The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • More Books
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Privacy Policy

White Ivy: A Novel

November 13, 2020

white ivy

White Ivy by Susie Yang
Published by Simon & Schuster
Publication date: November 3, 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Cultural, Debut, Fiction, Suspense
three-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

In an effort to have a better life Ivy’s parents move from China to America without her, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother until she was 5 years old. Then her parents send for her. White Ivy is her story, as she assimilates into American life but holds on to her grandmother’s teachings. In middle school she falls in love with a wealthy, golden, American boy, is pulled away by her parents, only to encounter him and his family again when she is a young woman on her own. An encounter that brings her to the life she’s always dreamt of, but is it real?

One of the first lessons Ivy’s grandmother taught her was

“Give with one hand and take with the other. No one will be watching both.”

 Not the most uplifting of lessons, but, for whatever reason, Ivy takes it to heart and has no compunction about stealing. She believes Americans don’t appreciate their things, but she will, so she should have them. As she grows into an attractive woman, she also learns to use her looks to get what she wants. By the time she re-encounters Gideon, her 6th grade obsession, it feels as if the stars are aligning to give her what she wants. She simply has to keep up the façade of who she thinks she should be to win the man she loves. Only it’s easier said than done.

Whether it is intentional or not, Ivy reminded me of Becky Sharpe in the novel Vanity Fair. Except for as grasping as Becky was, there was also a pathos to her situation. Try as I might I could not feel that for Ivy or even anyone in her family. More specifically, I never felt anything for Ivy at all. She is a calculating shell of a person that left me with no emotional response at all.

I don’t have to like a novel’s protagonist, but if my emotions aren’t engaged I become that much more aware of what I see as flaws. In White Ivy this translates to a feeling the author is explaining Ivy’s intentions and motivations—insinuating the reader can’t figure it out on their own. It becomes annoying.

Having said that, White Ivy stands as a warped story of one young woman’s desire to succeed without even knowing what she wants. There is great intrigue in that kind of internal conflict, but within the framework of the novel, ostensibly about a first-generation immigrant trying to fit in, it gets lost. The character development to sustain it isn’t there, but for entertaining, twisty reading White Ivy works.

 

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I get a small commission (at no cost to you).

 

*I received a free copy of this book from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.*

 

three-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 3 Star Books
beautiful
Beautiful Animals: A Novel
unmarriageable
Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal
fruit
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
did you ever have a family
Did You Ever Have a Family
monogamy
Monogamy: A Novel by Sue Miller
been there
Been There, Married That
death of bees
The Death of Bees
Woke Up Lonely
Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel
care and management
The Care and Management of Lies
The Interestings
The Interestings
van apfel
The Van Apfel Girls are Gone
marriage
The Marriage Game: A Novel of Queen Elizabeth I
beautiful
Beautiful Animals: A Novel
The Help
The Beautiful Bureaucrat

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut, suspense

Comments

  1. Laila says

    November 13, 2020 at 8:07 pm

    Read another review of this today and I’m intrigued simply because I need a page-turning thriller. I’ll out myself on the waiting list at the library.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 19, 2020 at 3:05 pm

      It is surprising, but not in the way the synopsis makes it sound on Goodreads.

      Reply
  2. susan says

    November 15, 2020 at 8:59 am

    Hmm. Thanks for your vetting of this one for me. Not sure its hype is all it claims to be. I was wondering if Ivy’s obsession is just a bit creepy? stop at nothing kind of thing? That might bother me …
    Nice comparison you draw with Becky Sharpe …

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 19, 2020 at 3:07 pm

      It is a bit, but she’s not alone in the manipulations and maybe that’s the draw? It was all too messy for me.

      Reply
  3. Susie | Novel Visits says

    November 16, 2020 at 10:09 am

    The author never got into this angle, but I also saw Ivy as a sort of typical millennial. She expected it all without putting in the work!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 29, 2020 at 4:25 pm

      Everything about the characters rubbed me the wrong way, but I still liked her writing!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in