After sixteen-year-old vampire Pearl Sange is stabbed through the heart by a were-unicorn, she develops non-vampire-like traits that lead her to save her high school classmates from the Vampire King of New England.

“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?

Be the girl with goals. With determination, confidence and a little bit of lipstick, there's nothing you can't do! Filled with kick-ass quotes and empowering statements, this handy book will fire you up to get out there and slay.

When Montana first started playing in iNcarn8, his new game life, he just wanted to be one of the good guys for a change. But despite his impressive stats and incredible heroics, even his closest followers are just plain scared of him. Trouble keeps pouring down Montana, even in the remote, supposedly safe holding he's building into his dukedom. All that will have to change if Coggeshall is going to survive. Walls go up and homes get built, but Montana can't shake the feeling that none of it will be enough to keep out the problems of the Empire. Or the world of Vuldranni. Dukes and Ladders is the fifth book in The Good Guys LitRPG series. It's half town-building grinding, half action-adventure epic, and all thoroughly good fun. Pick up this page-turner today!