Ivy is a first generation Chinese immigrant who has totally internalized the American Dream of being in the top 1% regardless of the cost. It fact, Ivy is trying to be what she thinks rich, white Gideon wants in a wife by becoming White Ivy.

The pacing is more at a literary fiction level than a thriller—slower to get you into Ivy’s head. However, the plot itself is intriguing. I could feel the pull that was forcing Ivy to make some radical compromises to get the American Dream as she perceives it. Was she unsympathetic? Yes, she is definitely not the nicest person. But I was still fascinated by her voice. 5 stars!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

A dark romance about a young Chinese woman growing up in a traditional household. However, Ivy is anything bit traditional. She learns to steal at a young age to gain status and continues to use nefarious wiles to get what she wants. The novel builds to shocking end where Ivy's true character shines.

I'm just going to jump right in here: THIS IS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING.

I requested this book on NetGalley, completely forgot I had it, and then remembered it the day before it was published. I SHOULD NOT HAVE WAITED TO READ IT. IF YOU HAVE IT SITTING ON YOUR SHELF, READ IT NOW. That being said... I still have no idea what genre this was. It's something more than fiction, maybe satire. Dark, dark satire.

Ivy is a Chinese girl growing up in a rich white town with her younger brother, her parents, and the grandmother who helped raise her. After getting a taste of wealth and the respect that comes with it, Ivy becomes obsessed with social progress. Like so many immigrants and BIPOC, she struggles finding her place in spaces that weren't made to accommodate her. She feels ostracized by her classmates, dismissed by boys and girls alike, and misunderstood by her parents who can't see the culture clash happening in their own home.

What's so great about this book is that I think it highlights what a LOT of people of color experience, which is this strange social disease characterized by a desire to close the distance between them and whiteness. I think of it as "white proximity" - by which I mean the desire to get as close as you can to whiteness (and it's privileges, perceived poise, wealth, etc.) as possible. It's a hamster wheel though, because at the end of the day, whiteness isn't something than can be attained. I could go on about this for days, but this is obviously the product of huge gaps in generational wealth, education, and access between white Americans and their non-white counterparts.

So, as is evident, there's some loaded social topics being explored here, as well as the topics more specific to Asian-American households (I might specifically note a resistance to seeking mental health, a language barrier, a strong emphasis on higher education and prestigious employment, to name a few). I went into this thinking it was going to be more of a family drama about the struggle between who Ivy is and who Ivy wants to become.

I WOULD BE WRONG! About half way though, the book takes a hard left and drifts into a dark portrayal of a woman desperate to maintain and increase her social status at all costs. Ivy's relationship with Gideon and his sister Sylvia were absolutely fascinating, and I thought Ivy's distress really jumped off the pages. Yang did a wonderful job of weaving a generational tale all the way through what is essentially a reflection on and maybe even a critique of white/non-white relations in the U.S.

I managed to call the two major twists before they happened, but that didn't necessarily take away from the impact. In fact, they somehow hit me harder as I read them once I could really see what those relationships said about Ivy and Gideon and Roux and Sylvia. I think I'll be thinking about this for a LONG time. Please tell me your thoughts, because by this rambling review, you can probably see I haven't sorted through my own yet.

Highly recommend.

4 amazing debut stars

This was a fascinating character study, a slow burn coming of age story, and finally finding peace. Of course, the main character is Ivy and we see her as a five year old leaving China and her grandma behind to come to the US to live with her parents – strangers at this point to her. It broke my heart a bit that Ivy’s parents were not very affectionate with her. Ivy falls into a life of shoplifting and lying and always seems to be reaching for more, never really satisfied with the life that she has. At a private school, she falls hard for Gideon Speyer, but is sent away by her family before anything can develop.

Years later, Ivy has settled in as a teacher when her path crosses with the Speyer family again and now she works hard to become part of the Speyer family. Maybe this could bring her happiness?

There are definitely some bumps in the road and I wasn’t sure where this story was going to end up, but I found myself hoping that Ivy would find the thing that really made her happy, whether that was a fulfilling career, a life with Gideon, or maybe something else entirely. She really does come full circle and I enjoyed being along for the ride. Although I’m not sure I would want to be friends with her in real life!

Coming of age/ immigrant story of Ivy, growing up in a working class Chinese-American household with aspirations of the American dream as personified by her school crush on Gideon and the reality of her world in the boy, Roux, who sees her for who she is. Great debut novel.

Thanks to Susan Yang, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This debut is a slow burn, coming of age thriller...an unexpected page turner. Dark, honest, and beautifully written. Ivy will stay with me for a while. Bravo Susie Yang!

