Kiera is one of only a handful of black students at her high school in suburban Seattle. But she's got a secret. No one knows she's Emerald, the creator of SLAY, a virtual reality online game where players create kings and queens who duel each other by drawing cards based on elements of black cultures around the world - open only to black players who have the secret passcode. But when a boy is murdered in real life over coins in the game, SLAY becomes international news.

I tore through this book in about 48 hours. I was completely riveted by Kiera, her friends and family, and the deft way this book handles the nuances of navigating the world as a black person. Everything from the pros and cons of black-only spaces to code switching to conflating black power with black male power and more is covered in SLAY, and in a natural way that doesn't feel like a Very Special Episode.

And the game itself - so cool! You do have to suspend disbelief a bit to accept that a game with hundreds of thousands of players is run by only two people and kept a secret from the entire non-black world, but the battles were so fun I decided I could look past it. I've never read anything like this book and I can't wait to recommend it to everyone.