by Brittney Morris
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Publication Date: September 24th 2019
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 323
ISBN: 9781534445420
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary
Source: Netgalley Review Copy
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By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."
But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."
Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process? (Goodreads)
The very first thing that drew me to Slay by Brittney Morris was the absolutely stunning book cover. (It’s no secret at all that I am easily distracted by gorgeous book covers!) Then I read the synopsis for the book, which was described as Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give, and knew I would have to check it out. I am so glad I did!
I very much enjoyed the storyline for this book. I love that Kiera is a gamer and has created this amazing online multiplayer world. The descriptions for the game very well described, and Slay sounded like a fun game to play. I am not much of a gamer now, but I was a long time ago, and while I never really got into the multiplayer online games, my husband does play them, so I was pretty familiar with a lot of the gaming terminology in the book. (No worries if you’re not familiar with it, the author did a really great job of explaining things.) The real world parts of the storyline were interesting as well, and I liked that it included a lot of things that people who read the book will find relatable in some way or another, especially teens.
There are so many characters in this book that you will love. We do get a few alternate viewpoints throughout the story, but the main part of the story is told from Kiera’s point of view. Kiera was such an interesting character, and I loved her brilliantness and creativity. She also has a really great family as well, and while her and her sister, Steph, totally act like sisters, you can tell that they love each other, and have each other’s backs, which is a nice change from a lot of the sisterly relationships that I’ve read about lately. I am so glad that Kiera had Steph to help her throughout the book.
I also want to add that I opted to listen to the audiobook for Slay, and I am SO glad that I did! There are a few different narrators in the book, but I loved the narrator for Kiera’s voice the most. I’m not 100% sure which narrator did her voice, but she did a great job, and I would definitely love to listen to her narrate more books in the future.
Overall; Slay was a really interesting read full of real life issues as well as a fantastic fantasy world, and I’m so glad that I read the book! If you like a good contemporary, or a book that has gaming in it, then do add Slay to your reading list! I will most definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by Brittney Morris in the future.
This is next up on my audiobook list from the library! I play multiplayer online games (Destiny2 is my big one). Glad you liked this and can't wait to start it.
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