By day, Kiera is one of three Black girls at her private high school as well as an honor roll student on the path to a HBCU, a historically Black college or university. However, Kiera has a massive secret. By night, Kiera is Emerald, the developer of SLAY, an online role-playing game created to be a safe space to express and celebrate Black culture. But when a teenager is murdered in real life over a dispute in the game, SLAY is revealed to the world and immediately targeted as exclusionary and racist. Kiera is forced to defend her life’s work and her culture in Brittney Morris’ literary debut.
I enjoyed this book! Be warned there’s quite a bit of exposition, but it is acceptable because author Brittney Morris does a fine job of creating an entire world to immerse yourself in while enjoying the story. Whether you play video games or not, you’ll be fascinated by this original premise and plot. More than anything, Slay exposes readers to what it means to be Black. Brittney Morris is not afraid to be candid in her take on racism in video games. I rate this book 4 stars because the last few plot twists felt like they were there merely for shock value, but some of them really got me! A timely story well worth the 318 pages that takes you on a virtual adventure!