From her first introduction to a world viewed as better, desirable, and attainable for only a few, Ivy develops an obsession with the surface qualities and material goods associated with success. Raised in a home where she feels like the second-best child and is rarely asked what she wants, she fights against the life her family sees for her versus the one she someday hopes to have. When her parents send her to visit family in China and abruptly move in an effort to get her back on their version of the right track, her unhealthy habits only intensify and follow her into adulthood.
After losing touch with the family she idolized as a teen, a chance meeting brings Ivy back into their sphere. Able to change chameleon like depending upon the social setting, she sets her sights once again on childhood crush Gideon Speyer. Ivy quickly immerses herself in the Speyer family, becoming an integral part of their gatherings and outings. However, her place is threatened when someone who knows the real her and the pieces she’s airbrushed or left out of her history reappears.
White Ivy asks tackles the complicated and nuanced question of what makes us who we are. Is our identity defined by who we are, the family we came from, or who we imagine ourselves to be? The reader sees Ivy steadfastly driven to crawl into a new skin while never able to fully shed the original. Satisfaction, not just for Ivy but for many of the characters, regardless of social standing or family origins, is found when the outer shell resembles that which they hope to project.
For Ivy, her goal is achieved via an absence of boundaries and questionable behavior. While this makes her a harder character to identify with, her lack of recognizable morals is justified by her relentless march towards her preferred future. Her ambition is fascinating yet terrifying, with her inner contentment hinging on the possession of a striking and enviable veneer.
This book kept me engaged until the very last page, pulling out a major twist in the final chapters. While I did not always enjoy Ivy as a person, I understood her motivation that felt more like a need to fight for her place in the world. The author’s keen eye for pinpointing human nature and describing it like no one else put so many of my own past feelings into words (although I often felt like Ivy went too far, I still agreed with her assessments).
White Ivy was nearly a five-star read for me, but I would have liked to have seen more about her relationship with Gideon. We never get a solid look into why she fixates on him versus some other well-to-do potential paramour apart from their brief history together and the fact that she can. However, this is a small complaint for an otherwise captivating story.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for the complimentary copy. This did not impact my review.

Loved this one. Great debut by the author! Definitely recommend. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

Thank you to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My preference is for characters I can respect, if not like, which was not the case in this novel. I had also hoped for a bit more of Ivy’s culture, and life in America for a Chinese immigrant. Ivy’s parents came to America, leaving her in China with a grandmother who broke many rules. When she was sent to America, Ivy became troubled. Sent to a private school, she first meets Gideon, a handsome man she becomes obsessed with, as she tries to find a place for herself. I just didn’t love the book, and hoped for so much more. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Ivy is a Chinese immigrant to America who we meet as a child and follow into adulthood. I love this book so much and will do it a disservice to try to incorporate all the amazing attributes of this novel in one review. However, I can say I was so immersed in this story that I was feeling actual, physical stress reading of the choices some characters were making. The writing is truly wonderful and the story is brilliant.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I would like to start by saying I went into this book thinking it was a mystery/thriller. I had gotten this in mind because Goodreads had listed mystery and thriller in the genre classifications. That mixed with the way the synopsis read, I really thought that was what I was getting myself in to. However, I would really list this book as a contemporary fiction. While it does have some dark themes to it, it is not something that has the draw of a standard mystery or thriller.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I cannot get over how fast this story grasped my attention. With that being said, this is a book I would consider a slow burn and is not something I would recommend for someone looking for a quick read. This story has many facets to it and draw you into Ivy’s life from being a child in China to an adult living outside Boston, MA.

This book follows the family dynamics of an immigrant, as well as, Ivy’s aspirations of moving up the social ladder and obtaining a life of wealth and privilege.

Ivy, herself, is a very complicated and complex character that at many times throughout this book is hard to root for. That in itself can be difficult since the story is really told through her thoughts and motivations. I found myself wanting to be sympathetic towards her, for overcoming obstacles, but then she would do things that made me feel the complete opposite. In the end, Ivy was a well-crafted character that brought this story to life!

This was a very strong debut novel that I enjoyed from start to finish, in all of its slow burn glory. I think it was well-written and executed. I would recommend it!

This was such a good read - suspenseful for sure because I felt like I held my breath for so much of this book. It's kind of a dark coming of age story but with a deliciously complex character in Ivy Lin. This book had themes of class and social climbing combined with an immigrant narrative. I totally got Ivy from the get go. I've known girls that were Ivy and I could also relate to so much of her experience. Navigating school, whiteness and privilege while being an immigrant whose parents speak little English and have different expectations were things my friends and I grew up with, just like Ivy. This book was thrilling until the very end. There were a couple big reveals and I had anticipated both but surprisingly, I was not disappointed that I guessed what was to happen, I felt really satisfied! I would say this had Patricia Highsmith vibes for sure. Bravo to this stunning debut!!

