WHITE IVY is a great first novel for author Susie Yang. Ms. Yang writes about what she knows, the Chinese culture. She brings you into the world of growing up Chinese while living in America. I always enjoy glimpses into other cultures; Ms. Yang did it really well, her words, her descriptions made me feel like I was learning while being entertained, on of the main reasons I am an avid reader.

Ivy Lin is not a good Chinese girl, she does not follow the template for a young Chinese girl learning to be American. She is a thief, a liar and not a virgin. Ivy becomes obsessed with the upper-class teens attending school with her, especially Gideon Speyer.


The book begins as a character study; Ivy is living in two worlds, one where she is comfortable and accepted and another where she has to work hard and always feels not good enough. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ivy’s journey and wondering what world she was going to choose.

Toward the end of the book there is a veer off from character study to thriller and it works in the hands of talented writer, Susie Yang. I will be anxiously awaiting Ms. Yang’s next novel, that girl can write.

Wow!!! There is nothing better than going into a debut and having it blow you away. ❤️ This seems to be the year of fantastic debuts and you just need to add this one to the list. This book is a slow burn that is so eloquently done that I could not look away. I could not put this down, it had an almost magnetizing element to it. Susie Yang has arrived my friends!

Ivy Lin is a girl that pulled me in a million directions. On one hand I wanted to feel sympathetic towards her. Her family immigrated to America where she lived in a low income complex, her family struggling to make ends meet. As if Ivy didn't have enough personal turmoil trying to fit in, her family sent her off to a exclusive school- Grove Prep Academy. It is here that Ivy gets a taste of the good life and decides it will be hers no matter what the cost.

For some reason Ivy has that "something" about her that just draw people to her. They would see the good in her, yet she was filled with dark, disturbing thoughts. Her moral lines were not drawn in the sand, they seemed to move about whenever she needed something. Yet still...everyone seems to love Ivy. She is a master manipulator and knows her game well. She makes people want to do things for her.

As she struggles to make it to the top, stepping on people from her past, just how far will she go? The ending was one that I never saw coming! I loved it!

This book was SO GOOD! I thought it showed a really unique immigrant experience and the perils of aspiration. There were love triangles and plot points that I absolutely did not expect. It was a little bit slow at first, but that character-building time really paid off in the end! I will absolutely be recommending this book to everyone!

To be honest I didn’t get passed the tenth page. I don’t know what it was, I think the writing style didn’t work for me and it took me thirty minutes just to read ten pages. I felt like the descriptions were long winded and it was too formal for me to sit and devour.

This was a rather slow read with a main character - Ivy - who is impossible to like. She's deceitful and dishonest and yet I couldn't help but feel sorry for her as she was determined to get what she wanted. The immigration story was interesting and there were a lot of characters who weren't who they seemed to be.

I was surprised it took Ivy so long to realize something about Gideon that had been blindingly apparent to me from the beginning. Perhaps she wanted her fairy-tale life so much she had blinders on and couldn't see the truth. There were some shocking moments near the end that only served to further illustrate how depraved Ivy was. I expected her to somehow be caught - - and perhaps she will be someday.

I can't say I especially liked this book but it did keep me interested to the end so that speaks well for the writer.

Let me introduce you to Ivy Lin. A Chinese immigrant who just wants to belong and yet sees that people just feel sorry for her - especially her biggest crush, Gideon, who seems to be the perfect American boy of her dreams. But Ivy, with her poor family, has learned to make ends meet however she needs to. And Roux seems to be the only one who sees her fully and accepts her for who she is. But she's sent off to China for a summer and when she comes back, her parents have moved and now she has lost them both (the boys, not the parents).

When she gets back, fate has put her back in Gideon's path and she will do whatever it takes to finally "make it". Roux also comes back into her path and now a love triangle has blossomed into something that will take her down a path of much resistance. I'm not a huge fan of love triangles in a book but this one just works within the story being told here. 👏

This may seem like a slower read for some but I found the pacing perfect. We get to see Ivy trying to deal with her Chinese heritage and what is expected of her while trying to find her own fitting in the world she is growing up in. With this, she thinks Gideon is the answer and will mold and change every aspect of herself in order to make this happen. But how long can one person do this without being driven crazy? When you don't know exactly who you are, it's easy to just become a chameleon. And when something can potentially get in the way, you will do whatever it takes to ensure that something doesn't.

I personally loved watching Ivy's trajectory. Although I wanted to shake her at times, I actually completely understood why she was being the way that she was. I wasn't surprised by any revelations that came within the read, however, I did think one particular arc was going to go in a different direction that it did. I'm also SO CURIOUS AS TO WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW! Yang, um, can you please advise? I need more!

This debut novel is outstanding. And can we just talk about how awesome Ivy's grandmother is? Yang brilliantly brings together these families and even in their differences, had some similarities. After all, no matter your stature, there are always some kind of issues happening within. Ivy learned some very hard lessons and I'm so curious as to how she's going to transverse the rest of her days. Can't wait to see what Yang has for us next.

I'm telling you....everyone is going to be talking about this one, “White Ivy”, by @susieyyang. You heard it here!

