Description: "White Ivy begins as many coming-to-America stories do: Ivy Lin, a Chinese immigrant, grows up in a low-income apartment complex in Massachusetts desperate to assimilate with her American peers. She develops a crush on the golden boy Gideon Speyer, whose patrician New England family is the paragon of the WASP ideal. Ivy's mother is a Tiger Mom, berating Ivy regularly when she disapproves of her grades, her looks, her attitude. But that's where the familiar story ends. Because Ivy has a mentor-her grandmother Meifeng- from whom she learns to shoplift to get the things she needs. Ivy develops a taste for winning and for wealth. Years later, when she bumps into Gideon's father, Ivy believes it's destiny. She's worked long and hard to be the right woman for Gideon. But just as they begin dating, another man from Ivy's past appears, and he has his own set of rules. Ivy soon has a foot in two vastly different worlds. The question is: Which will she choose? A coming-of-age story, a love triangle, an exploration of class and race and identity" -- Front jacket flap.
Brief description: Susie Yang was born in Chongqing, China, and grew up in New Jersey. She holds a pharmD from Rutgers University. Her first novel, White Ivy, was a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick on the Today show, a New York Times bestseller, and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. She has lived across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and now resides in Seattle with her family.
Review Quotes: Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by USA Today (4 Stars) one of the Most Anticipated Books by Entertainment Weekly, O Magazine, Time Magazine, Glamour, Vogue, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, ABC News, Bustle, Lit Hub, Newsday, The Millions, Town & Country, Refinery 29, Shondaland, Crime Reads
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize "A twisty, unputdownable psychological thriller. Clear your schedule." -- People, Book of the Week "A truly addictive read." -- Glamour "There's nothing better than a novel with an unpredictable plot. And White Ivy, Susie Yang's debut novel... is exactly that." -- USA Today (4 out of 4 stars) "White Ivy is an enthralling, thrill of a book. It is fascinating to spend time inside Ivy's mind, unique and unapologetic in its bold (and often bad) decisions. A story of many cultures both clashing and converging, White Ivy's many twists and turns will surprise you until the very last page." -- Molly Sprayregen, Associated Press "Susie Yang delves into class warfare and deceit in the season's biggest debut" -- Entertainment Weekly "The genius of White Ivy is that each plot point of the romance is fulfilled but also undercut by a traumatic pratfall, described in language as bright and scarring as a wound." -- The Los Angeles Times "The modern story of clashing cultures and classes already reads like Crazy Rich Asians meets Donna Tartt's A Secret History meets Paul's Case, Willa Cather's classic story of a desperate middle-class climb. But White Ivy, the propulsive debut novel by Susie Yang, is more than plot twists and love triangles. It's also an astute chronicle of cultures, gender dynamics and the complicated business of self-creation in America." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Susie Yang's White Ivy cleverly overturns the 'model minority' stereotype with a deliciously twisty story that will leave you breathless." -- Real Simple "A highly entertaining, well-plotted character study about a young woman whose obsession with the shallow signifiers of success gets her in too deep." -- The Washington Post "Yang excels at drawing sharp characters, making excruciating observations about class, family, and social norms, and painting the losses of migration and struggles Asians and other immigrants face in America. An easy page-turner... the cutting prose movingly portrays many layers of tribulation and traumas, and marks Yang as a voice to watch." -- Boston Globe "Susie Yang's White Ivy Is The Talented Mr. Ripley for the Instagram Age" -- Bustle "White Ivy has it all -- it's a coming of age story, a love triangle rich in complications of race and class, and though it offers the pleasures of a literary novel such as complex characters and interesting writing, it also has the attractions of a psychological thriller: jaw-dropping plot twists and an unpredictable ending... [This is a ] sharply observed and boldly imagined novel." -- Star Tribune "Yang's dark, spellbinding debut gives insight into the immigrant experience and life in the upper class, challenging the stereotypes and perceptions associated with both. The surprising twists, elegant prose, and complex characters in this coming-of-age story make this a captivating read." -- Booklist (starred review) "What begins as a story of a young woman's struggles to assimilate quickly becomes a much darker tale of love, lies, and obsession, in which there are no boundaries to finding the fulfillment of one's own dreams. Yang's skill in creating surprising, even shocking plot twists will leave readers breathless." -- Library Journal (starred review) "In Ivy, Yang has created an ambitious and sharp yet believably flawed heroine who will win over any reader, and the accomplished plot is layered and full of revelations. This is a beguiling and shattering coming-of-age story." -- Publishers Weekly "The intelligent, yearning, broken, and deeply insecure Ivy will enthrall readers, and Yang's beautifully written novel ably mines the complexities of class and privilege. A sophisticated and darkly glittering gem of a debut." -- Kirkus Reviews "Electrifying... Part immigrant story, part elitist takedown, part contemporary novel of wicked manners, White Ivy is an unpredictable spectacle... Ivy Lin proves to be the antihero readers will love to hate in debut novelist Susie Yang's assured, deft, biting novel of (manipulative) manners." -- Shelf Awareness (starred review) "Yang takes a character who is a confessed thief from the first page, and etches her with qualities that turn her into a complex, layered, and unpredictable character."-- Chicago Review of Books