Scan barcode
kelly_e's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
2.0
Title: White Ivy
Author: Susie Yang
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 2.0
Pub Date: November 3, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
Daring • Vindictive • Modern
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Ivy Lin, moved to America with her family as a young girl and grows up in a low-income complex in Massachusetts while attending a wealthy school thanks to her father's job. Her grandmother, and mentor, has taught her to take what she wants or needs. She is desperate to assimilate with her peers, but her family has other plans for her. When she develops an obsession with golden-boy Gideon Speyer, her overbearing mother steps in. Throughout all of this Ivy develops a taste for winning and wealth, and will go to great lengths to get what she wants. An exploration of immigration, class, race, family and identity.
💭 T H O U G H T S
White Ivy is the immigrant story I was not expecting from debut author Susie Yang. With a cast of complex characters, the real stand out here is the writing. Yang built the drama and intensity in such a way that the reader feels immersed in Ivy's story as she tests the boundaries in order to get what she wants. I also liked the exploration of opposing forces; preserving heritage and tradition, or assimilating. But for me that good end there, and without the help of the audiobook I'm not sure I would have made it through. I definitely have a hard time getting behind such a manipulative, narcissistic, and selfish character, where at times it simply felt the author was going for shock value.
Ivy is definitely a character I won't soon forget, so I guess Yang has succeed there, but this story was just not for me.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who like unlikeable characters
• anyone looking for an own voices immigrant story
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"She had long ago realized that the truth wasn't important, it was the apperance of things that would serve her.
Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear."
Author: Susie Yang
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 2.0
Pub Date: November 3, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
Daring • Vindictive • Modern
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Ivy Lin, moved to America with her family as a young girl and grows up in a low-income complex in Massachusetts while attending a wealthy school thanks to her father's job. Her grandmother, and mentor, has taught her to take what she wants or needs. She is desperate to assimilate with her peers, but her family has other plans for her. When she develops an obsession with golden-boy Gideon Speyer, her overbearing mother steps in. Throughout all of this Ivy develops a taste for winning and wealth, and will go to great lengths to get what she wants. An exploration of immigration, class, race, family and identity.
💭 T H O U G H T S
White Ivy is the immigrant story I was not expecting from debut author Susie Yang. With a cast of complex characters, the real stand out here is the writing. Yang built the drama and intensity in such a way that the reader feels immersed in Ivy's story as she tests the boundaries in order to get what she wants. I also liked the exploration of opposing forces; preserving heritage and tradition, or assimilating. But for me that good end there, and without the help of the audiobook I'm not sure I would have made it through. I definitely have a hard time getting behind such a manipulative, narcissistic, and selfish character, where at times it simply felt the author was going for shock value.
Ivy is definitely a character I won't soon forget, so I guess Yang has succeed there, but this story was just not for me.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who like unlikeable characters
• anyone looking for an own voices immigrant story
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"She had long ago realized that the truth wasn't important, it was the apperance of things that would serve her.
Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Murder, Death, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Fatphobia
Minor: Ableism
depression,deedireads's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
White Ivy is a sharp, almost dark, and surprising book about a woman who will go to any lengths to get what she wants. Dramatic yet honest, it also has an ending that will drop your jaw.
For you if: You like contemporary novels that bring the drama and aren’t afraid to point out uncomfortable truths.
FULL REVIEW:
Big thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me an advanced review copy!
White Ivy is an impressive debut, and I enjoyed it even though it isn’t the type of book I typically read. I don’t tend to gravitate toward dramatic contemporary novels featuring unlikeable characters who make terrible choices lol. But here, Susie Yang takes that kind of story and stares at you from the pages while she’s telling it, never looking away even when you break eye contact. She finds the squirmiest moments of social norms and expectations and says them bluntly, which is somehow both refreshing and even more squirmy. It was fascinating.
The story is about a girl named Ivy, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who just desperately wants to break away from them. After a somewhat rebellious childhood, she’s reconnected with her rich grade-school crush years later, and they start dating. It’s everything she’s ever wanted. Or is it? Can she have life both ways? Ivy will do, say, and become whatever it takes to get what she wants, even if she doesn’t always know what that is. The book is about class and desire and family and social norms, and the simultaneous adherence to and rebellion against all those things.
