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A review by oomilyreads
White Ivy by Susie Yang
4.0
White Ivy written by Susie Yang is a debut contemporary slow-burn thriller. For a long time, I thought I was just reading a twisted romance with themes of race, privilege and power but it quickly became darker around 70%. Main character Ivy Lin who initially steals and lies because of her upbringing and feeling the pressure of being poor in a white and privileged community but she eventually becomes detached from reality and from her own feelings & thoughts. It becomes clear to me that she is a sociopath with a mental illness. She is vengeful, cruel and a true opportunist. She craves self-destruction and destroys her own happiness to obtain what will elevate her status & image.
Some readers may consider this novel #ownvoice as author Yang paints Chinese culture – education and success-oriented, but also image-oriented, violent, manipulative, judgmental, and conniving. Yang infuses multiple Chinese migrant stories using other characters into her book that are different from Ivy’s yet all show that the Chinese aim to flaunt their success both in money & in image. Ivy’s family is dysfunctional and depraved in so many ways that Ivy thought she could not relate to. In a warped appreciation of her family, she comes to realize this is how she became a stronger version of her mother & grandmother. The vast characters in the book are just as unlikable.
Three generations of Lin women that all have secrets, and each have no reservations about doing what they need to do including murder to survive. The systematic racism, sexism, harsh family upbringing that is the motive for the Lin women to alter themselves to get what they need in life. As Lins’ mother said, she willed it. She wants it, she’ll have it. This is the bloodline of Ivy Lin who lacks empathy, is a pathological liar, petty, corrupt and ultimately an immoral sociopath. She projects her own mental flaws onto others to justify her actions. Ivy is never satisfied with what she has and will do anything to get what she wants.
“…her need to destroy, escape, remake was a darkness the combined Meifeng and Nan hadn’t been able to fumigate”.
Thank you Netgalley & Simon and Schuster for this sending me this ARC!
Some readers may consider this novel #ownvoice as author Yang paints Chinese culture – education and success-oriented, but also image-oriented, violent, manipulative, judgmental, and conniving. Yang infuses multiple Chinese migrant stories using other characters into her book that are different from Ivy’s yet all show that the Chinese aim to flaunt their success both in money & in image. Ivy’s family is dysfunctional and depraved in so many ways that Ivy thought she could not relate to. In a warped appreciation of her family, she comes to realize this is how she became a stronger version of her mother & grandmother. The vast characters in the book are just as unlikable.
Three generations of Lin women that all have secrets, and each have no reservations about doing what they need to do including murder to survive. The systematic racism, sexism, harsh family upbringing that is the motive for the Lin women to alter themselves to get what they need in life. As Lins’ mother said, she willed it. She wants it, she’ll have it. This is the bloodline of Ivy Lin who lacks empathy, is a pathological liar, petty, corrupt and ultimately an immoral sociopath. She projects her own mental flaws onto others to justify her actions. Ivy is never satisfied with what she has and will do anything to get what she wants.
“…her need to destroy, escape, remake was a darkness the combined Meifeng and Nan hadn’t been able to fumigate”.
Thank you Netgalley & Simon and Schuster for this sending me this ARC!