A review by nattymomo
Slay by Brittney Morris

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

SLAY - we find ourselves in Bellevue, WA with Kiera, a 17 year old girl who has developed an online game where people of all shades of brown can gather and feel safe. It’s a vibrant, beautiful community that’s fiercely protected by its users as you must have a code from someone who already plays in order to get into the game. Its grassroots movement has spread worldwide and thousands of people love and cherish it. However, the people in Kiera’s everyday life don’t know she’s the brains behind the game until one day a player is murdered for resources in the game and it gets announced on the news. Kiera battles with feelings of guilt that her game has played a part in the players death and she must decide of she’ll allow those closest to her in to help.

I loved this book. I learned so much from Kiera’s perspective. The book does an incredible job of mixing important social justice issues in with complex characters with many layers. I feel like we got to know a while cast of characters and I was about ready into the book and play SLAY myself. I love reading stories about young women who are smart and create innovative systems like Kiera did. I also loved the deeply emotional connections she had to her sister and parents, as I definitely teared up at the end scene with her folks. There was magic in the descriptions of all the different types of players and it reminded me of how unique and beautiful we are all created. I desperately want to know what happens next in the SLAY universe, so my fingers are crossed for maybe a story with Kiera going to college for computer science where we could see the evolution of SLAY happen?!

Start Date: 4/3/2025
End Date: 4/3/2025
Star Rating: 5⭐️ 
Format: Audio
Spice Rating: 1🌶️
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary 
Setting: USA
Publication Date: 9/24/2019
Publishing House: Simon & Schuster
Est Page Count: 352
Audio Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audio Pub Date: 9/24/2019
Audio Length: 8 hrs & 27 mins
Audio Speed: 2.75x
Narrator: Kiersey Clemons 
Narrator Rating: 5⭐️
POV: Single
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