A review by tsar
SLAY, by Brittney Morris

dark emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 “As we duel, as we chat, there's an understanding that "your black is not my black" and "your weird is not my weird" and "your beautiful is not my beautiful," and that's okay. It' brings tears to my eyes if I think about it too long.” 

When it comes to black girl magic, there are so many things to unpack from the brilliant twenty chapters of Slay offered by Brittney Morris. We are introduced to Kiera Johnson, an honors student who is prodigious enough to create a role-playing game with the titular name not only for budding gamers across the world to come together but also a space for black people to retouch themselves with their universal culture—that is until the death of one of the gamers that attract unwanted negative attention from the publics' eye start building internalized doubt of Kiera's credibility and integrity as the creator of a platform, which is ostentatiously emphasizing a safe space for black people without fear of judgment or mistreatment.

For Morris, a safe space is an intersectionalized term for the global black community. It is apparent in the way she inputs different perspectives outside of Kiera to see how a role-playing card game would affect a black person from various backgrounds and countries; a lawyer, a lesbian CEO, Kiera's creator partner who is a half-Caucasian half-Black girl from France, and so on. I am not one to favor different narrators in a book, however, Morris delivers one of the best and most nuanced writing for this concept that seamlessly integrates the role of the game, and to an extent Kiera, for their respective lives instead of becoming wholly separate stories that don't add up to one another. More so, it creates a genuine reaction on how the cards, which draw heavily from the black culture, represent their identity and knowledge through their use as offensive and defensive moves as they battle them out in the game.

Still focusing on the story, the issues about the game put Kiera and her creation in a rather unique position. Morris writes their stances to be in tune with the projection of black excellence outcried by the community, which again, highlighting intersectionality by having a spirited young black girl countering the tools of white men into a multi-cultural extension stray far from the possibilities of marginalization. The more the publics' eye as well as Kiera's boyfriend Malcolm's attempt to dismiss Slay as nothing but a violent and secluded platform, Morris determines more of its excellence to present and stump these aggressive accusations.

Similar to the character Starr from Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give, Kiera is not in an environment that is outwardly friendly to black people: she studies in a private academy that is mostly dominated by white people, in which her becoming one of the few x-factors that could be considered as the token multi-racial representative of the school, and gets stuck with the performative boyfriend that disguises his leaking sexism as strong support to black equality. The way Kiera carries herself in handling these problematic aspects that surround her truly impresses me. She's capable to confront a situation with subtle tenacity, delivering the right counters for her to win her battles even when the atmosphere is not in her favor or the pressure is too uptight for her to navigate aside from her genuine understanding of video games and strong determination to uplift black excellence.

The sisterhood illustrated in the book is also one of the most highlighted parts that are perfectly honed. Here we have equally smart sisters, yet seemingly different in personalities—the game shows how much they are similar to one another instead, and influences them to strengthen their sibling bond where they could understand and help each other further. More or less, this sisterhood somehow replaces and dominates the broken ties between Kiera and Malcolm, in which their past relationship is already at the stage of unhealthy co-dependency, which also heals Kiera in the process.

Hence, Slay easily becomes one of my best and possibly remembered reads of this year. The minimum chapters never seem to look like they serve an unfinished story, but it unpacks the role of a black girl in helping the black community in a condensed nuance that should be reserved as further food for thoughts. 
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