Bookcase: New titles reviewed, including Luster by Raven Leilani and The Survivors by Jane Harper

This week’s bookcase includes reviews of Luster by Raven Leilani and Amari And The Night Brothers by BB Alston.

Fiction

1. Luster by Raven Leilani is published in hardback by Picador, priced £14.99 (ebook £7.99). Available now

Luster by Raven Leilani. Picture credit: Picador/PA.

Many books have been touted as the biggest debut of the year, but it’s hard to believe the hype for all of them.

However, it might just be true for Raven Leilani’s Luster. Edie is a rudderless black woman in her 20s living in New York, feeling out of place in all-white workplaces and unable to do what she really wants: art.

She begins an affair with a middle-aged, married white man and somehow finds herself living in his New Jersey suburban house, showing his adopted black daughter how to do her hair and tiptoeing around his wife. At times it’s darkly funny and devastatingly sad – particularly when Leilani drip feeds details of Edie’s traumatic past.

Ultimately, the book is as evocative and moving as the paintings Edie creates in private, hidden from the world she doesn’t feel welcome in.

9/10

(Review by Prudence Wade)

2. The Survivors by Jane Harper is published in hardback by Little, Brown, priced £14.99 (ebook £8.99). Available now

Murder mystery author Jane Harper turns to the sea in The Survivors, a smart, thoughtful whodunnit that moves rapidly, without eroding its emotional core.

The Survivors by Jane Harper. Picture credit: Little, Brown/PA.

Kieran, his wife Mia, and new baby Audrey, return to Kieran’s coastal hometown of Evelyn Bay to help his mum prepare to move his father – suffering with dementia – into a home. When a young woman is found dead on the beach, the Evelyn Bay residents find themselves swirling back to the tragic events of a storm that struck 12 years earlier.

Harper tempers an unrelenting feed of intrigue and information with a real emotional sensitivity. She is mindful of, and vocal about, it being largely women at risk of brutality – in life and in fiction; is deft with red herrings; and tackles guilt, grief and fraught friendship. She also articulates the destructive impact of bravado and machoism on young men.

The writing isn’t always full of flair, but The Survivors is atmospheric and quite enthralling.

8/10

(Review by Ella Walker)

Non-fiction

3. Make It Happen: How To Be An Activist by Amika George is published in hardback by HQ, priced £12.99 (ebook £4.99). Available now

Make It Happen: How To Be An Activist by Amika George. Picture credit: HQ/PA.

Free Periods founder Amika George shines in her debut book. George started the movement for free sanitary products in schools at just 17 after reading horrific statistics on period poverty in the UK.

Make It Happen deftly walks the tightrope between handbook and memoir; it’s crammed with insightful, step-by-step instructions on how to get behind one’s chosen cause, while laying bare her own journey to activism.

George also touches on race, gender and mental health, and brings in other activist voices both large and small to create a quintessential guide to being the change one wants to see in the world.

9/10

(Review by Sophie Hogan)

Children’s book of the week

4. Amari And The Night Brothers by BB Alston is published in hardback by Egmont, priced £12.99 (ebook £5.99). Available now

Amari And The Night Brothers by BB Alston. Picture credit: Egmont/PA.

As a young black kid from the projects, Amari doesn’t feel like she fits in at her elite, white school – particularly as the mean girls taunt her about her missing brother.

However, Amari soon realises her brother hasn’t been caught up in gang business, but rather was part of a magical alternate universe – one she soon dives into, to find out what really happened to him. While a few aspects of the book draw similarities to the Harry Potter series, Amari And The Night Brothers still has bags of imagination and quirky details.

At its heart, it’s a story about a plucky girl finding her place in the world – and it helps it’s a fast-paced, action-packed tale that will captivate young readers.

7/10

(Review by Prudence Wade)