Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the chance to read this title before its publication date.

White Ivy has a pretty simple premise: young immigrant Ivy goes to private school on scholarship where she develops a crush on one of her classmates, Gideon. But after her family moves away she assumes she'll never see him again. As a adult she is able to reconnect with Gideon and his family, essentially lying and (literally) cheating to try to become the high class trophy wife she's always wanted to be.

I wanted to like this and I think I went into it thinking it would be darker. By the time it got "dark" I think I was just ready for the story to be over. Even though this was less than 400 pages it took me foreverrrr to get through. Nothing was ever really compelling me to pick it up. The writing was great but the story just lacked something for me. I think this definitely leans more into literary fiction than "suspense/mystery" which was what I originally thought.

The things I loved about this was the complicated relationships between Ivy and the members of her immigrant Chinese family as well as the commentary on immigration itself, Chinese culture (Ivy does go to China for a time in the book as a teen and sees a few different sides to life there), the stain of "new money", success, class, and status. I hear a lot of readers complain if characters are not likable so just as a warning going in: this book does not have a single likable character. Which is fine with me, but just as a heads-up for those who need to find at least someone likable or relatable to enjoy a story.

3/5 stars

While the pacing of this book was a little slow for me, I loved the coming of age tale and the absolutely beautiful writing. A great glimpse into life as a Chinese American.

When we first meet Ivy she is a young girl, obsessed with well-to-do classmates and yearning for lives like theirs. She lies and steals to get what she wants and as she grows she never really changes. Her desires just get bigger and the lengths to which she’ll go to get them do too. This one is going to take a little while to process, as normally I would be disgusted by Ivy’s character hut for some reason I just really feel for her.

Another brilliant entry in the literary thriller genre. Susie Yang is an excellent writer and slowly lets us into Ivy’s life and head which are often at odds in a slowly building plot questioning white privilege, family and love. I loved the generational story of the women in Ivy’s family and could have stayed in that aspect of the novel for ever. The plot has other plans and takes us into other difficult and different directions. Ivy is often headstrong, deceptively making right and wrong, choices and Is often so flawed, she would be unlikable in another writers arms but we stay firmly in her corner no matter what. And there’s a lot that matters in this book. Ivy creeps up on you.

Despite not being what I expected from reading the description, White Ivy was a decent read. I originally anticipated more of a coming-of-age novel, however the bulk of the story focuses on Ivy's adult life. While the novel left a good impression of author Susie Yang's writing—she seems to be a wonderful storyteller—I was not particularly fond of Ivy as a character. However, I understand that this is how Ivy is written to be, and I do believe that the author's writing is quite good.

On another note, I really enjoyed the author's incorporation of tidbits of Chinese culture. Ivy's heritage added a refreshing dimension to the story that I have not experienced in many other books.

Overall, this was an engaging read that I would recommend to anyone looking for something a little different!

Ivy is not white -she is Asian. Born in China, brought to America at 5 years, she soon learns that the right answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" is "a doctor." But Ivy turns all of the Asian stereotypes on their heads-she's not terribly smart, she's not driven, she's not too excited about marrying a Chinese guy...and she smokes like a chimney. Ivy does have a goal, which is to marry her childhood idol Gideon Speyer-who is as WASPy as they come. While Gideon is rather aloof but kindly, the guy that really knows her theiving conniving ways is Roux, another boy from her past, and he is dangerous. So how does she resolve this dilemna-both men want her but for entirely different reasons. Will she get what she wants or does she get what she deserves? An amazing read!

Ivy is a fantastic character. As a child she’s a squirrely misfit who learns how to gain things in life through stealing. Specially stealing and cheating at thrift shops and garage sales where everything is already ridiculously cheap.

Her grandma teaches her how to shoplift reasoning that Americans don’t see value and that it’s somehow owned to them that they do. But it sets a theme throughout Ivy’s life. That she deserves things, whether she earns them or not. And it really kind of goes against her culture, not willing to work for things. But she finds ways to skirt through life. She makes bad decisions, but none really catch up with her. She’s scrappy and smart. And doesn’t really give AF.

She meets Gideon in junior high and he is every bit a teenage dream. And he finally notices Ivy. Until her parents humiliate her in front of him, send her for China to the summer, and move while she’s gone.

