Slay by Brittney Morris - HIGH

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Slay by Brittney Morris, 321 pages. Simon Pulse, 2019. $19

Language: R (100+ swears, 5 “f”); Mature Content: PG (drinking mentioned); Violence: G (RPG game fighting)

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Kiera, 17yo, has balanced being a black girl in a white world all of her life, but for the last three years she has also been hiding her identity as the creator of SLAY, a +500,000 player MORPG based around black culture, available only by invitation. When a player is murdered IRL because of something that happened in SLAY, Kiera’s game and her identity is at risk.  And someone wants to wrest control of SLAY from her.

Morris does an excellent job of portraying the tightrope every black person walks on a daily basis, but also shows more facets of life as black, as each experience is not the same, nor each ideology. And her portrayal of life inside SLAY is masterful – I can only hope that this is a or will be a real game that someone gets to play soon.  I’d love to see the 1200+ cards she mentions. I don’t know why the cover is so pink – it should be green, as anyone will enjoy Kiera’s story.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS