# Slay - Hardcover

by **Brittney Morris** (Author)

**A _Publishers Weekly_ Best Book of 2019**  
**"Gripping and timely." --_People_**  
**"The YA debut we're most excited for this year." --_Entertainment Weekly_**  
**"A book that knocks you off your feet while dropping the kind of knowledge that'll keep you down for the count. Prepare to BE slain." --Nic Stone, _New York Times_ bestselling author of _Dear Martin_ and _Odd One Out_**

**_Ready Player One_ meets _The Hate U Give_ in this dynamite debut novel that follows a fierce teen game developer as she battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the _Black Panther_\-inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for Black gamers.**

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

### Author Biography

Brittney Morris is the author of _SLAY_, _The Cost of Knowing_, and _The Jump,_ and has written video game narrative for Insomniac Games's _Marvel's_ _Spider-Man 2_ for PlayStation 5, Unknown Worlds's _Subnautica: Below Zero_, and Soma Games's _The Lost Legends of Redwall_. She is the founder and former president of the Boston University Creative Writing Club. She holds a BA in economics. You can find her online at AuthorBrittneyMorris.com and on Twitter or Instagram @BrittneyMMorris.

**Number of Pages:** 336

**Dimensions:** 1.1 x 8.5 x 5.9 IN

**Publication Date:** September 24, 2019

**Accelerated Reader:**

**Quiz Name:** Slay

**Interest Level:** Upper Grades, 9-12

**Reading Level:** 6

**Point Value:** 13

## Details

- **Price:** 19.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 19.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Slay - Hardcover

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> Updated: 2026-07-23