A chance meeting years later, brings Gideon back into her life. And while a lot has changed and Ivy has grown up, a lot hasn’t changed. White Ivy is a fascinating book to read.

And I totally didn’t realize that it wasn’t just a book, but kind of a re-telling of a proverb. And if you really think about it, what does an ivy do? It clings to wood or stone, hiding the ruins of what it feeds upon.

White Ivy is a gem. And finding an amazing debut novel is just like finding a treasured jewel. I look forward to more from Susie Yang. Special thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for a free e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out November 3. My review will be published to my blog, Women in Trouble Book Blog on October 9, 2020.

This was an interesting book, hard to pin down. For one, Ivy is horribly unlikeable but at the same time understandable. In a way, I'd have liked to learn more about her parents and brother but keeping them on the periphery so that only Ivy's skewed view of Nan and Shen is the one we mostly get until the latter part of the novel. Gideon was so one dimensional but I imagine that was the point; a projection of a person rather than one at all. Actually the entire book was characters like that: everyone pretending to be someone else while convincing themselves that they were at least honest when looked at in the mirror and even then it was a lie. Fascinating really, a good debut and promise for the writer. It's telling when you dislike every character and figure out most of what is happening and still need to finish it and feel satisified when you do

Susie Yang's White Ivy is a captivating debut novel. It's a story about two cultures. It's an immigrant's story. It's a story of jealousy and wanting what you cannot have. It's a story of desire. It's a story of consumption.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Lots of twists and turns - not exactly what I expected from reading the summary of the book - that being said, still an excellent read! Really made me think, which is a pretty cool thing for a book to allow the reader to do.

This book wasn't what I originally anticipated, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. It was less twisty and turn-y (although there was plenty of that) and more an exploration of the reasons behind the twists and turns. My problems with most conventional "thrillers" is that the characters are unrealistic and shallow, but that could not be said for any of the main characters in this book. I love that this was more of a deep dive into the histories that drive people's decisions and the unmet desires that lead to desperate people. The main character of this book wasn't necessarily likeable or smart, but I empathized with her and could understand where she was coming from. I loved the look into her family history and the experiences that shared her and her family. This was a thrilling book that read more like literary fiction, and felt equal parts character and plot driven. There were comments on classism, immigration, wealth, and marriage throughout.

Susie Yang's debut effort is a very well written, dark and provocative story using themes of privilege, shame and deception. I loved the way Yang employed social-economic background and culture to frame the characters and how she wrote the main character Ivy as a flawed, but granted her agency which made for interesting reading contemplating her motivation and actions.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and offer an honest review. Congratulations to Susie Yang on her debut and I really look forward to reading more by her!

This book is a prime example as to why I am trying to be less giving of five stars, because I want everyone to know that when I do I mean it.

I am basically senseless right now. As I read this I felt so many different ways. The one thing that was consistent in those feeling was the state of suspense I was in the entire time because anything was possible as I turned the pages.

The fact that this was a DEBUT novel astounds me, really it does. The writing was smart, eloquent, witty and yet at times morbid, and methodical. I mean this was just off the charts. The authenticity of the main character’s Chinese heritage and the descriptions used along with the comparisons between the experiences in China and from the life of immigrating to the United States was phenomenal.

I’m honestly unsure of what to really tell you because this book read like a true thriller to me. And thrillers I do believe are best with you going in mostly blind. It is a coming of age along with a love triangle that I can attest to, although it is a dark. However, it was truly always about Ivy. The narration was truly just the best part to me, like the icing that lifted this to another dimension. Ivy is cold and calculating. She’s premeditates and is manipulative. She truly is obsessive in her quest for what she wants regardless of whatever deceit she may have to craft. (Some things run in the family.) Her take on how she feels emotions just blew me away every time. I had to catch myself from highlighting almost the entire thing.

The author was able to have so many things deposited throughout the story, but was able to have you second guess yourself about what you thought was important was even remotely as significant as you first believed. I pride myself on being a book detective and phew I had some good theories but I couldn’t be myself to commit to any because, “what if I’m wrong?!”

I really want to add quotes and more context but I have to wait until the books is out which I will preorder because this book needs to be on my shelves.
Just *chefs kiss*

TL;DR: if you like morally ambiguous characters, journeys of finding yourself, generational ties, or even film noir, then yes this is for you.

