I was looking forward to read this book for so long but unfortunately I had to stop just after the first few chapters. Somehow it just wasn’t for me or my moods . I will try to pick it up in the future but I doubt it for now
Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

This book changed my life, in the way the main character‘s Chinese background was integrated into the story. Loved the constant suspense and just how unlikable the main character was

What an excellent debut this was.
It’s so many things that it’s hard to classify under one genre , it’s a literary thriller / coming of age novel which peaks at the very end !
The novel follows Ivy , a Chinese - American immigrant trying to assimilate into American culture and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants . She is not a likeable character but the authors draws you in very well . We also meet an arrange of sub characters all of which add good depth to the story .
Issues covered are class, race , identity in modern day America . It’s very well written and can see this making a good HBO/ Netflix series !

A literary thriller that explores power dynamics between men and women, between races, and between social strata. A story of immigrants, of money and of the depths you may be willing to go to get what you want. Extremely well-written and plotted, this is definitely recommended.

I highly appreciated the concepts this covered but found the actual narrative rather slow, for my personal tastes and due this being classed as a thriller.

such addictive reading, I raced through this! Would recommend to anyone who likes reading about the messy lives of white people, but wants another perspective.

Ivy certainly has a tough life which is well documented by Susie. Ivy is bought up initially by her Chinese Grandmother, before joining her struggling parents in America. Ivy struggles to fit into school being poor and Chinese. She finally meets a boy she idolized at school, Gideon and seems set for happiness and all she ever dreamed of. But this is no fairy tale, she has to lie and scheme to get her way, which she then realises will not be as she imagined.
Hard to believe this is a first novel, so well put together, with well described characters and gripping story line.
Thank you Susie and NetGalley.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A well written story with hidden depths which lead to deep exploration of the MC.
A good read.

I really loved this book, as it is beautifully and lyrically written. The book is about a chinese girl who grows up in America, and falls in love with american consumerism and capitalism.
I was totally shocked by passages in this book and was totally consumed by the plot and writing.
Definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time.

3.5 stars for White Ivy.

I wasn’t really sure if this was for me, but I ended up finding it so compelling I read most of it in a day.

It wasn’t quite what I expected from the bio - the darkness of the opening is quite subdued during the middle section but returns towards the end in a twist I honestly didn’t see coming.

The blurb and the opening is very intriguing - Ivy is born in China but brought to America by her grandma who teaches her to steal. Ivy never feels like she fits in and becoming fascinated by a popular classmate. While this is definitely the beginning of the book, it is not the plot for the majority of the novel.

It turns into quite a typical millennial story - a woman in her twenties who doesn’t know what she wants to do and has messy friends and relationships. I like this kind of story (though I am beginning to tire of it) but it didn’t fit with my expectations. I love an I likeable character though and the novel does a good job of characterising Ivy who feels very realistic.

I would say this was probably a 4 star until the end when I started to lose interest so it’s a 3.5 star for me.

I didn't expect I would enjoy White Ivy as much as I did - it was a complete treat to read. I fell in love with Ivy, she's such a complex, dark character and so much fun to read about. The whole novel felt quite claustrophobic, especially the week spent at Cattahasset, and I think it really recreated the suffocation that Ivy felt from her family's expectations. I will definitely be looking out for Susie Yang's next novel.

I received this book for free from NetGalley and I'm writing an honest review.

I was excited by this book's premise, and on that point it delivered, with very interesting takes on what it means to have / not have money, and how this can fundamentally affect a person. This was the best part of the book to me, and I enjoyed seeing how financial circumstances affected the characters' lives. The characters are well-crafted and believable, and it really felt like I was gaining an insight into Ivy's life.

However, this book also contains instances of ableism, some overt, and some subtle. While I recognise that some of it may come from the characters, many of these little comments were unnecessary. For example: '... her fear grew that something would snatch away her happiness... She would get into a car accident and become a cripple.'

White Ivy is a coming-of-age story about Ivy Ling, a girl who moved to America from China when she was four. The main thing to know about Ivy is that she wants – the whole book and her character is defined by wanting for things: to assimilate, to fit in, to be rich, to have power, to have ‘peace’, as she calls it.

