SLAY

Books | Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Prejudice & Racism

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Brittney Morris

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019! “Gripping and timely.” —People “The YA debut we’re most excited for this year.” —Entertainment Weekly “A book that knocks you off your feet while dropping the kind of knowledge that’ll keep you down for the count. Prepare to BE slain.” —Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give in this dynamite debut novel that follows a fierce teen game developer as she battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther–inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for Black gamers.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?

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Author

Brittney Morris

Pages

336

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

2019-09-24

ISBN

1534445420 9781534445420

Ratings

Google: 5

Community ReviewsSee all

"Woah!"

✮ nikkie ✮

"Slay was such a fun read! I liked getting to see the different people involved with the game, and it was such an intriguing read. Kiera, Stephanie, and Claire are awesome. This book celebrates Black culture with the game, and also discusses racism and the need for safe spaces. Sometimes it was a little hard to suspend disbelief about Kiera being able to maintain this huge game while in school and keeping it a secret, but it worked out well enough. This was a really creative story, and I would love to read more from Brittney Morris."

Emily

"#african_american #prejudice_and_racism #social_themes #bipoc #video_games #contemporary "

Vicki S.

"This was an amazing book. I think the concept is a very realistic thing. I personally connect the game Slay to the use of AAVE. While AAVE is a topic in the story, it's not a big one. But take what I say with a grain of salt. AAVE is African-American-Vernacular -English. Which is slang usually used by black people. Words like periodt, oop, slay, yo. We try to tell people of other races that this is not "Tiktok language" or whatever they call it. But they continue to use it and use it wrong. And anytime a group of people say anything they say we're gatekeeping words. Or "not everything is about race". Knowing they were the ones to make it about that. 8/10"

Jaslene

"January read"

Erika Lynne

"I read this book in about 12 hours in total over the course of 3 days, not because it was a short book, but because how deeply the story grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Just talking about the storytelling part of the story, the VR world that Morris created was nothing short of stunning, the exact kind of game that I would love to get a passcode to and lose myself in, just to sit in the graphics and collecting the cards. But, as a Hispanic, I know I would never have gotten a passcode. And I am completely okay with that. I think that this story, about a Black American teen girl, was one that absolutely needed to be shared, a voice contrary to the one that we're so used to hearing in the news, even from Blacks themselves. Someone growing up in our techy age, still surrounded by people that look nothing like her and will never fully understand. Facing not direct racism irl, but questions and naivety that range from being uncomfortable to being disrespectful, without having the ability to say anything against it. As a Hispanic, there are some experiences that I do share in name, but the exact nature of what Kiera faced are extremely different and brought a whole new world to my attention. And that isn't even to say all the actual racism, sexism, and bigotry in general that she faced. I could go on for hours about the way Morris laced different characters perspectives into the narrative and opened the floor for Black voices to speak, and i will in book club later, but for now I'll just say everyone can learn something from this book and everyone should take 12 hours to read it. "

Anna-Racquel Perez

"For all readers who want a different perspective and to realize that people are different than what they appear to be. "

Olivia Neu

"Fave book ever! It will really connect you to the main character and her world!"

Katie East

"I really enjoyed this book although I felt that elements of it were unrealistic to the point where it distracted me and reminded me I was reading a book rather than in the story. The biggest thing was that I thought it was impossible that Kiera could create a VR game and mod it and play all the time without anyone close to her knowing about it or knowing she even played - not her parents, sister or friends. I can barely google something without this that and the other knowing about it!"

A S

Abigail Spradlin

"I really liked that this book had chapters from so many characters’ points of view. It gave you an idea of the wide variety of people who were affected positively by the game; what they had in common and how they were different, and how having access to a space like SLAY where they could be themselves was important. Both of the main characters are interesting as well, though Kiera occasionally bugged me because she was so complacent about her boyfriend being a jerk to everyone.<br/><br/>It did feel like the author doesn't know a lot about MMOs though - a high schooler and a college student programming a VR MMO completely in secret is a bit far-fetched, and any MMO with 500,000 subs and 2 mods is bound for trouble eventually. The reveal of the identity of the troll is also not exactly surprising but still kind of disappointing."

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