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A review by onetrooluff
Slay by Brittney Morris
5.0
Sooooo.... I don't tend to read a lot of YA anymore, but this appealed to me because the premise was interesting. I love video games (though I've never played an MMORPG) and the issues being addressed in the novel were intriguing.
I feel that it is a personal responsibility to read outside of my own experience. I try to read lots of things by authors with different backgrounds from my own. I think this book was a great choice, because the author wrote brief, organically included explanations or definitions so that people who didn't know what a word or phrase meant wouldn't be left in the dark.
A lot of big issues got touched on here: identity politics, various philosophies on how Blacks can best achieve equality and personal success, cultural appropriation, relationships (particularly toxic ones), institutionalized racism (particularly in video games, in this case). All of it gave me a lot of food for thought. These are very hard issues and there isn't one correct answer to these questions, which is frequently acknowledged in the book.
I think the book is pretty fair with its presentation of white characters. There are true racist, bigoted dirtbags, there are people who are racist or insensitive without realizing it, and there are people actively trying to be more understanding and be better. I hope this book inspires lots of people to think about their viewpoints, their actions, and what they say - to be better.
I haven't read much YA in a while, like I said, and this is partly because I've run into some really poorly-written stinkers. This is not one of them. Brittney Morris did a great job developing her characters; they felt realistic and made realistic mistakes, and the dialogue felt natural.
My least favorite part of this book is Kiera's boyfriend, Malcolm. Good grief, he gave me the chills he was so domineering. I won't get into it too much, but even from the first introduction where Kiera said he (intentionally) based his hairstyle on Killmonger, I already wasn't sure how I was going to feel about him. A devotion to Black excellence, in itself a good thing, can take so many different forms, and sadly some of those are also misogynistic and/or anti-white to dangerous extremes.
This book really gave me a lot to think about and presented me with some viewpoints and experiences I hadn't thought about before. It was also enjoyable as a story. I'd definitely recommend it.
I feel that it is a personal responsibility to read outside of my own experience. I try to read lots of things by authors with different backgrounds from my own. I think this book was a great choice, because the author wrote brief, organically included explanations or definitions so that people who didn't know what a word or phrase meant wouldn't be left in the dark.
A lot of big issues got touched on here: identity politics, various philosophies on how Blacks can best achieve equality and personal success, cultural appropriation, relationships (particularly toxic ones), institutionalized racism (particularly in video games, in this case). All of it gave me a lot of food for thought. These are very hard issues and there isn't one correct answer to these questions, which is frequently acknowledged in the book.
I think the book is pretty fair with its presentation of white characters. There are true racist, bigoted dirtbags, there are people who are racist or insensitive without realizing it, and there are people actively trying to be more understanding and be better. I hope this book inspires lots of people to think about their viewpoints, their actions, and what they say - to be better.
I haven't read much YA in a while, like I said, and this is partly because I've run into some really poorly-written stinkers. This is not one of them. Brittney Morris did a great job developing her characters; they felt realistic and made realistic mistakes, and the dialogue felt natural.
My least favorite part of this book is Kiera's boyfriend, Malcolm. Good grief, he gave me the chills he was so domineering. I won't get into it too much, but even from the first introduction where Kiera said he (intentionally) based his hairstyle on Killmonger, I already wasn't sure how I was going to feel about him. A devotion to Black excellence, in itself a good thing, can take so many different forms, and sadly some of those are also misogynistic and/or anti-white to dangerous extremes.
This book really gave me a lot to think about and presented me with some viewpoints and experiences I hadn't thought about before. It was also enjoyable as a story. I'd definitely recommend it.