Honestly just add this to your TBR LIST. PLEASE.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Publishing via NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review

White Ivy - what isn't there to say about this book? Its almost like I've been looking for something that echoed Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep for years, and stumbled upon this gem in my never-ending quest.
Everybody loves a story about an outsider dying to get in.

From the start, Ivy Lin paints herself as a woman to be reckoned with and not to be discounted at any turn. She's a social climber, a thief, and a phenomenal liar, who can get put on a facade like any other con artist, only she isn't in it for a score, she's in it for her childhood crush she happens to stumble upon a decade later. Throw into the mix a bad boy from her past to shake up her house of cards she's carefully built and you've got a hard drama with an air of sexual tension.

Just when you think you have Ivy pegged, she flips to prove you wrong, almost as if to say you don't know me, you haven't even brushed the surface.

If you're looking for a book with wit, heartache, mystery, and a touch of darkness this book is for you.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. I couldn't put it down.

I started this book and thought “eh”. The first Part of the book read strangely to me. Ir seemed that the narrator was telling a story from a distance and I couldn’t really understand Ivy’s cold character. She seemed relentlessly insecure and evil. I couldn’t understand her disdain for her life, family, and Roux.
But I’m glad I stayed with the book. After Roux shows up in Ivy’s adult life, this book became SO GOOD. I became so invested in Roux and Ivy’s relationship, I almost cried on the last day of his ultimatum. I know what Ivy was going to do; I knew she would act just like her mother had with her first love.
This is not a happy book and I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a beach read. I’d recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt like the grass might be greener with more status or wealth.
#whiteivy #netgalley

Draft review. (Final should run in the September issue of BookPage)

Ivy Lin is no monster. But sometimes, when sufficiently motivated, she does monstrous things. Ivy Lin doesn’t just covet what others have. Ivy Lin is consumed by her cravings for what she doesn’t have: wealth, status, a nice house, and all-American (in her mind this means White American) good looks quite unlike her own Chinese American features.

In Susie Yang’s debut novel White Ivy (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781982100599), Ivy grows from a fretful child to a moody, self-loathing grifter of an adolescent, who hates herself and her family even more, and then ultimately becomes a much smoother, more sophisticated, but still desperately manipulative, adult. Eventually, she starts to get what she always wanted— popularity, a stable job, and, most of all, a relationship with Gideon, her childhood crush and the beautiful, good and noble adult son from an old-line New England family. But this is a thriller, and we know from the start that for someone like Ivy there is unequivocal no happy ending:

<blockquote> And so Ivy grew like a wayward branch. Planted to the same root as her family but reaching for something beyond their grasp. Years of reconciling her grandmother’s teachings with her American values had somehow culminated in a confused but firm belief that in order to become the “good,” ting hua girl everyone asked of her, she had to use “smart” methods. But she never admitted how much she enjoyed these methods. </blockquote>

The funny thing about Ivy is that about a half to two-thirds of the way in, it’s clear that Ivy is about to get just about everything she’s ever wanted. Almost. And yet it’s not enough. She has a boyfriend who’s serious about her, but he’s not quite attentive or passionate and she hoped. She has a job, but it’s not quite the shiny status object that she’d expected. Her family is finally prospering financially at least, and her parents both approve of her fiancé. But her brother is a mess.

On one level, that's life. What’s left for Ivy to aspire to, what is still just out of reach, ultimately amounts to very little. Or at least it terms of the tangible stuff. And so when the signs start to accumulate that something very, very bad is about to happen, an act of dramatic, long lasting violence, it all seems a little out of place with things going so well. Except things aren’t quite as perfect as they seem. Scratch beneath the surface and you realize that this is a psychological thriller about the most normal, banal conflicts of everyday life— the tiny slights and subtle hits. Ivy experiences small acts of violence throughout the book. Her family is loving but they damage her, repeatedly.

So it’s not quite right to say that things are mostly normal and peaceful until the end. The dread mounts and you hope against hope and genre convention that the worst can be avoided. You realize that rather than failing to build the stakes, the dividing line between the ordinary/banal and the casual acts of evil are razor thin. And that is perhaps the most frightening conclusion of all.

