, I won a free copy on Goodreads and was so excited. There were so many polarized opinions at the time that I decided to shelve it for a while so that I could go in later with a blank slate and no specific reviews in mind.

I sooooo wanted to be in the camp that loved it, but ultimately didn't enjoy it at all. I tend to prefer novels with more of a plot, but even past that I just felt like I didn't "get" it. Big bummer.

I should get two bingos this month😁. #bookspinbingo Luster, first off, excellent book. I am looking forward to more from this author. Usually one-sided open marriage stories, of course usually for the man, (rant done) annoy me. This story actually intrigued me, it was especially powerful when the wife and daughter characters come along. Race, emptiness, aging, midlife crisis, depression and more, the list of topics covered in the book is long.

#WomensBookPrizeLongList

What a ride. This book is not for everyone. The entire time I was reading I was thinking of that Marie Kando gif where she is gleefully saying "I love a mess".
This is crude, messy, and incredibly uncomfortable. The storyline is implausible, and the tone is detached. And it somehow all works. I breezed through this having a hard time looking away and brushing off 2 others I had started before this.

The writing is very good and the voice is razor sharp which kept me reading but the story itself was just ok. I totally get why my coworker who recommended it, and the others who also raved about it, love it but I no raves from me. That being said, I would definitely read more by this author since it was a story issue and not a quality of writing issue for me.

Going with a coworker‘s recommendation today.

The writing was insightful and raw and timely. The plotting was uneven at best. The characters were often inscrutable, I‘m not sure about this one... #womensprize

I‘m not really sure how I feel about this one. The entire book was raw, lonely, uncomfortable, and depressing. Most of the time, I was confused about all the characters‘ actions. However, there were also moments of clarity, wittiness, and brilliance. The main character had the most interesting (and often disturbing) thoughts. The book incorporated themes such as racism, sexism, the power of loneliness, and the constant yearning to belong.

This months bookmark though 😆.
Guesses on how long these will sit on my tbr bookcase? Since I still have some from last year I have not read. What a bad habit...

#bookofthemonrh #tbrpile

#BOTM picks

I had forgotten Luster was an option here, as I try to read through the Women's Prize #Longlist So picking that one up, and going for an oldie (The Death of Vivek Oji) as my credit pick, because I have it on my TBR but none of this months picks. Just like real life BOTM is like a total representation of my TBR... I am always playing catch up.

Edie, a twenty-something searching for meaning in New York, starts a relationship with a much older man in an open marriage and soon becomes uncomfortably enmeshed in his family life.

Read April 23-28
Rated 3/5 ⭐️
Book 24/60

This book wasn‘t for me. I didn‘t like the writing style to start with, and as I read on I never understood the characters. I don‘t need to like the characters I read about, but at least they need to feel real and their actions understandable, that was not the case here

Why would a 23 yr old girl have an affair with a 46 yr old married man? Why doesn‘t she have any friends? Why would the wife invite her husband‘s mistress to stay with them?

"Brutal" to the power of ten.
Young woman lives in New York and makes terrible decisions, whilst struggling with racism and poverty.

I sit at the top of the stairs and eavesdrop. When they begin to talk, it is in a very languid, businesslike fashion, their conversation filled with affirmations like yes, I understand you, yes, that is valid, like they are a couple of aliens who have and seen all the invasion agitprop and want to reiterate that they come in peace.

You can tell that this was a debut - the odd flash of brilliance but a lot of the book needed more work.

There is a really specific plot line that made it difficult to engage with (but I contrast it with Detransition, Baby that I‘m currently reading - also a specific, narrow premise and I‘m completely engaged)

The pacing was very choppy and some incredibly long pages of text in places, with no paragraphs.

A short but powerful novel about a young woman having an affair with a married older man, and their lives becoming entangled more than they could have imagined.

I hated this and then I loved this and then it was over? I don‘t know! I felt like I was cringing the whole time but that was also the point? Just as I started to soften towards Edie the books ends, which sucks. It certainly made me feel A Lot. But it was mostly depressing. I would give it 3.5 stars if this app did star ratings.

I did not like reading this book and almost DNF several times. I am glad I pushed through. The writing is strong . This is a bleak violent deeply lonely world that the author has created. I did not find the married couple plausible in the end. Such a deeply sad read. I read this because it is on the Womens Prize Long List.

"In other words, all of it, even the love, is violence."

I felt such a push and pull with this book. The story feels both familiar and fresh. The characters lives are simultaneously too messy and too neat. Some of the situations required considerable suspension of disbelief, and others felt cringe-inducingly real. Leilani's voice is so sharp and compelling and I look forward to reading more from her.

I almost bailed on this book because it was SO uncomfortably unhappy. I was waiting for the narrator to confess her addiction problem, because I‘ve never seen that level of painful-to-read self-hatred except in an addiction memoir. But it has gotten better, and I truly love the writing. Almost done now. #tob2021

5-10 Mar 2021
Not sure I enjoyed this novel - it was captivating and well-written. But also uncomfortable reading - Edie‘s inability to crawl out of her slump, Akila‘s willingness to endure provided she did not have to move again, and the power struggle and inarticulateness that was Rebecca and Eric‘s marriage. I do not really agree it is a novel about female friendship - I am not sure that is what the relationship between Edie and Rebecca was.

Intriguing and dark, I loved Leilani‘s voice even though her characters are mostly not all likable. Trigger warnings for a few hot topics but I liked that I didn‘t know where this book was going and how it ended.

I honestly don‘t know what to think about this book. It was well written. I can tell that a lot of thought was put into it, but it didn‘t really seem to go anywhere. None of the characters were likeable. The main character didn‘t care about herself at all. The chapters were extremely long, which I don‘t like. Many parts of this book went on and on, it was easy to get lost. This book just wasn‘t for me.