SLAY

SLAY by Brittney Morris is a young adult book featuring a "blacks-only" massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by high schooler Kiera. Having repeatedly experienced racism in popular MMORGs, she wanted to create a safe space that would both celebrate black culture and give

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blacks an exciting game of their own. After a player is murdered, the game gets accused of exclusionary racism, and her masked identity becomes the subject of fervent media interest. She has not let anyone, including her parents and judgmental boyfriend, know she's the developer and gamemaster. She wants to protect her beloved online community and her own privacy, but both are under threat.

This was both an engaging read, with appealing game battles, and thought-provoking as to common problems experienced by black high schoolers in majority white situations. Even Kiera's close white friends thoughtlessly expect her to be "the voice of her people", and have trouble realizing there are as many different perspectives within the black community as in the white. There are some cardboard characters (including, unfortunately, her parents), but the book's strengths lie in showing diverse black perspectives and the fallacies even well-meaning whites fall prey to. This is a good one for thoughtful young videogamers, methinks, but even old farts can enjoy the story and the thoughts provoked.

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Great book! Really excited to have something to pair along side Ready Player One. Main character is a female black teen game developer. I think many will relate to her or be interested in her character. Black culture is at the forefront here, which is also great. Fast read and very entertaining.

It took a while to get into "Slay" but I am so glad I persisted with it. Not only was it an action-packed read but it was also a wonderful testament to being Black. Kiera was a fabulous protagonist - strong, intelligent and brave, and proud of who she was.

The sisterly bond between Kiera and her

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younger sister, Steph, was touching and I also loved Kiera's relationship with Cicada, who was a moderator of Slay. Despite having never met face-t0-face, there was a lovely friendship between the two young women.

It was refreshing to have such inspiring female leads in the story. The males, on the other hand, especially Malcolm and Watt, were rather pathetic. Malcolm's attitude annoyed me from the start and I never thought he was worthy of Kiera.

At first, I found the gaming aspect of "Slay" confusing, having never played video games before, but I was soon intrigued by the world of Slay that Kiera had created. The virtual duel between Emerald and Dred had me on the edge of my seat along with half a million Slayers. It was nail-biting.

Overall, "Slay" exceeded my expectations and was a fabulous read.

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By day, Keira is an excellent student at an exclusive school where she is one of just a couple African-American students. Privately, Keira is Emerald, founder of an online game community called SLAY that celebrates black excellence. When a teenager is killed in real life about a controversy inside

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the game, Keira is torn about how she should respond. Is she is in legal trouble? Should she reveal her identity? After a new player enters SLAY who trolls Emerald, she is forced to take action.
A compelling read with strong characters. The teaser I read described it as Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give.

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I really liked the premise and the characters were well developed and interesting. The pacing felt a little slow for much of the book (a lot of explanation, and worrying from the narrator). Also, having a window into the video game design world, it's hard for me to believe that a teenager and a

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college student (across the world from each other) could reasonably build a VR MMORPG. It did have a solid, suspenseful ending.

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This was an excellent read.
It was well written and addressed racism, community and the gaming world.
I'm looking forward to reading more from this author and I will suggest this book to the young adults at my library.

There's definitely some necessary suspension of disbelief around the ability of two teens to manage a video game as large as Slay, but the characters feel so real that it makes up for it. An exciting and heartwarming read!

Since I’m not a gamer initially I was a little concerned that the gaming aspects of this one would be a struggle for me but this did a fantastic job of explaining how these types of games work without it coming off as a confusing info-dump and most importantly the author through Kiera, Cicada,

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and other gamers POV’s really helped me understand how and why Slay meant so much to its players so even though gaming isn’t something I do, I became invested and appreciated its importance in these characters’ lives.

I mentioned that there are a few different POV’s here which I know isn’t something all readers enjoy, but for the most part the story does stay with Kiera, only the occasional chapter is given over to other characters and those characters do very much add to the emotional impact rather than feel like they’re taking time away from Kiera.

A tragedy that reverberates into the game created an almost thriller like atmosphere at times, it becomes very much a page-turner, but even more than that the depth of this really stood out to me. Whether it was secondary characters so fully realized that I could easily imagine any one of them taking center stage in their own story or the frank conversations about race that featured a range of opinions or how every single one of Kiera’s relationships with friends, with her family, and with her boyfriend, were realistically layered, often both loving and complicated, my favorite example of that came late in the book, a scene between Kiera and her sister in the car, there is so much they’re feeling in that moment, fear and frustration on her sister’s part, and the specter of race and how it hovers over everything making an already horrible situation feel like it could take an even worse turn all while Kiera’s reeling from a painful truth. I defy anyone to truly take in that scene and continue to paint all young adult novels with the same brush as if they’re all somehow less than, gems like this one dig in and offer as much complexity as any adult title.

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This was *so* good - can't wait for Morris' next book. My 14 yo also really enjoyed it.

Wow. Just... Wow. I could not put this book down!! Every scene kept me enthralled, I just had to know what happened next!! I love the way that Morris addresses the issues of race and gaming in the story. The way she weaves complex issues and the discussions around them into the story works so

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naturally, and it's just beautiful. Wow. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for more of her books in the future!!

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