What an auspicious debut novel. I am so impressed with White Ivy by Susie Yang. This is a story that could have just been a fun thriller about a young woman obsessed with money and privilege but it is a very intimate look at the immigrant experience in keeping one's culture and pride and trying to assimilate into your new homeland.

Ivy Lin has that "it" factor. People are drawn to her and want to like her. Unfortunately, Ivy does not have trust in herself and steals, lies and manipulates to get what she wants including wealthy privileged Gideon.

Ivy has been taught by her immigrant Chinese grandmother how to steal so she can look the part of a rich white American. When Ivy's mother discovers her indiscretions she sends Ivy to China to stay with relatives to learn proper behavior. When Ivy returns to America she seems contrite but there is underlying anger and frustration until she reunites with Gideon and all her aspirations come to a startling conclusion.

The author is uncomfortably honest about the dynamic culture clash Ivy feels from her home life to fitting in with her society friends. Ivy complains about the shape of her eyes, her body and her heritage in a shameful manner because she sees it all as a barrier to the life she desires for herself. Ivy is very often not a nice person and makes poor decisions. She is not a sympathetic character. In fact, other than her grandmother I really didn't root for anyone in this story. However, the author's beguiling words, twisty turns and the OMG ending make this book worth your time.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I won't be giving a full review for this.
When I requested it, the synopsis sounded very intriguing. However, when I started reading it... my interest plummeted and it didn't sound anything like what I had originally thought it'd be.

Title: Intriguing story of an Asian girl/woman trying to live in a world she really doesn’t know
Oh my gosh, I went from thinking Ivy was despicable to feeling sorry for her. Ivy has been shuffled around her whole life. No wonder she has a hard time defining who she is or wants to be. I would hate to think that the way the Lins treat their children is typical of Asian families. Anyway, the story is complicated with sad moments for Ivy or happy moments for her. Her view of the world has been skewed by first her grandmother, her parents and then her associates, from Roux to Gideon and beyond. This is also the story of race, culture and social status. Will Ivy come to regret constantly trying to be the “white American girl” while really being Asian? Or, will she finally get the HEA she’s always been looking for? So many angles to this well-written, well-edited and intriguing story. What I like about Ivy is that she’s very clever in recognizing personality traits in people and making them work for her, often times. But, can she see the same in herself?
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book through NetGalley and suggest it for readers who like twists and turns in their choice of reading material with an exploration of race, culture and social mores.

This was an interesting book that certainly kept my attention throughout. It was a coming of age story about Ivy Lin, a Chinese woman that grew up in a mostly-white community. I really enjoyed the way the book was broken up into parts, each defined by an important period of Ivy's life.

After we learn of Ivy's childhood and teenage years, we then learn about the pivotal moment when she is an adult and reconnects with Sylvia, the sister of Ivy's teenage crush, Gideon. We are then taken on a journey to see how Ivy reconnects with her old friends and where that leads her. At a later point in the book, Ivy reconnects with another important person from her past, and that is when things really start to get shaken up.

To me, there was some very obvious foreshadowing early in the book in regards to an important part of Gideon's story. I'm not sure if as a reader I was supposed to figure out that particular "twist" or not, but I definitely saw it coming. That said, there were some other twists that I didn't anticipate at all.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. While Ivy was not always the most likable character, I still found myself rooting for her at several points throughout the book. I did find some of the dialogue to very awkward and jilted, which I think was intentional - but at times it almost made the conversations unbelievable to me, because it's just not the way people typically converse. That said, if the conversations were meant to be so awkward that the reader felt unsettled, then the author achieved her goal. And if that was her goal, it was actually pretty impressive, because I suppose that ultimately it gave me the same unsettled feeling that Ivy would've felt in those situations.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a coming of age story with some unexpected plot twists.

Ivy Lin immigrated to the United States from China as a young girl. In the U.S., Ivy didn’t feel like she fit in. From a poor family but attending a wealthy school because her father worked there, Ivy struggled academically and socially. She learned to take what she wanted - from stores, from others, and from life. She also learned how to be what others wanted her to be - a demure, intelligent, attractive, Chinese girl.

All grown up, Ivy lives in Boston with her roommate and is working as a schoolteacher. When one of her student’s aunts picks her up and Ivy realizes the woman is the sister of her school girl crush, Ivy seizes the opportunity and ends up with an invitation to Syville Speyer’s New Years bash.