We’ve seen desperate, liminal characters like this before. White Ivy is a psychological thriller in the vein of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mister Ripley. Fans of that book should find a lot that works for them in White Ivy. But because this is a story about an immigrant family in America, there’s the danger of generalizing. Hopefully no one should mistake this story as representing or really indicating anything the whole. It’s very specifically and intentionally focuses on someone who stands apart. And that’s not solely because she’s an outsider because of being an immigrant. She also stands outside of her own family and culture. Alienation is her natural state. At the same time, the feelings of displacement and longing that dog Ivy throughout her life are relatable. All in all, a very commanding and original debut.

Ivy was born in China and moves to the US where life isn't quite as "perfect" as she'd hoped. Her family is poor and she is very focused on the material things of life. They're important to her and her family can't provide them. She deals with this the best way she knows how - she steals.

As Ivy enters her teen years, her mother realizes Ivy hasn't been obeying her as she'd thought. Ivy even went to a sleepover party at a boy's house, Gideon. Her mom sends Ivy to family in China. When Ivy returns home, her parents have moved and Ivy has to make all new friends.

Ivy continues to grow and goes off to college and wants nothing to do with her family. She has a random chance meeting with Gideon's sister who connect Ivy with Gideon again. Life moves on as Ivy tries to have the life she's always wanted - one with lots of money.

So, I didn't love this book. The writing was well done, the plot was intriguing, but Ivy was very annoying. She was selfish and cruel to her family. Also, I didn't like the ending. The story was fun though, so I did like it. I give this book 3 stars.

This is one book that everyone will love but get something totally different from. It combines the story of Chinese immigrants trying to live the American dream without really knowing what that dream is with the everyday story of teenagers trying to fit in and belong to the cool crowd.

The beginning of the story introduces us to Ivy. A young child whose grandmother will teach her how to lie and take what she wants to get ahead in life. Ivy's mother is determined her daughter will become American. As she ages, Ivy will turn these lessons into guidelines that keep her part of the in crowd. When Ivy's crimes are discovered, she is sent to China, far from the friends and life she feels she deserves.

When Ivy returns to America, her determination to succeed has not changed. A chance meeting will bring her back into the circle of friends she had. As she thinks she has finally reached her goals, you guessed it....both sides of her life will collide leaving her with few choices and no way out.

This is a really great book. A story that starts out a little slow as Susie Yang builds the characters and background that ultimately explode into one of the best books I've read in awhile. It's going to be interesting to see what her next book will be.

5 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 24 September 2020


Ivy Lin is 100% an American teenager. She longs for the same things all American teenagers do - the cool crowd, the handsome boyfriend, the right clothes. But Ivy is not 100% American. Ivy was born in Chongqing China, raised by her grandmother Meifeng until her parents, Nan and Chen could afford to bring her to America. By the time Ivy leaves China, Nan and Chen have another child, Austin, and are living in Massachusetts.

Ivy’s transition from Chinese toddler and child to American teenager is born out of necessity to try to fit in and not anger her mother, Nan. Nan is disciplined and harsh toward Ivy. So Ivy seeks out acceptance where she can. She also begins a life of petty crime to be able to be more like an American teen, stealing makeup and clothing from her local KMart. She befriends a Romanian boy named Roux, who is also a bit of a thief and junior criminal.

When Ivy’s father, Chen begins working for an elite private school, Ivy is transferred there to complete her schooling. This is when Ivy is confronted with wealth and beauty and privilege. Privilege she may never know as a Chinese immigrant. This is when Ivy truly becomes an American teenager. She longs for this life.

Yang has written an epic novel about this young girl, Ivy, and her life trying to achieve the American dream. What sacrifices she will make, her parents make, and how she assimilates herself into society regardless of the cost. I was utterly mesmerized by Yang’s writing and this amazing woman she created. How much it showed what cost come with immigration to this country and the effect that being excluded from privilege can have on one’s self-esteem.

An incredible read and highly recommended.

An interesting immigrant story. Ivy was brought up by her Chinese immigrant grandmother. Her grandmother teaches her to steal and when her mother discovers this, Ivy is sent to China to live with relatives. Some years later she returns to Boston. She had been obsessed with a schoolmate who was from a wealthy family. He lived the life Ivy aspires to.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.