By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the “downfall of the Black man.”

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination.”

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

I have been so excited for this book because Ready Player One is one of my favorite novels, and the fact that this was pitched as that meets Black Panther had me on the floor with anticipation! I was so ready to disappear into the virtual world that Kiera had created, and to see the life that Brittney had given her characters up close and personal. From the synopsis alone, I was hooked, and this story definitely delivered. You get two very different universes, and Brittney does an amazing job separating the two and also making them both intriguing and real in their own way. There are also times when the POV switches to other important characters in the book, and they all have their own distinct voices and are so vital for seeing the world outside of Kiera’s bubble.

We start out the novel with Kiera, who is struggling with her secret that she has created a hit VR RPG game called SLAY. This game celebrates black excellence and gives people of color a safe space to game without having to worry about being harassed. The game allows anyone with code to enter the game, create their character, collect items or cards or coins, and duel each other. These duels consist of the two players getting six cards at random from their collection: two Hex cards, two Battle cards, and two Defense cards. These cards are all based off of something from black culture: Black Love, J’s, Satchmo, etc. It’s such an amazing concept, kind of Dungeons and Dragons meets Yu-Gi-Oh! in a way. I would love to see it in real life, because it sounds beautiful and so much fun. Kiera and her friend, Cicada (her username in the game), have put hours and hours into creating the cards and paying artists to make the landscapes, and through all of it have formed a beautiful friendship despite never having met.

Kiera also has some great friends outside of the game, including her sister Steph and her schoolmate, Harper. She is torn about her boyfriend Malcolm, who she loves but doesn’t feel he could ever understand how much her game means to her. She also runs across Wyatt, who, like Harper, is white, and is ignorant to how insensitive his words can be. It’s something that Kiera has to deal with every day in her predominately white school, which makes going home to SLAY even sweeter. Between all of these people and her parents, Kiera feels like she’s leading a double life, and when a young black man is killed because of an altercation spurred by the game, SLAY and Kiera’s character, Emerald, go under a microscope for the world to see. A dialogue is started the world over asking if the game itself is dangerous or even racist. Kiera is distraught, hearing people around her speak candidly about her game, and it’s not all good things.

A troll shows up in the game and makes Kiera worry about a possible lawsuit. The troll itself has chosen to create its online persona to look like a white supremacist, which terrifies and infuriates Kiera, and brings the world of SLAY together to defeat it. Kiera lays her game and her identity on the line as she sets a wager that could make or break SLAY. It’s such an exciting ride from start to finish, and we see the game from several points of view that shows you just how important it is to this community, from a mixed girl in Paris to a doctor seeing the game through the eyes of his two nephews. It was eye-opening for me especially, because this experience is something that I could never know or truly understand. It’s going to be such a hard hitting book for people of all ages and races, and hopefully give some insight to those that truly need it about why spaces like this are so important for people of color. What a triumph of a novel.

5/5 stars