What sets Edie apart from other disaffected millennial leading characters (at least in the books I’ve read) is that her despair seems more tangible, more consequential. She doesn’t have the failsafe of a family or the privileges of being white. The book deals with a lot of difficult subjects including the threat of violence inherent with being a Black woman in America. Edie isn’t simply trying to find herself; she is trying to survive. Luster is the conversation about racism, sexism, and capitalism that this genre desperately needed.