Hmmm. I feel conflicted about this one. It read like a literary thriller, and reminded me a lot of Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, with a bit less propulsion and plot twist. The sinister natures of the characters, the internal anguish, haunted pasts, corruptive nature of visible wealth and luxury, not to mention the deep dread of an upcoming wedding (!).

There are some interesting ideas explored here, like the contrast between visible and quiet wealth. The way the wholesomeness of Gideon and Ivy’s families seem to switch from childhood to adulthood, in the same way their finances do, seems to speak to the way poverty grinds people down into worse versions of themselves. And the treatment of the Lin’s immigrant experience is handled well. But I can’t really see myself recommending this book. I lost heart in all of the characters about two thirds of the way through. When I can’t identify with anyone’s choices or motivations in a story, I struggle to stay invested in the outcome. To me, there’s just no light in this. I guess I need more of that in a story, somewhere, so this one was just too dark and grim for me. 

Title: White Ivy
Author: Susie Yang
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 2.0
Pub Date: November 3, 2020

T H R E E • W O R D S

Daring • Vindictive • Modern

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Ivy Lin, moved to America with her family as a young girl and grows up in a low-income complex in Massachusetts while attending a wealthy school thanks to her father's job. Her grandmother, and mentor, has taught her to take what she wants or needs. She is desperate to assimilate with her peers, but her family has other plans for her. When she develops an obsession with golden-boy Gideon Speyer, her overbearing mother steps in. Throughout all of this Ivy develops a taste for winning and wealth, and will go to great lengths to get what she wants. An exploration of immigration, class, race, family and identity.

💭 T H O U G H T S

White Ivy is the immigrant story I was not expecting from debut author Susie Yang. With a cast of complex characters, the real stand out here is the writing. Yang built the drama and intensity in such a way that the reader feels immersed in Ivy's story as she tests the boundaries in order to get what she wants. I also liked the exploration of opposing forces; preserving heritage and tradition, or assimilating. But for me that good end there, and without the help of the audiobook I'm not sure I would have made it through. I definitely have a hard time getting behind such a manipulative, narcissistic, and selfish character, where at times it simply felt the author was going for shock value.

Ivy is definitely a character I won't soon forget, so I guess Yang has succeed there, but this story was just not for me.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who like unlikeable characters
• anyone looking for an own voices immigrant story

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"She had long ago realized that the truth wasn't important, it was the apperance of things that would serve her.
Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear." 

This was a fascinating book that kept me interested and surprised me—I really had no clue where it was going and then when certain things happened, my face was 😳😱😬 The book spans several years of Ivy’s life, as she navigates being a Chinese immigrant and trying to fit in to white America.

So I liked the plot, the pacing was good, and the different experiences between Ivy’s grandmother, her mother, and Ivy herself made for some interesting comparisons, especially when looking at their reasons for certain choices.

Ivy is not a very likable character, nor is Gideon and his family, nor is really anyone in this book. I wasn’t really rooting for anyone to find their happy ending here—I was reading more for the drama and the little mysteries peppered throughout, and siding more with Ivy’s parents than Ivy as the book went on.

That being said, even though Ivy is unlikable, I still felt sorry for her for most of the book. I’ll be wondering for a while if she’ll ever be satisfied with her life…

This was excellent on audio, and thank you to Libro.fm, Simon Audio, and the author for this ALC.

Read if you like: family dramas, matchmaking schemes, the Queen of Genovia but she teaches you to be a thief instead of a princess, cunning characters.

There were points where I was really intrigued, but pretty much all of the characters were terrible people and I couldn't get a grip on their desires or motivations. There were also some key plot points that didn't seem fully believable.

I listed to this on audio and, on the whole, I thought the narration by Emily Woo Zeller was great!

YOOOOO THIS WAS ACTUALLY SO GOOD?

i thought white ivy was such a captivating read. ivy is a very vain girl who grew up fairly poor, wanting to fit in with the rich kids of the white suburb a block over. she has a crush on this golden white boy, gideon, and tries to get his attention. however, her mom catches wind of her liking boys (interfering with her studies), thus sending her to china to spend time with her aunts. this essentially cuts off her chance with gideon and her friendship with roux, a romanian boy who she strikes a sort of friendship with consisting of stealing and lying.

fast forward and a decade goes by before they re-enter her life but in very different circumstances and their storylines get intertwined.

this. book. is. so. addicting. the writing itself is so beautiful and articulate. it raises questions about the characters that made me think as i hadn't noticed the details, and then sort of discussed possibilities and what not after, which i appreciated.

one thing going into this: ivy is not a likable character and i don't believe she is meant to be. but i loved how her and her family portrayed a familiar asian american family but with much more realistic complexities—not just being a fob or a rich transplant like the typical tropes. ivy's personality isn't based solely on her ethnicity, and while she isn't a very good person, you can't (at least I couldn't) stop reading about her, almost like observing a creature in a glass case.

i also loved that the love triangle plays upon typical tropes but also makes each guy's personalities complex as well so it's not obvious who you're supposed to root for. some people like me may enter this saying, 'ugh not another asian girl liking a white guy,' but i think this story couldn't have been done any other way otherwise, as it is a commentary on race and class and is very specific to THAT sort of white generational wealth vs. new money.

I ENJOYED THIS SO MUCH i couldn't put it down once i picked it up. each character made me skeptical (because of the questions susie throws in) of their intentions and what was bubbling underneath. i figured out the *major thing* right before it happened and gasped when it actually happened. i also was completely blindsided by the *plot twist* but i loved how it made me sit and have to reevaluate everything i just read. i think some people may not vibe with the ending, but i enjoyed it! it was a sort of sweet release—not necessarily good for you, but you couldn't give lesser of a fuck because yup! life sort of sucks ass and at the end of the day, we're all humans and you're not any better than me! i'm the only one who can look out for myself!