Reviews with content warning for Murder - Загадочная жизнь мисс Айви

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."

Content Warnings

mncollins's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was an excellent read, and always kept me guessing. I expected it to be more of a thriller, but it was more literary fiction with some dark elements. Ivy’s decisions throughout were fascinating and it was interesting to see how she justified things based on familial expectations or experiences. While Ivy and her family were not necessarily likeable, I really enjoyed the story.

Content Warnings

thenovelmaura's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A Booksta friend told me before this book was even released that I would like it, and she was right! I had a great time reading about someone who was so much more real than she was likeable. At first I thought Ivy was manipulative, and those who label her as such aren't wrong. It seems more accurate to describe her as an expert at reading people and acting in ways they wanted so that she could be liked. Although she did sometimes use this skill to get her way, I felt she was as much a victim to this oppressive need to be adored as her targets were. Maybe this sympathetic view came easier to me because of the initial chapters where we're told how Ivy wanted to be white and wanted to be pretty (because you can't have one without the other) in her majority-white school, pre-adolescent feelings I recognized all too well. It was brilliant how Yang started with Ivy's childhood so that the reader could see how this vibrant, flawed being came into existence.

Anyway, I definitely don't condone all of Ivy's choices, but they made for a fascinating story. And the audiobook was very well-done, too. Yang is a talented author and I can hardly believe this is her debut!

Content Warnings