Ivy Lin is a Chinese-American girl growing up in Massachusetts. She is a daughter, a student, a girlfriend, a roommate, an immigrant, an American, a work in progress... and a hot mess. She is pathological, but in many ways, she is all of us. Ivy yearns to belong and longs to break free; the push and pull of this book is perfect.

This one has it all, and turns it all inside out: social hierarchies, family secrets, desire, power, prestige and most of all, perceptions: the way we perceive ourselves, the way we perceive others and most of all, the way we perceive other’s perceptions of us. I was sorry when it was over.

You can pre-order it now for its release on November 3 (if you pre-order the digital copy, it will load onto your device that morning!) I have a hunch we might need some distraction that day and this book is all that and more.

#netgalley #simonandschuster #whiteivy #amreading

A wonderful debut novel. 4 stars!

Ivy’s parents immigrated from China to the US when she was two years old. As a teenager, Ivy struggles to fit in with her peers. Her parents are strict and lack emotional intelligence which turns Ivy into a cold, dishonest very unlikable character. Ivy ends up picking up how to steal from her grandma and becomes obsessed with consumerism and the desire to fit in with the privileged. The novel spans her teenage and young adult years.

White Ivy is a refreshing and unique novel. A must read for 2020.

White Ivy is a fantastic read. It's partly a coming of age novel, party an immigrant story, partly a book about privilege, and partly a thriller. Although Ivy, the title character, is totally unlikeable and I could see most of the twists coming, I can't stop thinking about this book. It's very well-written and the story is fascinating.

I really enjoyed this book about Ivy. It was very engaging to read about her complicated immigrant family. The transformation of her character was wild and layered.

White Ivy was absolutely fantastic. The dark tale of Ivy, a child of Chinese immigrants, spanned from her young teenage years to her early adulthood, revealing different facets about Ivy the whole time. The complicated relationships Ivy has with her parents, grandmother, Gideon and Roux are the basis for much of the story and the writing is stellar. A must read book for fall/winter 2020.

White Ivy chronicles the life of Ivy Lin, who struggles with her identity and perpetually tries to assimilate to the girls she goes to school with. Yang’s novel is more character driven rather than plot driven; as it progresses and Ivy gets older, her identity struggles manifest themselves through her educational aspirations or lack thereof, but also trying to figure out if she should focus on marrying someone who could give her a comfortably wealthy lifestyle, unlike the one she grew up with. Her experiences as a Chinese-American young woman in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and China help flavor this novel even more!

You know those books that you’re not sure how you feel about but at the same time there is just SO much going on that you can’t help but keep reading? Well.. White Ivy by Susie Yang was that book for me.

This was like some twisted cross between Gossip Girl & Cruel Intentions and I just had no idea how to feel about it. There was absolutely no way to root for the main character or hope for any sort of redeemable qualities. I definitely did like how twisted it was which was probably one of the only reasons why I stuck with it through the end.

White Ivy is a coming of age story. This novel is captivating, the writing is mesmerizing, I had a hard time putting it down.

Ivy Lin is the victim of a chaotic upbringing where her familial landscape was subject to change at a moment’s notice. Her parents leave her at a very early age in the clutches of a grandmother who, rather than showing her love and offering her security, sets Ivy on a path where victimizing and stealing from others is an acceptable life script. Ivy is unable to form appropriate friendships and meaningful relationships as she is shuttled back and forth to the US and China and from Boston and then New Jersey at the whim of her uncaring parents without notice or explanation.

White Ivy offers the reader a deep dive into the lengths in which people are willing to go to in order to get what they want. The novel explores why the drive in Ivy to acquire the trappings of another class and culture is so desperate and how in the end her unrelenting desire to “fit in” at any cost may not be worth the price of admission. Ivy, rather than grappling and attempting to conquer her inner demons, tries to drown out their cacophonous and mocking voices with inappropriate relationships and obsessive behaviors.

Although I didn’t understand or even like Ivy at times, I did have compassion for her. She longed to be accepted, to belong, to feel safe and loved, to find “peace.” White Ivy is dark and disturbing at times, filled with surprising twists, and I loved the ride!

Thank you to #whiteivy and #netgally and the author for my advanced copy. White Ivy will be published November 3, 2020.

Ivy was born in China and raised their until she was 5 with her grandmother before she moved to the states to be with her parents. Her grandmother taught her how to lie and steal. She wants to be like all her white friends at school. She ends up in a posh high school since her dads works there she gets to go for free and this is where she encounters senator’s son Gideon Speyr who she is obsessed with. Her only friend is her neighbor Roux a older Romanian boy who is an outcast like her. She lies to go to a sleepover party at Gideon's when her parents find out they come to get her and ship her off to her relatives in China for the summer while they move to New Jersey and she never sees either of them again. Years later she is working as a kindergarten teacher when she encounters Gideon’s sister Sylvia and meets back up with Gideon and they fall into a relationship. For Ivy this is like all her adolescent dreams are coming true. She is finally with Gideon her perfect man and now she can be happy and everything will be perfect . But past and present collide and roux ends up back in her life as the boyfriend of Gideon’s sister who has reinvented himself as well.
This was a really good read and I really liked the plot twists and man I did not see some of them coming. It ends and I was just like ok what just happened. Just really good.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

I finished White Ivy over the long weekend and I couldn’t put it down. Bummed that I couldn’t go out to a beach to read this because it makes for a great vacation read.

