Slay (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781534445420)

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019
"Gripping and timely." --People
"The YA debut we're most excited for this year." --Entertainment Weekly
"A book that knocks you off your feet while dropping the kind of knowledge that'll keep you down for the count. Prepare to BE slain." --Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out

Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give in this dynamite debut novel that follows a fierce teen game developer as she battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for Black gamers.

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

Author: Brittney Morris
ISBN-10: 1534445420
ISBN-13: 9781534445420
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Language: English
Published: 09/24/2019
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.90w x 1.10d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6
Point Value: 13
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 505645 / Slay


Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 07/01/2019 pg. 50
Publishers Weekly 07/08/2019
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2019
Booklist 07/01/2019 pg. 66
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2019 pg. 75
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2019
BookPage 10/01/2019
Shelf Awareness 10/11/2019
Horn Book Magazine 11/01/2019 pg. 92
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2019 - Superior,Well Above Average