Slay by Brittney Morris

"To everyone who has ever had to minimize who you are to be palatable to those who aren't like you" Dedication in Slay

Kiera is an honor student, a math genius, and one of four (later five) Black students at her high school. She is also a serious gamer. Her game of choice is Slay, an online role-playing card game where Black gamers from around the world duel as Nubian personas. What no one knows is that Kiera isn't just a player, she created Slay. 

The thing about gaming while Black is that it isn't always safe. Kiera notes how when she played other games if she wanted to be a dark skinned character her her option was to be something like a troll and how other players, safe in anonymity provided by online games, didn't think twice about using racist language. Kiera created Slay be a safe space where Black gamers didn't have to deal with that mess. They can pick characters of any shade, not be called racist names, and just be who they are. When the book begins the game Kiera built in her bedroom has become a massive success with players from around the world. Still, Slay is a game most non-Black people don't know or care about. That changes when a teen is killed in real life over the game. Of course, people are in uproar over how "violent" video games affect the children, or something like that. (I put violent in quotes because I wasn't sure ho violent Slay actually was. There were duels but it wasn't a first person shooter game.) But also they're angry because the game is aimed pretty much exclusively at "Nubian Queens and King," in other words, Black people.

"All I ever wanted to do was escape into this magical world where for once I don't have to act a certain way because I'm Black, and where I don't have to answer certain questions because I'm the Black authority in the room, and where if I do something that's not stereotypically Black, I'm different...I think I love SLAY so much because we're a mutually empathetic collective. As we duel, as we chat, there's an understanding that 'your Black is not my Black' and 'your weird is not my weird' and 'your beautiful is not my beautiful,' and that's okay." (page 175-176)

I don't know anything about gaming so I can't comment on how good or bad the game is, but it sounded fun. The cards focus on Black history, culture, and achievements in its various forms. If it were real and I knew how to play such games, I would give it a try. Gaming aside, this is a great story! Kiera is smart, creative, and empathetic. She is surrounded by an equally smart, creative, and empathetic family, including a sister (Steph) she regularly argues with but who always has her back. 

We get to know a little about some of the other gamers. If there is anything I would change about this book it would be to have more snippets about the lives of other gamers. One of the big issues this book tackles is that there isn't one way to be Black or one Black experience. It would have helped to have more points of view to emphasize this point.

Overall, this was a great read. It was the first book I finished in 2020 so I would say my reading year is off to a good start.