SLAY

I’m a white, middle-class suburban working mom who’s never gamed a day in her life. I also don’t read YA.I loved everything about this book. The characters. SLAY. The story. The writing. All of it was amazing.Keira is a strong, brilliant teenager. She recognized a need and rather than wait for someone else to build the game she needed and wanted to play, she built it. She created the community she desperately needed. I’m doing so, she found her voice and gave a voice the the hundreds of thousands of SLAY players in the world.This is the universal story of SLAY—what everyone can connect to—the desire and need to be seen, understood, celebrated, and to be a part of something. To belong.SLAY is one of the best books I’ve read this year and I’ll be waiting anxiously for Brittney Morris’s next book.

This book is so captivating from the moment you begin to read the first page. The characters are so well developed. Each character makes you want to get to know them more. I had my opinion about a lot of the characters. I enjoyed the scenes when the characters was in the game. They were so descriptive it made you feel like you were playing along with the characters as you read.When I say this book was filled with black awesomeness and black girl magic. These are the types of books I wish I had growing up but I’m just glad this books are being developed for my daughters. This book teaches you to stand up for what’s right, what you feel in your heart. This book shows little black girls that you can be anything you want to be and no one has the right to stop you.This book touches on and addresses so many issues girls of color face as well as people of color and it was done with dignity and grace. This book will make you cry, this book will make you laugh, but more importantly this book will make you think.Rating: 🎮 🎮 🎮 🎮 🎮

I pick this book up based on an Amazon recommendation. I am so glad!This was an incredible book for a few reasons:1) Teenage Black female protagonist that stands out from the "just another girl in the hood" trope. I have to be honest, after reading a book where a 16 y/0 girl manages to program and build and entire online world while being an honor student and maintaining a boyfriend.. all in secret... made me want to pick up some coding. Since then I've been in 2 Python sources and stepped my game design.2) A lot of imagery and callbacks about RPG gaming. She actually makes the battle scenes engaging and full of tension. I don't play RPG's but I was REALLY engaged.3) A Pan-African view of the world thru and gaming culture.4) A really good "who-done-it" story that will keep you going.I recommend this book to everybody I know who is looking for good fiction.I only had a few cringe points:*She almost lost me at the beginning with the description of high school life. This is usually where I put the book down. Because this was a book by a black woman, I gave it a chance. I was SOOOO glad I did.* There was A LOT of descriptions of black culture. For me, it felt unnecessary and slowed the narrative down. But my friend reminded me that the publisher probably wanted to make sure the book was "accessible" ( I mean, nobody taught me what caviar was or how to eat it but I figured it out... but whatever.)* Teen sex (talk) always makes me cringe. I teach high school and while I fully advocate sexual education and counseling, talking about the sexual pleasure of teenagers always feels over the line. But that's just me and my prune juice talking.

On its face, SLAY is a story that tackles racism in gaming (that’s certainly true and it does so beautifully), but more than that, it’s a profound dive into issues of blackness, sisterhood, self-respect, family, and community.From the get-go, you root for the main character, Kiera, and for the virtual world she built. In fact, all the characters— both good and bad— in this book are incredibly deep and memorable (as are their betrayals).SLAY is a thrilling, action-packed book whose epic battle scenes will have your heart racing! Its emotional lows will make you cry, and its emotional highs will make you cheer.One of my top two YA reads of the year. Wish I had more stars to give it.

This book was awesome!!!! I really became invested in the protagonist, Kiera or Emerald in the world of SLAY. I have never been into video games but I loved that this book highlighted a sub-culture within the black community and referenced creating safe spaces for black people to just be. I also liked that it talked about celebrating Blackness and the negation of policing what blackness is supposed to look, feel or act like. We are beautiful diaspora of people all throughout the world and our being is vast and awe inspiring. If a game like SLAY existed maybe I would play though especially if they have a CP time or Cupid Shuffle card! Lol.

I will try to keep this review short and sweet, but there’s so much to love about Slay that I could go on for days. The concept is incredibly imaginative and I loved the super light sci-fi element of the VR gaming world in a contemporary work. The pacing was great and consistent throughout, never feeling too slow or too fast. The characters were absolutely incredible, even the ones I loved to hate.I truly appreciated how Morris showed a multi-faceted Black experience in Slay. A lot of truth and knowledge was dropped, which might make some people mad, but it’s an honest glance in the mirror for society and our respective communities. I love books that challenge me to think critically about social issues.It truly feels great to have an authentically and unapologetically Black book that I’m sure Black teens will hold near and dear—the opening pages alone my heart swell with pride, which is why representation is so important in media, especially now. I’m truly looking forward to seeing what other ingenious ideas Morris plans to bring us next.

I really love Slay, I read it as part of a book club that I am in but I really wanted to read it before that it just gave me more of an excuse :P I thought this book was amazingly written and I definitely recommend it to anyone!Spoilers below![Introduction:Slay is written by Brittany Morris. It is a book that styles itself as being a mix of ready player one meets the hate u give, although I feel like this book is still much more than that. It dives into racism in all forms and for me, this definitely makes it a must-read. I will be coming at this as both as an eye-opening experience in regards to racism and as a reader who enjoys playing video games.Character Development: Really awesome, I loved the way Kiera grew throughout the story and I loved learning about Claire and Steph! Their relationships with each other were really well written and felt very real to me. I think my two issues was that Malcolm really never grew or learned throughout the book and I also wished we had a bit more of an insight into Wyatt to see how much he grew, I feel like this book focused more on the girl's development instead of it being more balanced which I would have preferred. 4/5World Development: The world was gorgeously developed and I really loved learning about Slay, about coding, and about the world that the story is set in, regarding France and America. The way that Brittany wrote the world of slay tells me that she has played (and maybe coded?) video games as it was amazing! I loved learning about Black culture as I am trying to educate myself more so it was nice learning about it through this story. I loved the fact that we got representation for trans too 5/5Pacing: I feel like the pacing of the book was a bit slow at the start but it quickly even out and became consistent throughout. I did feel like it went a bit too fast towards the end though and I wish it has slowed down a bit. 4/5Language: There were a few things I struggled to understand, mostly due to the references to coding for example. There were times when some of the racist comments I got uncomfortable reading it but I understood its purpose to educate people and its important. Due to some of the language, I struggled to understand (maybe more of an explanation is needed just to make things clearer?) I give it 4/5Plot Development: Loved it! I thought it was a really fun read and the concept was really well done in this book. 5/5In conclusion:I believe that slay is a must-read for anyone not just for the education but also because it’s a really fun read that is really enjoyable. I am really looking forward to reading more from Brittany Morris!Score: 22/25=88%= 5 stars!(hide spoiler)]

My daughter loves this book. So much so she’s happy to read it over and over again. WellWorth the money.

Really loved this book and would highly recommend it. Smart and brilliantly written, every gamer and women should read it.

Brilliant- read

Buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it buy it