Slay: When The Gaming World Doesn’t Want Gray Areas And Nuances

We definitely need more novels about gaming, and not just about logging into an RPG or finding the latest model on Steam sales. No, seeing a YA book with coding and avatars makes a person feels hopeful. If a seventeen-year-old can do it, then so can we jaded adults. At least, I know I should be working on certain projects.

First, let me say that I am not black, and this book was not written for me. While I am interested in games and working on one, I have fortunately not been a victim of the larger controversies that are mired in white supremacy and misogyny.

Slay By Brittney Morris

Slay is a story about finding your values in a complicated, grey area world and learning to stand up for them. Kiera is our protagonist, who can see all the grey. No one knows that two girls are running the hottest MMORPG Slay, which requires an active user to give a new one a passcode so that it’s friends vouching for friends to create a safe space from racism. Also, the girls don’t know each other; while the two exchange messages on private chat, neither one shares details that would be identifying until things get serious.

The book varies between several POVs; there is Kiera the game developer of SLAY, her remote second-in-command Cicada, and a few one-shot…