Slay – a review

The wonderful Kari from Kari-ng for books gifted me Slay. I was very unsure about it, as it’s a YA contemporary book and if you know me at all, you know isn’t my usual choice. But I’m so glad that I trusted her and read this book!

Slay by Brittney Morris

We follow Kiera, one of very few Black students in her US high school. By day she’s an honours student, but by night she’s the developer of a major multiplayer online role playing game Slay. No one knows. Not her friends, not her boyfriend, and not her family. And Kiera is happy that way. But one day, when a boy is murdered over the in game currency, this is now something she can’t handle alone.

As well as following the real life side of this story, we also get to experience the MORP itself which I absolutely adored! I think I really like video game books? I don’t know but this was great! I loved the character development, I loved the world development of the online world specifically and how the online relationships were shown and developed. You can tell the author has had online only friends herself!

I still don’t think standard contemporary books are for me. But I do think that those which are sprinkled with a little bit of magic, whether fantastical or computer generated, are some of my favourites!

For my CAWPILE ratings I gave:

Characters: 8

Atmosphere: 7

Writing: 7

Plot: 8

Intrigue: 8

Logic: 8

Enjoyment: 8

Which gives a total of 7.71 hitting a nice 4 stars! I’m still very glad that I picked this book up and I’ll be so much more open to contemporary books with a twist in the future!!

Highlight here to see trigger warnings: racism, toxic relationship, child death, cancer, hate crime, misogyny, gun crime

First Lines Friday #4!

Here is how it works:

– Pick a book and open to the first page.

– Copy the first few lines without revealing which book it is.

– Reveal the book!

So… do these first lines entice you?

By day, I’m an honours student at Jefferson Academy. At night, I turn into the Nubian Goddess most people know as Emerald.

The second bell rings, I’m out of my desk seat and bolting through the classroom door. There’s a battle tonight between PrestoBox, a master wizard from the Tundra, and Zama, a Voodoo queen from the same region. I absolutely can’t miss it. Once safely in the hallway, I pull out my phone and open WhatsApp to find a new text from the game mod, Cicada.

Cicada: You watching the tundra semifinals tonight?

Scroll down to reveal the book!

Slay by Brittney Morris

That first section is definitely not one that would entice me, which is surprising and kinda sad! I already own this book (I was gifted it by the wonderful Kari) and I’m excited to read a Black gaming book. I really hope that I enjoy the writing more as the book carries on. Fingers Crossed!