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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,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
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