White Ivy
On sale
19th August 2021
Price: £8.99
The New York Times Bestseller, November 2020
‘White Ivy is magic . . . and not soon to be forgotten’ JOSHUA FERRIS, author of Then We Came to the End
‘Totally addictive, twisting and twisted: Ivy Lin will get under your skin’ ERIN KELLY, author of He Said/She Said
‘This is Austen mixed with the hyperreal sharpness of Donna Tartt’ Irish Times
Ivy Lin was a thief. But you’d never know it to look at her…
Ivy Lin, a Chinese immigrant growing up in a low-income apartment complex outside Boston, is desperate to assimilate with her American peers. Her parents disapprove, berating her for her mediocre grades and what they see as her lazy, entitled attitude. But Ivy has a secret weapon, her grandmother Meifeng, from whom she learns to shoplift to get the things she needs to fit in.
Ivy develops a taste for winning and for wealth. As an adult, she reconnects with the blond-haired golden boy of a prominent political family, and thinks it’s fate. But just as Ivy is about to have everything she’s ever wanted, a ghost from her past resurfaces, threatening the almost-perfect life she’s worked so hard to build.
Filled with surprising twists, and offering sharp insights into the immigrant experience, White Ivy is both a love triangle and a coming-of-age story – as well as a dark glimpse at what can happen when we yearn for success at any cost.
MORE PRAISE FOR THIS SPELLBINDING DEBUT NOVEL:
‘It’s a testament to Susie Yang’s skill that she can explore and upend our ideas of class, race, family, and identity while moving us through a plot that twists in such wonderful ways. But none of that would matter nearly as much if not for the truly unforgettable narrator, Ivy…’ Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang
‘Chock-full of compelling, exciting ideas’ New York Times
‘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’ Los Angeles Times
‘Dark and toxic… White Ivy takes a hold of you and doesn’t let go. A book I won’t forget in a hurry’ Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange
‘Frank, propulsive, clever… One of my favourite novels of the year’ Susannah Dickey, author of Tennis Lessons
‘White Ivy is magic . . . and not soon to be forgotten’ JOSHUA FERRIS, author of Then We Came to the End
‘Totally addictive, twisting and twisted: Ivy Lin will get under your skin’ ERIN KELLY, author of He Said/She Said
‘This is Austen mixed with the hyperreal sharpness of Donna Tartt’ Irish Times
Ivy Lin was a thief. But you’d never know it to look at her…
Ivy Lin, a Chinese immigrant growing up in a low-income apartment complex outside Boston, is desperate to assimilate with her American peers. Her parents disapprove, berating her for her mediocre grades and what they see as her lazy, entitled attitude. But Ivy has a secret weapon, her grandmother Meifeng, from whom she learns to shoplift to get the things she needs to fit in.
Ivy develops a taste for winning and for wealth. As an adult, she reconnects with the blond-haired golden boy of a prominent political family, and thinks it’s fate. But just as Ivy is about to have everything she’s ever wanted, a ghost from her past resurfaces, threatening the almost-perfect life she’s worked so hard to build.
Filled with surprising twists, and offering sharp insights into the immigrant experience, White Ivy is both a love triangle and a coming-of-age story – as well as a dark glimpse at what can happen when we yearn for success at any cost.
MORE PRAISE FOR THIS SPELLBINDING DEBUT NOVEL:
‘It’s a testament to Susie Yang’s skill that she can explore and upend our ideas of class, race, family, and identity while moving us through a plot that twists in such wonderful ways. But none of that would matter nearly as much if not for the truly unforgettable narrator, Ivy…’ Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang
‘Chock-full of compelling, exciting ideas’ New York Times
‘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’ Los Angeles Times
‘Dark and toxic… White Ivy takes a hold of you and doesn’t let go. A book I won’t forget in a hurry’ Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange
‘Frank, propulsive, clever… One of my favourite novels of the year’ Susannah Dickey, author of Tennis Lessons
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Reviews
It's a testament to Susie Yang's skill that she can explore and upend our ideas of class, race, family, and identity while moving us through a plot that twists in such wonderful ways. But none of that would matter nearly as much if not for the truly unforgettable narrator, Ivy, who is so hypnotic, the way her voice feels both wild and controlled. She ran right through me."
White Ivy is magic and a necessary corrective both to the stereotypes and the pieties that too easily characterize the immigrant experience. Most pleasing of all is the story of Ivy Lin, a daring young woman in search of herself, and not soon to be forgotten.
White Ivy is dark and delicious. Ivy Lin eviscerates the model minority stereotype with a smile on her lips and a boot on your neck. Cancel your weekend plans, because you won't be able to take your eyes off Ivy Lin
Elegant and terrifying, steely and sparkling, White Ivy is a propulsive story told with the satisfying simplicity of a classic
Bold, daring, and sexy, White Ivy is the immigrant story we've been dying to hear. Rather than submit to love, Ivy seeks it out, sinks her teeth into it, and doesn't let go. A stunning debut
A truly addictive read
Class, race and coming-of-age lock horns in this original, funny, clever novel. Totally addictive, twisting and twisted: Ivy Lin will get under your skin
Compulsively readable, dark and toxic, with grim flashes of humour, White Ivy takes a hold of you and doesn't let go. A book I won't forget in a hurry
Exquisitely written and totally irresistible, White Ivy is an evocative page-turner with a cast of searingly vivid characters and a deeply chilling heart. An outstanding debut that will make your pulse race - I loved every single word
Susie Yang delves into class warfare and deceit in the season's biggest debut
Yang's stunning debut novel is a riveting bildungsroman
Chock-full of compelling, exciting ideas
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 modern story of clashing cultures and classes already reads like Crazy Rich Asians meets Donna Tartt's The 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
A highly entertaining, well-plotted character study about a young woman whose obsession with the shallow signifiers of success gets her in too deep
Wonderfully immersive, gritty and authentic, and I was totally gripped by Ivy's tenacious, raw, flawed desires and logic... Dark and real, Ivy's story will most definitely stay with me
Frank, propulsive, clever; a deftly handled and funny 21st-century comedy of manners that so interestingly and compellingly explores the symbiosis of cultural and personal history with identity. One of my favourite novels of the year
If the path of true love never runs smoothly, in White Ivy it is a rickety old bridge with missing steps thousands of feet over a dusty canyon. Yang is excellent at pacing and surprises . . . This is Austen mixed with the hyperreal sharpness of Donna Tartt
A powerful debut
A dark, darinig exploration of the immigrant experience
[A] gem of a twisty thriller
This determined outsider's scaling of the walls of New England privilege has echoes of Donna Tartt
Sordid and fun
A fascinating look at the Chinese-American immigrant experience with an unforgettable heroine at its centre
A gripping novel that's thought-provoking, glamorous and twisty all at once . . . Yang deftly explores the Chinese-American immigrant experience while maintaining the addictive pace and glossy feel of a HBO drama - and the manipulative, determined Ivy Lin makes a fascinating fictional antiheroine. Initially a coming-of-age story about a teenager struggling to find her place in the world, White Ivy develops into a dread-soaked romance that gradually builds into a full-blown psychological thriller. I haven't read a book this bingeable in months