I won’t say that I didn’t waver a few times in the middle, wondering if this book was for me, given how sort of terrible Ivy and some of the secondary characters are. But I’m really glad I pushed through to the end, because THAT ENDING. There was one part I definitely couldn’t have seen coming that dropped my jaw, swiftly followed by something that I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t see coming.
If you read for enjoyment/plot alone and don’t like to read about unlikeable characters, then I’m not sure this one is for you. But if you seek out books that do really interesting things from a character and storytelling perspective, and you’re willing to hang in there to experience it and see it pay off, then I recommend it.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Sexual harassment; Depression; Suicidal thoughts (brief); Fat phobia
TL;DR REVIEW:
White Ivy is a sharp, almost dark, and surprising book about a woman who will go to any lengths to get what she wants. Dramatic yet honest, it also has an ending that will drop your jaw.
For you if: You like contemporary novels that bring the drama and aren’t afraid to point out uncomfortable truths.
FULL REVIEW:
Big thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me an advanced review copy!
White Ivy is an impressive debut, and I enjoyed it even though it isn’t the type of book I typically read. I don’t tend to gravitate toward dramatic contemporary novels featuring unlikeable characters who make terrible choices lol. But here, Susie Yang takes that kind of story and stares at you from the pages while she’s telling it, never looking away even when you break eye contact. She finds the squirmiest moments of social norms and expectations and says them bluntly, which is somehow both refreshing and even more squirmy. It was fascinating.
The story is about a girl named Ivy, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who just desperately wants to break away from them. After a somewhat rebellious childhood, she’s reconnected with her rich grade-school crush years later, and they start dating. It’s everything she’s ever wanted. Or is it? Can she have life both ways? Ivy will do, say, and become whatever it takes to get what she wants, even if she doesn’t always know what that is. The book is about class and desire and family and social norms, and the simultaneous adherence to and rebellion against all those things.
I won’t say that I didn’t waver a few times in the middle, wondering if this book was for me, given how sort of terrible Ivy and some of the secondary characters are. But I’m really glad I pushed through to the end, because THAT ENDING. There was one part I definitely couldn’t have seen coming that dropped my jaw, swiftly followed by something that I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t see coming.
If you read for enjoyment/plot alone and don’t like to read about unlikeable characters, then I’m not sure this one is for you. But if you seek out books that do really interesting things from a character and storytelling perspective, and you’re willing to hang in there to experience it and see it pay off, then I recommend it.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Sexual harassment; Depression; Suicidal thoughts (brief); Fat phobia
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual content, and Mental illness
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
caseythereader's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the free advance copy of this book.
Ivy and her family are Chinese immigrants, working their way up from nothing in the wealthy suburbs of Boston. In middle school, Ivy had a hopeless crush on Gideon, an untouchably rich boy at her prep school. Years later as adults, they meet again and begin dating, and Ivy finally reaches the inner circles of wealth - but also discovers the dark side of this seemingly perfect world.
Good things first. This book is beautifully written - the plot takes its time to get rolling but I found myself carried onward by the smooth prose. I thought the contrast between Ivy's family's origins in rural China and the WASPy life she finds herself in was quite interesting, viewing the tale of outsider-infiltrating-old-money through a new lens.
Stuff I didn't like as much. I found this story to be so predictable. I could see every turn of the plot coming from a mile away (yes, even the two big twists in the last 50 pages). There's also a fair bit of unchallenged fatphobia and ableism from both the characters and the narration, including use of the R-word.
Content warnings: eating disorder, physical abuse, fatphobia, ableism, depression.
Ivy and her family are Chinese immigrants, working their way up from nothing in the wealthy suburbs of Boston. In middle school, Ivy had a hopeless crush on Gideon, an untouchably rich boy at her prep school. Years later as adults, they meet again and begin dating, and Ivy finally reaches the inner circles of wealth - but also discovers the dark side of this seemingly perfect world.
Good things first. This book is beautifully written - the plot takes its time to get rolling but I found myself carried onward by the smooth prose. I thought the contrast between Ivy's family's origins in rural China and the WASPy life she finds herself in was quite interesting, viewing the tale of outsider-infiltrating-old-money through a new lens.
Stuff I didn't like as much. I found this story to be so predictable. I could see every turn of the plot coming from a mile away (yes, even the two big twists in the last 50 pages). There's also a fair bit of unchallenged fatphobia and ableism from both the characters and the narration, including use of the R-word.
Content warnings: eating disorder, physical abuse, fatphobia, ableism, depression.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, and Ableism
More...