I really, really enjoyed this book. I'm not even sure what made me pick it up, but it's a really well thought out story, with lessons and realizations peppered seamlessly in.
The first couple of chapters took me a little bit to get into. I wasn't sure where it was going, and I felt out of place which made my reading a little slow. I'm not a gamer; I don't know that world at all. But there was something about the character of Kiera that made me want to know what story she was telling.
The story is about a teenage girl who's created a gaming platform for her black community. Not her neighbourhood, but the black community as she sees it. She's created a place for people like herself, who need and want a place of their own, where they aren't forced to fit into the mould of what society deems "normal." The description of online game platforms made me much more aware of how white-centric so many platforms are. Avatars don't necessarily allow the creation of characters of colour and similar other issues.
Through the characters in Kiera's game SLAY, readers are able to relate and understand the issues that exist in that world, and how everyone needs a place where they can truly be themselves. In a world where there aren't expectations for who that self should be. We don't fit into moulds, and we shouldn't have to. Especially when you're not part of the "majority."
I would have loved to have had the opportunity to read a book like this when I was the target age for it. It would have shaped my brain at that age, and given me much more to think about that would never have occurred to me at the time. That in fact, didn't occur to me until much later.
If you can get past the focus on gaming, which is really just incidental to the point of the story, then you should read this. It's well written, the characters are well developed and the story is just good. I recommend SLAY.
#55-2020
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