Reviews with content warning for Murder - Slay

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

readtomea97's review

reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I really wanted to like this book but it was so full of eye rolls and just trying so hard to stay engaged. It really doesn’t pick up until about 1/3 of the way in.

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aalexander8's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

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thebookpaiges's review

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challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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shaunashares's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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adamsbookshelf's review

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book was such a fantastic read. We follow Kira who seems like your average highschool girl, but by night she is the Queen of a fantasy world called Slay. The only catch is no one know she is the creator of the game. Being one of four black students in an all white school Kira uses Slay to be close to other black gamers. After one of the gamers is murdered in real life, Slay blows up in the mainstream media. People call the game racist, offensive, discriminatory and it's up to Kira to stop the trolls and make Slay the fantastic world it used to be.

Kira was such a fantastic character. I loved seeing her vulnerability and how she educates people around her about race.

Even at the end she doesn't want to call the cops on Malcolm. The amount of police violence against black people is truly appalling. It truly shows how caring of a person Kira is she doesn't retaliate against Malcolms violence with more violence.

We see a constant theme of black excellence and it was beautiful. The descriptions of the Slay universe were so detailed and made me gasp in awe.

This novel truly feels like the authors love letter to her community. I am so grateful that I was able to read this novel before Republicans ban this book for being "Racist" like they are doing to other black authors writing about black experience.

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indydc's review

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hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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cinderellasbookshelf's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I loved this book so much that I’m not even sure where to start or if I can get all my thoughts through clearly. Books about video games have intrigued ever since I read Ready Player One and more recently Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. So, when I first heard about SLAY, I knew I had to read it soon.

What starts off as a story about a young genius being behind a massively successful, but secretive online role-playing card game, quickly builds into exploring identity and discussions about race, Black culture, and the influence of video games. And all told with such an adrenaline rush as if you were there playing SLAY and seeing everything unfold. I kept turning the pages so fast wanting to know what would happen next.

Apart from Kira, I really liked how we also got to read from a couple of different characters’ perspectives. They showed how video games can provide an escape, but also be a community. How everything comes together made for such an amazing ending that I was ready to hit the restart button to read it all over again.

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