A review by stephbakerbooks
White Ivy by Susie Yang

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was a fascinating book that kept me interested and surprised me—I really had no clue where it was going and then when certain things happened, my face was 😳😱😬 The book spans several years of Ivy’s life, as she navigates being a Chinese immigrant and trying to fit in to white America.

So I liked the plot, the pacing was good, and the different experiences between Ivy’s grandmother, her mother, and Ivy herself made for some interesting comparisons, especially when looking at their reasons for certain choices.

Ivy is not a very likable character, nor is Gideon and his family, nor is really anyone in this book. I wasn’t really rooting for anyone to find their happy ending here—I was reading more for the drama and the little mysteries peppered throughout, and siding more with Ivy’s parents than Ivy as the book went on.

That being said, even though Ivy is unlikable, I still felt sorry for her for most of the book. I’ll be wondering for a while if she’ll ever be satisfied with her life…

This was excellent on audio, and thank you to Libro.fm, Simon Audio, and the author for this ALC.

Read if you like: family dramas, matchmaking schemes, the Queen of Genovia but she teaches you to be a thief instead of a princess, cunning characters.

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