This book is accurately described as a combination of Ready Player One, The Hate U Give, and Black Panther. The story is about Kiera, a Black girl who “is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy.”
She’s seventeen years old and struggling with the things you would expect a teenage girl to have problems with. Her friends, family, boyfriend, school, and career planning. However, she’s secretly also the developer of a very popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called SLAY.
The reason why SLAY is so important to Kiera is because it’s not just a video game. It’s a celebration of Black culture and a place where Black people can just be themselves without any worries. In order to protect the game, players must obtain a passcode from a friend to join. Thus, keeping the game within the Black community.
All I ever wanted to do was escape into this magical world where for once I don’t have to act a certain way because I’m Black, and where I don’t have to answer certain questions because I’m the Black authority in the room, and where if I do something that’s not stereotypically Black, I’m different.
However, things quickly get messy when a player from Kansas City is killed in a dispute over the game. The news takes hold of the story and labels SLAY as a racist, exclusionist game that harbors thugs and targets low-income children with the intent to get them involved in gangs.
And as if that’s not bad enough, an anonymous player enters the game with the purpose of harassing Kiera so that they can convince her to make the game publicly available. They even threaten to sue, causing her to go to a lawyer for advice out of fear of legal consequences.
The question this book poses is whether Kiera can save her game without losing her anonymity and “preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness.”
SLAY handled the nuance of being a Black woman in the modern world very well, which I think can be credited to the author’s personal experiences as a Black woman herself and her notable skill as an author. She has written other young adult (YA) books about Black main characters such as The Cost of Knowing and The Black Girl Survives in This One. She has also contributed to video games like Subnautica: Below Zero, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Marvel’s Wolverine.
SLAY certainly held my attention very well, with tension that felt appropriate to the situations in the book and a speed that felt like a comfortably fast pace. The plot was always developing quickly without being overwhelming, which I really appreciated. After starting this book I soon found myself absorbed and unable to put it down until I got to the end and found out how everything would be resolved.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading more about diverse characters or stories that center around video games. However, because this book is intended for ages 12+ readers who are 11 or younger may miss some of the nuance and commentary involved and would likely benefit from added discussion about the plot and characters.