So I'm sitting in my car in the garage—you know, my sacred 45 minutes before I have to go inside and pretend I have energy—and I'm completely absorbed in this story about a woman who is basically the anti-heroine of my dreams. Or nightmares. I genuinely couldn't decide which.
Ivy Lin is not a good person. Let me just say that upfront. She's a thief, a liar, and she's got this cold ambition that made me deeply uncomfortable. And yet? I couldn't stop listening. I kept finding excuses to stay in the car longer. My husband actually texted me once asking if I was okay because I'd been out there for over an hour.
The Slow Burn That Made Me Miss My Exit (Twice)
Here's the thing about White Ivy—it's not a thriller in the traditional sense. There's no murder in the first chapter, no immediate danger. It's more like watching a train wreck in extremely slow motion. You know something terrible is coming, you can feel it building, but Susie Yang takes her sweet time getting there. And honestly? It works.
The story follows Ivy from childhood through adulthood as she claws her way toward the life she thinks she deserves. Her grandmother teaches her to steal from yard sales (which, as someone who frequents yard sales with three kids in tow, gave me a whole new perspective on that one lady who always shows up early). Ivy becomes obsessed with Gideon Speyer—this golden boy from a wealthy political family—and years later, she gets her chance to insert herself into his world.
I kept comparing this to Celeste Ng's work in my head. Same kind of slow-building tension, same exploration of what it means to belong (or not belong) in certain spaces. Where'd You Go, Bernadette has that same sharp observation of class and belonging, though with more humor and less menace. But White Ivy is darker. Meaner, maybe. Ivy isn't sympathetic in the way Ng's characters often are. She's calculating. And I kind of loved that about her?
Emily Woo Zeller Nailed the Quiet Menace
The narration here is perfect for this story. Emily Woo Zeller has this smooth, almost soothing voice that lulls you into a false sense of security. Which is exactly what Ivy does to everyone around her. The voice matches the character's mask—pleasant on the surface, something colder underneath.
Zeller's pacing is deliberate, and I'll admit there were moments in the middle where I thought "okay, can we move this along?" But looking back, that slow build was necessary. You need to feel how methodically Ivy constructs her life. How carefully she positions each piece.
The character differentiation is subtle but effective. Gideon sounds different from his sister Sylvia, who sounds different from Ivy's family members. Nothing over the top—just enough that you always know who's speaking even when Sophie decided to wake up screaming and I missed a few minutes.
Where It Gets Uncomfortable (In a Good Way)
This book made me think about class and ambition in ways I wasn't expecting from my car-time reading. Ivy's immigrant experience, her grandmother's survival tactics, the way she views wealthy white families—it's all threaded through without ever feeling preachy. Yang just shows you Ivy's perspective and lets you sit with it.
And then there's the romance. Or what passes for romance. Because Ivy doesn't really love anyone, does she? She wants things. She wants status and security and the life she saw from the outside as a kid. Whether she actually wants Gideon as a person is... debatable. That ambiguity kept me hooked.
Fair warning: this is nearly 13 hours, which is longer than my usual nap-time-approved picks. It took me about two weeks to finish, which felt right for this kind of story. It's not something you want to rush through.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you loved Everything I Never Told You or The Joy Luck Club, this is in that family—but with a darker edge. If you need a likeable protagonist, skip this one. Ivy will frustrate you. She made choices that had me muttering "girl, NO" at red lights.
But if you're okay with morally gray (honestly, morally dark gray) characters and you want something that'll stick with you after the ending? Car time approved. Made me cry at school pickup. Worth it though.
Just maybe don't listen to the last hour while parked outside Target. The ending is... a lot. And you'll need a minute before you can function in public again.
