SLAY by Brittney Morris

SLAY by Brittney Morris
Simon Pulse, 2019.

So I’m a middle-aged white lady librarian but I was really gripped and enlightened by this book about Black videogaming and would thoroughly recommend it to teens interested in a different slant on gaming.

17 year-old Keira Johnson is one of only eight Black students at Jefferson Academy, along with her sister Steph and her boyfriend Malcolm. She is an Honors student and is excitedly awaiting the admissions decision from Spelman so she and Malcolm can be together in Atlanta while he’s at Morehouse.

But, by night, Keira takes on the role of Queen Emerald in SLAY, a virtual reality MMMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), intended only for Black people. But, more than that, she is the developer of this highly successful game along with Cicada, a young biracial woman who lives in Paris. 

However, when a teen is killed over a dispute in SLAY, the game makes headline news and not in a good way. The author cleverly contrasts the security of the game, where the players can recognize themselves and be authentic, with the way the white media misrepresents them as thugs and gangsters. Then a troll enters SLAY, threatening its very existence as a safe haven for black gamers.

Most of the story is told from Keira’s first person point of view but there are some chapters from the perspective of others who are involved or become involved with the game. The author also uses her characters to show different perspectives of Black people from the pragmatism of Steph to the Black (Male) Power ethos of Malcolm. The two main white characters, ostensibly well-meaning siblings Harper and Wyatt, show the micro (and not so micro) aggressions that the Black students at Jefferson are subject to. 

Ms Morris has created a gorgeous immersive vision with SLAY and the nuts and bolts of the game as players duel each other are enthralling and I learned much from her perspective on race and gender in gaming. And while some of the plotting and characterization is a bit wobbly, it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book one bit.

Music from Another World by Robin Talley

Music from Another World by Robin Talley
Inkyard, March 2020

Robin Talley is one of the premier YA authors of LGBTQ+ novels and has made something of a niche for herself by placing these stories in well-researched historical settings. Her latest is set in late 70’s California, mainly San Francisco, and niftily uses the story of two young women to show this pivotal time in queer history from a female perspective. It particularly resonated with me as I was a similar age as the main characters at that time and also found my identity (albeit a different one) through the punk music they both love.

During the summer of 1977 white high schoolers Tammy and Sharon are assigned to become pen pals by their Christian schools. Tammy is a deeply closeted lesbian living in conservative Orange County with her hardcore and homophobic religious family. Sharon lives in a Catholic area of San Francisco with her rather checked out mother and her gay (but known only to her) brother.

The novel opens with the Anita Bryant-led repeal of the anti-discrimination ordinance in Florida and closes with the massive 1978 defeat in California of the Briggs initiative (seeking to ban gays and lesbians from working in California’s public schools). During this year, the coming out (pun intended) of the gay rights movement and the shifting of public attitudes is shown through Tammy and Sharon and those around them. Maybe because it’s mostly set in San Francisco, the novel does take a somewhat rosy-eyed view of what being gay or lesbian in the 1970’s meant.

At first the young women stick to the anodyne questions of their pen-pal program, but later, as they come to feel close, they share more intimate confidences. Sharon starts going to punk concerts and meets cool feminists as well as going to the Castro with her brother to support gay rights. Tammy starts a relationship with another girl at school and inspired by Patti Smith, starts recognizing her anger at the conformity the world imposes.

As well as their letters to each other, both young women write diaries. Tammy writes hers as a letter to Harvey Milk, Sharon’s is a more traditional one. These narrative devices feel a little contrived, particularly when they are writing to each other despite living in the same house, and I didn’t find the voices particularly well-differentiated.

These minor quibbles aside, I found myself thoroughly engrossed by Tammy and Sharon’s different journeys to self-discovery about their identities and their sexuality through music, through their writing, and through their relationship. 

Thanks to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Again Again by E. Lockhart

Again Again by E. Lockhart
Delacorte, June 2020.

A new book from E Lockhart is always cause for celebration and, while this one didn’t do it for me quite as much as Genuine Fraud or Frankie Landau Banks, it is chock full of great writing and interesting ideas. For me, it had an interesting touch of A. S. King about it, with that mix of poetic reality and juxtaposed fantasy.

This much we know for sure about Adelaide Buchwald. She is in the summer between junior and senior year and is staying at her boarding school, Alabaster, along with her teacher dad for the summer. Her younger brother, Toby, is a recovering opioid addict who has already had one relapse and he is living with their mother in Baltimore as he goes through his recovery program. Just before the end of the school year, Adelaide was dumped by her boyfriend Mikey Lewis Lieu (aka Mikey Double L). She has spent the year failing her classes as Toby’s situation bored into her, but unwilling to show her sadness has developed a bright sparkly persona which seems to fool most people. The only way she can avoid flunking out is to create a model set for Sam Shepherd’s  Fool for Love for her theater design class.

By the end of the summer she will have started coming to terms with all this.

But in the middle, there are many branches of the multiverse in which Adelaide experiences love, loss, grief, and the slow tendrils of recovery. She meets Jack and has a brief fling with him or Mikey Double L comes back or she has a relationship with Oliver. None of these relationships come to fruition because, despite wanting love, she is not ready for it until she can see herself clearly and she needs to repair her relationship with Toby.

Adelaide’s journey from broken to whole encompasses all of these. There is a main thread that runs through to the end and the different possible branches are indicated (at least in the ARC) by different fonts and bolding. Though Adelaide follows four different routes, they all lead to the same ending: A friendship and a restoration.

As an added bonus, there are some fascinating descriptions of art pieces (apparently inspired by real life work) and their inspiration bleeds into Adelaide’s process of designing and creating her model set while reflecting her inner work in progress.

I think E. Lockhart is one of the most interesting authors working in fiction today. Her ambition and experimentation mean her novels really blur the line between YA and adult literary fiction, though their protagonists typically mean they are classified as teen reads. While Again Again was less successful for me than some of her other novels, I think those who loved We Were Liars will particularly enjoy it.

Thanks to Delacorte and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert
Disney-Hyperion, July 2020

Set over the course of Election Day 2020, this delightful two-hander starts when activist Marva and laidback musician Duke, both 18, meet cute at a polling station.

Over the course of the day, as Marva helps Duke get to vote and they look for Marva’s lost cat, social media celebrity Eartha Kitty, the author skillfully builds her characters, often using sidebar “About” chapters to fill in background information about other people important to them.

Though this presents as a smooth and easy romance, it’s something of a Trojan horse (in a good way!) Inside the charming exterior, the author doesn’t let the reader off the hook: the injustices against people of color and women are central to her characters’ passionate belief in the crucial need to vote to get change.

Alternating narration, the two lead characters, controlling Marva and laidback Duke come from ostensibly different backgrounds. Marva come from a comfortable middle class home, is one of only 8 black students at her fancy independent school and dates the charismatic (but ultimately villainous) white Alec. Duke’s family was shattered when his older brother, activist Julian, was killed and Duke has been learning how to deal with that loss ever since. But they are an attractive couple and it’s no surprise that after their initial decision to help Duke vote, their political dedication and commitment leads their relationship to develops quick.

The novel is apolitical in the sense that names and parties are not named, though I’m not sure how you could read this and vote Republican. Will it be enough to get Bernie elected? Likely not, but it might encourage a few readers to get out there and take their place in the democratic process.

Thanks to Disney-Hyperion and Netgalley for the digital review copy.