At the party, Ivy orchestrates a reunion with Syville’s brother, Gideon. Gideon is kind hearted, intelligent, well respected, and well bred. Ivy morphs herself into the perfect partner for Gideon and the two begin a romantic relationship. But Ivy is still not wholly satisfied, and will do whatever she can to have her cake and eat it too.

The novel spans most of Ivy’s adolescence and young adult life. My interest waxed and waned with the various parts and my disdain for Ivy grew considerably as the story unfolded. Ivy was selfish, flaky, and lacked empathy. Part of me loves disliking the main character so I actually didn’t mind that I found Ivy unappealing. Her relationships intrigued me and Ivy was like a chameleon with who and what she was with each person.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel.

What a beautifully written and compelling work of literary fiction. This will not be for everyone, as we are following a quite unlikeable main character and her quite unlikeable family, as she is caught in a love triangle with 2 quite unlikeable guys, and no real redemption arc. However I loved following Ivy and her escapades.
I do think the synopsis/big selling point of this book is misleading though. I thought I’d be following Ivy as a master of thievery but that’s really only the first few chapters that take place in her childhood. As she becomes an adult, I suppose you could still call her a thief but not in the conventional ways. She is a con artist but in a very subtle way, in the way she manipulates the relationships in her life.

Ivy Lin wants to steal a better life for herself by dating popular, old money Gideon. In high school, her mother sets a plan in motion to prevent Ivy from continuing her quest, however, years later, a chance encounter brings Gideon back in to Ivy’s life. Along for the ride is Roux, the bad boy who had his heart set on Ivy, even after knowing her secrets. She stands firm in obtaining her dream life, but sometimes dreams have the tendency to turn into nightmares.

Ivy is a spectacular protagonist. She’s flawed, self-serving and driven to getting what she wants, namely Gideon, and the luxurious lifestyle she briefly sampled while spending time with a rich cousin. She becomes a master at how to lie, cheat, steal, and seduce. At times, she is profoundly unlikeable, and, at others, she’s quite relatable. For me, her relationship with her best friend and roommate brings Ivy into likable territory, however Ivy’s aversion to Pepper is problematic for me. Love her or hate her, Ivy Lin is fascinating to behold.

The story spans Ivy’s childhood into her thirties, creating a rich and textured story that makes for an incredible debut novel. A lot happens in the third act, yet for me some threads went unfortunately unexplored. For example, a key item gets numerous mentions but its potential is never fully realized, and I would have liked to see more of Ivy’s thieving ways throughout the story. Still, WHITE IVY is a fantastic read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

I’d like to wish WHITE IVY by Susie Yang a very happy pub day! I devoured this one in a single night, I just couldn’t put it down.

Ivy Link is a liar and a thief. She has zero compunctions and will, without fail, put herself and her needs first. That’s because she’s a survivor - it pulled her through a tough childhood, as the daughter of Chinese immigrants hoping to build a better future and not always succeeding.

She envies the wealthy, privileged classmates at her New Jersey private school and strives to fit in with them - harboring a not-so-secret crush on Gideon, the golden boy, while “slumming” it with Roux, a poor teen who sees her for who she really is.

Ivy is a delicious character. Yang writes her as a fully-fledged character, one you can relate to and also scream at, who doesn’t embody the perfection we so often see in protagonists. There’s nothing perfect about Ivy, and that’s why she’s one of my favorite literary characters this year.

When she runs across Gideon’s sister, she gets pulled into the seductive family orbit - filled with beach cottages, beautiful clothing, and most of all - a feeling of calm. Everything Ivy’s family cannot give her. Gideon reminded me of so many quiet, unambitious men who float along in their lives, guided by outside expectations.

When Roux - who knows so many of Ivy’s secrets - unexpectedly comes back into her life, she’s terrified that everything she’s angled for - the wealth, the new family, the vacation homes, a proposal - is falling out of her reach.

When Ivy makes a desperate choice, I found myself holding my breath and I rushed through the incredible climax.

I loved this book. As the daughter of immigrants, I identified with so much of her upbringing, and the yearning to fit in, to feel comfort. While I took a different route (the ultimate goody-goody, to be honest with you) I loved living vicariously through the choices Ivy makes, ones that I very well could have made myself.

Ivy is a hell of a character - intelligent, totally broken, insecure, and fierce in her own way. I encourage you to pick this incredible debut literary thriller up ASAP. Can’t wait for Yang’s next book.

Thank you to @simonbooks and @netgalley for the #gifted ARC.