Reviews

White Ivy by Susie Yang

jcpdiesel21's review

3.0

An entertaining ride with many unexpected twists and turns along the way. I enjoyed following Ivy's story and Yang's fantastic writing drew me in quickly. The book simultaneously juggles a lot of balls between being a coming of age story, immigration tale and straight-up thriller, and it unfortunately doesn't evenly balance all of these intriguing elements. Although I was engaged from start to finish, I am left wondering about Yang's ultimate point that she is trying to convey through Ivy's complicated journey.

delaneylp's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

I enjoyed reading this, but it felt a little sprawling and overwrought for my taste--some of the plot/prose choices were so painfully obvious. Lots of interesting and fun character work, though!

Spoiler

I will say that I guessed the situation with Tom and Gideon barely halfway through, so the ending fell a bit flat in that way.

readingwithhippos's review

I was totally absorbed by this book, except

Spoiler

I don't think sexual orientation should be used as a plot twist. The more I think about it, the shittier it feels. I'm not queer, but I can see this kind of plot line hurting queer people and it just didn't need to go that way. I wish Gideon's deep dark secret had been that he was bonking his sister instead (which honestly had more textual support than his being in love with Tom!).

So I wouldn't recommend this book, but I will say that it's addictively readable and absolutely made my skin crawl.

erikas_reads's review

2.0

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC for review.

White Ivy tells the story of Ivy Lin, who dreams of a luxurious life and becomes obsessed with the people that could make her dream a reality. Susie Yang is a talented writer who created vivid settings and characters. Reading about the Lin family's relationship with each other while trying to achieve the "American Dream" was intriguing and gave an interesting perspective.

The writing is what kept me reading until I finished this book. All of the characters were so unlikeable that I didn't really care to know what happened to them and there were hardly any eventful moments throughout the book. The plot moved very slowly and the ending didn't tie up any loose ends.

If you like a dark, character driven book and don't mind unlikeable characters, I'd recommend giving this one a shot but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

abookie's review against another edition

3.0

The first half about Ivy growing up as a Chinese immigrant was the best part. It was the thing the drew me into the story and kept me there. Ivy’s need to be close to whiteness or what’s American was fascinating. Once Ivy got older, it went downhill. The synopsis talks about how Ivy is unlikeable and sinks her claws into Gideon and that’s not true. She is manipulative by lying and embellishing her life but that’s it. I wish Yang made different choices when it comes to how Ivy weasels her way into Gideon’s life. I felt like it could have been more gritty and she could’ve done more devious acts to make him and his family like her. We do get some of that grit in the later half, but it just doesn’t connect with me because it doesn’t feel earned. If Ivy was ruthless about keeping a certain type of life (perfect marriage and a good relationship with Gideon) than killing Roux makes sense. But Gideon never loved her like that and deep down Ivy knew that so as a reader I’m wondering what Ivy is trying to protect. Ivy was almost too tame for me. Everyone else was boring and didn’t have a personality but for the purpose of this story it makes sense. The second half was predictable especially the twists. It was almost too obvious. It was like Yang was hitting the reader over the head. As soon as the photos appeared I knew Gideon’s secret and when Ivy changed her hair I knew hers. Nothing was subtle about the thriller aspects of the book

lasvers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

cc_horton's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kksnow9's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

aliencatl0rd's review against another edition

4.0

4.5/5 easily. Maybe 5 if I wasn't having a bad day

katreadsalot's review against another edition

4.0

This was exactly the book I wanted to read this fall. I read it slowly because I had some unexpected stress in my life but Ivy was the complicated, interesting character I didn't know I needed in my life (though not always likeable). I would classify this more as a coming-of-age novel rather than a mystery, but it had some mystery aspects as well as enlightening commentary on racism issues.