SLAY
Ratings20
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings20
Average rating4.4
'We are different ages, genders and traditions ... but tonight we all SLAY' Black Panther meets Ready Player One. A fierce teen game developer 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 a college student, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. By night, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer - not even her boyfriend, Malcolm. But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, the media labels it an exclusionist, racist hub for thugs. With threats coming from both inside and outside the game, Kiera must fight to save the safe space she's created. But can she protect SLAY without losing herself?
Reviews with the most likes.
Being a computer programmer myself, I really loved the Black girl coder representation. I can relate to having long nights searching through Google, StackOverflow, etc. to find the right (or close to the right) thing to make my code work.
I really loved Kiera and her relationship with her sister, which somewhat reminds me of my relationship with my own little sister. I also enjoyed how her relationship with Cicada grows throughout the book. Harper and her little brother were annoying. Her little brother was almost intolerable. However, I understand their part in the story: the ignorant White friends. I honestly could not stand her boyfriend, Malcolm, from the beginning. My feelings for him only grew more negative as the book progressed. I find it a little odd that both the main male characters were portrayed with few (if any) redeeming qualities while the female characters had quirks that weren’t necessarily negative. I wish the characterization could have been more balanced in that aspect.
Some of the chapters took the reader away from Kiera’s point of view. The Cicada chapters were a nice way to intermix how her friendship with Kiera affected her and why she needed SLAY. However, the other chapters seemed more like filler with characters that had little effect on the plot. Those could have been cut to save some time and refocus on the plot.
Even though I really enjoyed the game of SLAY and the vivid descriptions of the cards taking form, I had some moments where it was difficult for me to suspend my disbelief. Thousands of members on multiple servers throughout the world with only two people moderating? I moderated a forum years ago and even with the few hundred we had, we needed way more than two. Also, I often asked myself what exactly were the sites rules regarding harassment and the like when a troll entered SLAY to disrupt it. As the creator, Kiera should have implemented rules regarding harassment and could have easily banned the troll for that. Due to the plot, she didn’t, but I found that a little hard to believe. I also doubted how hundred and then thousands of people (even if they were all Black) could have coexisted peacefully for three years without any incidents.
Overall, the female characters were great and the game SLAY was super creative, but the male characters were more like evil caricatures and the believability diminished as the book progressed. Those are the reasons why I would give Slay a 3.5 out of 5.
kept me super entertained! first book in a while that had me hooked :)
why did she keep hitting the nae nae though, I mean I do it ironically while cooking but this girl hit the nae nae like its 2015 still
Wow. Everything that the last young adult book I read lacked this exceeded. Brittney Morris was able to talk about such big and encompassing topics in a way that was completely approachable. This is just a fantastic book.
The audiobook is also such a treat.
Really liked the premise but the story and characters were overly simplistic, lots of description but everything was surface level. Not sure who I'm going to sell this too, but I'll look for an audience.