Ivy Lin is described as a thief and a liar. After traveling from China to join her parents outside of Boston, we learn about Ivy’s difficulties to fit in with her white, affluent classmates. She turns to shoplifting in order to acquire the trappings of a normal American teenager while also hanging out with her neighbor, Roux, who is rough around the edges but another outsider like her. Ivy’s crush on another classmate, Gideon Speyer, leads to a series of events that have Ivy spending her summer break in China. After some time, she runs into Gideon’s sister again and her attachment to the family feels inevitable, almost like fate. However, another person from Ivy’s past emerges that threatens to undo the perfect life Ivy has worked hard to create.

I enjoyed this take on the coming-of-age story, as it focused on Ivy’s feelings about class and assimilation past her teenage years. Many will say that Ivy is an unlikeable character, but the novel also asks you to question why you may dislike Ivy, especially given the amount of agency she has over her own life despite outside circumstances trying to control her. My one critique of this novel is that since it was really character-driven, I wish some of the ideas put forth by the author were explored more in-depth or tied into the story a little more clearly. For example, we find that Ivy’s brother struggles with depression that may stem from how he and Ivy were raised by their parents, and it is not really brought up again. I’m also not sure if we’re meant to critique Ivy’s obsession with whiteness, or if we’re to acknowledge that whiteness can be a means to a certain end and how that idea persists even today within immigrant families.

White Ivy will give you a lot to think about and it’s definitely like no other thriller I’ve ever read!

Awkward and just weird. A girl wants to try to grow up and no one wants to take care of her or really own her. She is taught to be selfish and value things fully on money. To not love. It was hard to read and follow. Would not recommend.m. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

4.5 stars

"White Ivy" gives the reader a lot to unpack. It's very readable and one of the reasons it keeps you glued to the page is that you wonder what the hell Ivy Lin is doing. She is not really likeable, she's all over the place, setting her sights on marrying her middle school crush, even though it is blatantly obvious that there's something really wrong with the relationship. She's a liar and a thief--she gets her thieving skills from her grandmother, who taught her how to shoplift. There is only one person who really knows her, sees her, and that person is another pal from middle school with whom she has a powerful, raw attraction.

Susie Yang's one of those writers who can grab you with the first sentence and keep you hostage to her clear, sharp prose until the last page. But like Ivy, the novel is all over the place. She's so hard to understand, to relate to. But it's like watching a slo-mo train wreck, and hard to look away.

Deep, dark, and haunting book. You honestly feel for the main character in here. You feel sorry for the little girl and want to give the grown up version a hug. Very very good book.

A tour de force of remarkable prose – I think I burned out the battery on my Kindle just from highlighting memorable passages as they poured forth from Ivy’s mind and heart. Not to mention that Ivy’s cranky mother Nan and beloved grandmother Meifang have a meaningful saying of wisdom for any and every situation – and they aren’t shy about telling Ivy what they think. I couldn’t put this one down!

*Before I dive into the review, a big thank you to Susie Yang, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for providing a free Advance Reader Copy in exchange for this honest review.*

A multi-faceted novel, this tale is partly a coming-of-age story, partly the account of an immigrant trying to fit-in in America, partly a new-adult yarn, and a bit of a chilling, gothic romance. Ivy, who moves to the U.S. when she is just five years old is a girl who ultimately is just trying to fit in. As her parents had to start-over when arriving in Boston, Ivy’s family doesn’t have a lot of money, but all Ivy wants is to own all the same things her classmates do, and feel like a “real” American girl. Her crush on Gideon, a boy at school, epitomizes her struggles and longing, as she views him and his family as if they are gilded and golden and everything she wishes her poor immigrant family could be.

Just when Ivy thinks she is “this close” to being “seen” by Gideon, she suffers a humiliation that is excruciating to her teenage mind, and then is also unexpectedly ripped from the rose-colored life in Boston that she loves.

Fast-forward more than a decade, Ivy is reacquainted with Gideon and his brightly-lit world. More determined than ever to keep Gideon and his sparkling upper-class world within her grasp, Ivy faces life-altering choices that she never expected.

Ivy kept me on my toes throughout this tale – never been quite sure what she was going to do next – and figuratively, proverbially biting my nails throughout! This book was a good contender for five stars, as I was enraptured from the beginning, yet there were two issues I just couldn’t get over: 1) There was a side-story two-thirds of the way through that, in my opinion, was left as a loose end; and 2) I just couldn’t reconcile the ending – to put it plainly, I didn’t “get” why Ivy made the choice in the end that she did. I felt, in regard to Ivy, that she could be the actor in that once-famous TV commercial puzzling, “What’s my motivation”.

That said, I will confidently say that this was a very well-written and supremely engaging novel that is well worth reading. An impressive debut by author Susie Yang. I’ll be very much looking forward to what she does next!

#WhiteIvy
#SusieYang
#Simon&Schuster
#NetGalley