I found this novel incredibly compelling. The character of Ivy is unlikeable in many ways, but I think she is realistic and I think a lot of people will see a bit of themselves in her. Maybe not to the extreme of Ivy, who is manipulative and opportunistic at almost every opportunity – but I think the way that she wants things to such a strong degree is very relatable. As a child, Ivy wants to fit in with all of the rich white children at school – she feels ashamed of her more humble upbringing and at the ways that her family is different from other peoples’. Susie Yang creates a brilliant and tense atmosphere, and you truly feel the otherness that Ivy feels in her life. It makes all of the feelings of shame and humiliation tauter, and the negatives in her character more understandable, more forgivable.

My favourite part of the novel was Ivy’s relationship with her mother and grandmother. They are complicated, and she often clashes with Nan (her mum) and Meifeng (her grandmother), but I loved learning more about them and the choices that they made in their lives. As Ivy learns more about them too, you see that they are more alike than she’s ever thought. As Ivy’s relationship with Gideon is mostly born out of a want for more in life, her connections with her family are really the backbone of the novel.

I’ve seen this book described as a thriller, and I can see why (it definitely takes some twists and turns) but it is more slow burn than you would expect. It is more character-driven and a coming-of-age story, with thriller elements interspersed. I would say I found the final twist predictable, but after I had guessed what was going to happen, I was very invested and spent a lot of the time with my head metaphorically in my hands, thinking: no, Ivy, no!

Roux was a much more interesting character than Gideon for me (and I think he’s meant to be!), and I really liked their dynamic – he was the only one that really saw Ivy for who she was, and he liked her anyway. Ivy says that what she really wants in life is peace – the peace knowing she’s reached the top, the peace knowing that you have ‘something no one could take away from you’. This is linked of course to the fact that she was a Chinese immigrant from a lower income family, that she went to school surrounding my white and wealthy people – Ivy has never felt secure, has never felt admired, has never felt like she is top of the pile. So she dedicates her life to reaching the top and achieving peace – and really, how can you blame her for wanting that?

Roux, from a similar background as Ivy, says the most important thing is leverage. She dismisses this is ‘unused power’, as not important – but she finds by the end of the novel that Roux is right, and leverage is how she will achieve peace.

This is a compelling and tense novel, full of sharp storytelling, and I really enjoyed it! I thought the ending was perfect, and exactly what Ivy deserved – I was wondering how the story could possibly be wrapped up, but the author did a very good job of it. This was a brilliant debut, and I will absolutely want to see what Susie Yang does next.

This started out really well, but I found that it then began to drag, and the final 'twist' was so obvious that I really didn't feel any impact. Ivy is an intriguing character, well crafted and multifaceted but about halfway through I stopped cheering for her. She began to feel like a bystander, when I hadn't felt her to be so inactive at first.

There were some great quotes (in the e-arc, these may be edited or omitted in the finished version):

'Ivy remembered now why she’d stayed away all these years. Home was a load you could never put down, once you were back in its orbit.'

And:

'Maybe anger was the only universal language.'

Also:

'Maybe there were no new stories, only your story.'

There were more but they're either spoiler-y or too long to quote here.

This book had a lot to say about desire, race, belonging and alienation, respectability, wealth, class. But, it outstayed its welcome. There were times when nothing seemed to happen, but I think this was because I was no longer cheering Ivy on so strongly.

I would be keen to read what Yang publishes next and I think this is the beginning of a bright career from a talented author.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

“Lives are like rivers. Eventually they go where they must, not where we want them to go.”⁣
⁣
Introducing one of my new all-time favourite debuts... Is there anything better than being completely blown away by a first-time author?⁣
⁣
I know it’s such a cliche to say this, but I really couldn’t put this book down. Yang has mastered the art of captivating writing, throwing in some of the best twists I’ve ever read. Even when I knew what was coming, I was mesmerised by her ability to continue surprising and entertaining me with her words.⁣
⁣
This a powerful story about strong women, the immigrant experience, class, and our innate human desire not to be “the other”. It’s about fitting in, being accepted, and our varying definitions of success. It’s also about love and family, and how messy both can be.⁣
⁣
Perfectly done, I couldn’t have asked for more.⁣

I had heard quite a lot about White Ivy before I started it and was intrigued - it proved to be an impressive debut novel that I very much enjoyed, if not entirely what I expected. I have seen it described as a thriller but for me it was not that; instead it was a fascinating character-driven novel that drew me in and kept me hooked throughout.

