I found the book to be really compelling, but the surprises towards the end were predictable.

I read multiple books at a time, picking up whichever suits my particular mood when I have a chance to read. White Ivy made me put down everything else.

It's difficult to explain White Ivy, because the layers -- having to do with class, race, gender, heritage both cultural and familial -- are so deeply intertwined you could.write an encyclopedia's worth of literary interpretation on the novel and still not be bored. If that sounds boring, that's only because I lack the formidable authorial powers of Susie Yang. You could not be bored reading this book. Ivy is an anti-hero, the narrative subversive. Crushed under a variety of family myths and familial oppression, she's driven by the combination of a desperate longing for material wealth and a certainty in her own lowness to lead a double life. Paranoia and guilt seep from the underhanded one to the bright, false one she hungers for but cannot make true. The repercussions of family rot, rotting outward, turn up in her and her counterpart, the infuriatingly good and opaque Gideon, her high school crush-turned-fiance, for whom she lusts symbolically.

When the pace suddenly changes from slow coming-of-age story to thriller in the final act, we see that Ivy has never been wrong about herself -- yet she finds a way to triumph, and we can't help being in awe. Utterly delectable. Top 3 fiction releases of 2020!

Un.put.downable.

I would give it 3.5 stars. Unique story but unbelievable at times.

I had a hard time putting it down. It was frustrating and I didn’t like the main character. It kept me guessing.

Absolutely loved this book. Easily one of my favorites of 2020.

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Susie Wong's debut novel is a story of immigration with all the suffering and sacrifices I expected. Ivy Lin didn't move to the USA with her parents. She stayed back in China until they could afford to bring her and her brother over. Ivy learned how to survive under her grandmother, Meifeng's tutelage. Ivy became an expert pickpocket and petty thief. When Ivy arrives in America, she knows that she will never fit in but sets her sights on a rich blond boy named Gideon.
Ivy can attend a private school because her father works there, and she is a scholarship student, a fact she desperately tries to hide. Ivy and Meifeng find yard sales a heavenly deliverance of treasures sitting out to be pocketed by each of them. Ivy doesn't have a good relationship with her mother, Nan. Their fights often end up with a slap in the face or worse corporal punishment. Ivy is quite miserable all the time, and the idea of how she wants to live her life begins to take shape.

I understand how Ivy viewed all those lovely homes in Massachusetts with loving families. If you drive down the street on an autumn night, the houses are aglow with warm light and show what appear to be perfect families around the dinner table or the fireplace, snug and secure, happy. Ivy decided that she would have that life, no matter what she had to do to get it.

Ivy hit loads of roadblocks to her goal, but when she had the opportunity, and Gideon reappeared in her life as a young adult, she went for it. Ivy would not lose her man even if other people in her life were closer to her heart and soul. Ivy's future is not absolute, but the story was believable even though the narrator was so unlikeable.

White Ivy was a long winding read. I enjoyed this new young talent and wish her every success with this and future books. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Morality tale in modern clothing. This page-turner didn’t feel like a lit novel but was well written. The story revolves around Ivy Lin— born in China, raised in the US. She does not fit in w her traditional immigrant family any more than she does w American children. To compensate for her feeling of otherness as a scholarship student in a tony private school, Ivy learns—with her grandmother’s approval and assistance—to boost items. This at least quells her immense sense of not possessing what she wants: friends, clothes, an all-American, preppy family.

One of Ivy’s most interesting qualities is her lack of conscience. She learns early on that no one is on her side and develops a chilling kind of self-preservation. She disappoints her parents w their old school expectations and is not the model minority her peers imagine she must be. What she has is a fierce desire for self-preservation.

In middle school, Ivy falls for Gideon Speyer, a golden boy from a family where wealth and status are inherited. She runs into his sister when they are adults and ingratiates herself into his world. Because Ivy is not genuinely in love, she is never comfortable or honest, just trying to fake it until he proposes and she lands her dream American life.

I’ve left out a major character who challenges Ivy’s pretense and seems to actually view and appreciate her because he shares many qualities w her. Like her, he’s amoral.

None of the characters are likable or sympathetic, which increased my perception that this was a morality tale.

A lot of potential that fell flat for me in the second half. The author does best when she sticks to what she knows - the Chinese immigrant family, parenting, pressures, the trip back to visit China - well-written and believable.

*Spoiler alert* But when the author turns her attention to planning and executing a perfect murder, any fan of true crime or courtroom procedurals, is going to notice some pretty glaring issues - here's some that pop to mind without much deliberation: Ivy wipes the car of prints, which is going to raise suspicion because why would a hiker not have left any prints in his own car? Why was the hiker not dressed for hiking? Why does he seemingly not have a phone? Smashing a physical phone doesn't delete the database of all their texts that the phone carrier will have. And when did the phone last hit on a tower? Who is the woman Roux was seen out with? What does she know about Ivy? It all just seemed to be wrapped up very quickly and simply and that could have all been handled more convincingly.