I have deliberately avoidied reading about White Ivy after seeing a glowing review and deciding I REALLY wanted to read it. Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for this honest review.
It’s not easy to put this one into a single genre. It’s a coming-of-age story, a family drama that includes the experience of a family of immigrants from China, and there’s a bit of mystery/suspense as well. I loved it, and I keep thinking about it.
The protagonist, Ivy Lin, was born in China and lived there until the age of five, when she came to the U.S. to join her parents, who had left her with her maternal grandmother for a few years while they got settled. Ivy goes from childhood to adulthood always trying to fit in. Her parents are hard working immigrants who want her to become a doctor. Instead, she becomes a first-grade teacher after finishing college. All along the way, Ivy never felt like she fit in. In middle school, she yearns to be popular and is fixated on a WASPy boy named Gideon Speyer, but her parents send her for a visit to China, and when she gets back, they tell her they moved to New Jersey! It isn’t until her twenties that she reconnects with Gideon and his pretentious sister Sylvia and works her ass off trying to fit in…
The reader sees both the immigrant experience of Ivy’s parents and grandmother and her struggle to find her own identity. Ivy isn’t likeable…but then she is surrounded by other unlikeable people, and part of my reaction was “they aren’t worth it! Go find people with whom you can be yourself!” Ivy is dishonest, greedy, and superficial. And her relationship with her old friend from childhood reveals all you need to know about Ivy. There is a great OH EM GEE moment…but no spoilers!
We get to watch Ivy’s character develop including her greed, dishonesty, selfishness, and charm along with her never-ending longing to fit in to what she sees as the American Dream (including, of course, lots of $$$). It’s a good choice for book clubs, and it really is worth *****.