The coming-of-age story of Ivy, a Chinese-American immigrant who it seems will stop at nothing to get what she wants, it is a slow burn of a novel in many ways, but Yang's skill in making a largely unlikeable character an intriguing one is remarkable, with a depth of characterisation that makes you understand, if not agree with, some of her choices. With a love triangle plenty of twists and turns that bring the thriller element to the book, it kept me engaged as I raced through it. I look forward to reading more of Yang's work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Headline and Suzie Yang for the opportunity to read this book. Such a compelling read. Despite Ivy being a thoroughly unlikeable character, I loved this book. I was gripped from the start and held tight to the twists and turns of Ivy's story. Beautifully descriptive and emotional. A stunning debut.

White Ivy is award-winning Chinese-American writer Susie Yang’s debut novel about a young woman’s crush on a privileged former classmate which becomes a story of love, lies, and dark obsession, offering stark insights into the immigrant experience, as it hurtles to its electrifying ending. Ivy Lin is a thief and a liar—but you’d never know it by looking at her. Born in Chongqing, China, and raised outside of Boston, Massachusetts, having immigrated aged five with her grandmother Meifeng and younger brother, Austin, after her mother and father, Nan and Shen Lin, had saved up enough to permit them to leave China behind. Meifeng relies on Ivy’s mild appearance for cover as she teaches her granddaughter how to pilfer items from yard sales and second-hand shops. Thieving allows Ivy to accumulate the trappings of a suburban teen—and, most importantly, to attract the attention of the unattainable Gideon Speyer, the golden boy of a wealthy political family. Ivy takes a present over to his home for his fourteenth birthday, pretending to be visiting a Korean friend for a sleepover, and is invited down into the basement where Tom Cross, ex-friend Una Kim, Liza and the twins, Henry Fitzgerald and Blake Whitney and Violet Satterfield, who crimps Ivy’s hair, are situated ready for the all-night sleepover. But when Ivy’s mother discovers her trespasses, punishment is swift and Ivy is sent to China, and her dream instantly evaporates.

Years later, Ivy has grown into a poised yet restless young woman, haunted by her conflicting feelings about her upbringing and her family. Back in Boston, when Ivy bumps into Sylvia Speyer, Gideon’s sister, a reconnection with Gideon seems not only inevitable—it feels like fate. Slowly, Ivy sinks her claws into Gideon and the entire Speyer clan by attending fancy dinners, and weekend getaways to the cape. Ivy and Gideon become engaged while Ivy also partakes in an affair with Sylvia’s boyfriend Roux Roman. But just as Ivy is about to have everything she’s ever wanted, a ghost from her past resurfaces, threatening the nearly perfect life she’s worked so hard to build. This is a compulsive, deeply chilling and deliciously dark literary thriller written in exquisite prose and including an unexpected subverting of many well-known stereotypes. It's an often funny, always scintillating and highly original story that slowly creeps up on you and before you know it, its deceptively innocuous plot, which is actually incredibly sinister and unsettling, has gotten into your psyche and under your skin. Filled with surprising twists and an exploration of class and race, White Ivy is a glimpse into the dark side of a woman who yearns for success at any cost. An explosive, shocking and unforgettable debut that does a fantastic job of lulling you into a false sense of security before leaving you speechless and gobsmacked. Highly recommended.

I only made it a little bit through this book as I really did not like the main character and felt like I couldn't relate. terribly sorry. Not for me

3-4 stars rounded up.

This is the story of Ivy Lin whose family emigrate from China to the USA when Ivy was a child. This is a coming of age story, of a journey to self realisation and trying to find a means to balance her Chinese heritage with the American Dream especially after meeting the ‘golden’ Speyer family.

The turmoil and struggle that Ivy faces to fit in both in childhood and adulthood is very well portrayed. She’s an outsider, she’s lonely and I’m torn between feeling sorry for her but mostly disliking her as she’s also opportunistic, very calculating and prepared to get what she wants by any means. Her relationship with the Speyers, especially with son Gideon is like a fly on the wall drama, at times it’s cringeworthy but it’s also fascinating puzzling out who is the least honest and most inscrutable - Gideon or Ivy. All you can tell is that it’s one of unease and it’s not natural at all and it makes you feel uncomfortable. Childhood and later adulthood friend Roux Roman is probably the only person who sees Ivy for exactly what she is and that is a dangerous thing. There are moments of tension, wariness and multiple obstacles as Ivy finally sees things for what they are and finds some peace. Much of this is no surprise as the warning signs are there, she just chose to disregard them.

Overall, this is a well written debut which reveals an author of obvious talent. However, for me this slow burn is a bit too slow in places especially at the start and I find Ivy an unsympathetic character so the book doesn’t entirely resonate despite the quality of the writing.

With thanks to NetGalley and Headline/Wildfire for the arc for an honest review.