Awards and HonorsPublishers Weekly Best Books - 2019
NYPL Best Books - 2019 PEOPLE Best Books of Fall 2019
2020 Mathical Award Winner 2021 Alan Walden Book Award Finalist
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?
Book Genres Mystery, Quick Reads, Realistic Fiction, Thriller
Canadian Rights Yes
Dewey F
Title alpha Slay
Level High-Interest High Plus
Pages Count 336
Genre Fiction
Topics Video games. Fantasy games. Role playing. African Americans. Dating (social customs). High schools. Prejudice and racism.
Lexile 930L
Trim Size 8 1/4" x 5 1/2"
JLG Span Winter
Language English
Rights type Print
Publication date 2019-09-23
JLG Release Date Jan 2020
Minimum grade 10
Maximum grade 12
Reading level High
Format Print
High-Interest High Plus (Grades 10 & Up)
High-Interest High Plus
High-Interest High Plus (Grades 10 & Up)
For Grades 10 & Up
These exciting, age-appropriate fiction and nonfiction titles will appeal to even the most reluctant high-school readers. With that kind of appeal, the 14 books in this category will rarely sit on the shelf.
Discrimination: Racial Insensitivity/Racism,Language: Racial or Ethnic Epithet/Slur,Language: Strong Language,Sexual Content: Mild Sexual Content/Themes,Violence: General