Faridah Àbíké-ÍyímídéKirja-arvosteluja
Teoksen Ace of Spades tekijä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Wow—this book is phenomenal. Excellent writing. It’s also culturally very important.
This is one intense and disturbing thriller. It’s hard to put down, and it’s not easy to sleep until you finish reading it.
It didn’t take me long to conclude that POS Jamie is a psychopath. Early in the book, I was already shaking my head and thinking, “Chiamaka, he’s not worth your spit.” Glad she figures that out.
Similarly, it didn’t take me long to notice that Jack is a homophobe. I thought, “Devon, please ditch this asshole. He’s not worthy.”
I was so glad when Chiamaka and Devon start associating with each other—I was waiting for that.
Though I have white privilege (I’m pale, Celtic, and Ashkenazi), I often think, “White Americans are psychopaths.” This novel—like the history white supremacists don’t want anyone to learn—is one of those things that inspire that thought.
Gr 9 Up—When the secrets of two prep school seniors are exposed to the school community via anonymous text messages, they must work together to figure out who is targeting them and why, before things turn deadly. This
debut thriller addresses systemic racism, structural white supremacy, microaggressions, class distinctions, and
LGBTQIA+ identities.
Surrounded by loss, Sade enrolls in a boarding school after years of homeschool. Her first day there, her roommate Elizabeth disappears, and Sade finds herself entrenched in a mystery while trying to navigate the social hierarchy where dangerous secrets lurk.
I love YA thrillers, and this is a really good addition to the category. Sade's frustration with the school administration is palpable and for good reason. Though the Sapphic relationship was hinted at early on, it still felt like it came out of left field when it finally happened. I liked that all the loose ends were tied up nicely, and the ending was realistic. There are graphic depictions of grief, sexual assault, and suicide, so take care reading.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
This debut young-adult thriller by Nigerian-British author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé tackles issues of racism and homophobia. The story is about two Black high school seniors, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, in an otherwise all-white private school who are targeted by an anonymous bully who begins a campaign to expose their secrets to the entire student body at Niveus Academy. The campaign is carried out mostly by texts, but it also involves darker and more dangerous elements. The story is told through both Devon’s and Chiamaka’s points of view: Devon, the gay scholarship kid from a poor neighborhood; and Chiamaka, the daughter of an Italian father and Nigerian mother who are both doctors and wealthy. Very interesting characters, many twists and turns. In my opinion, much of the story involved suspension of belief, but it was nevertheless engaging.
This book demonstrates the biggest issues in society. Two students are enrolled to a school because of the colour of their skin, and are led to believe that for the past two years, they were working towards getting into college with valedictorian and good grades/attendance under their belt. Devon and Chiamaka worked hard to get into Niveus Private Academy and found a passion, which would take them on further education to pursue relevant careers. Now in their final year and before they can focus on going to Julliard and Yale, text messages are sent around the school, tarnishing the status of the only two black students, whose plans are potentially shattered.
The setting for this story is generic, with the American standard wealthy, modern houses with white picket fences beside a rough neighbourhood filled with drug dealers and chipped paintwork on front doors. However, the school abides by UK terminology to suggest a prestigious institution and deliberate reputation; but unless the area follows a completely different rule from normal schools, its existence is not exactly realistic. It is revealed that the students' parents and grandparents attended this school and upheld a tradition one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, and enrolling only two black students every ten years, yet no one takes notice of the all-white school in a diverse town. Even Terrell demonstrates how easy it is to research the school in one search; neither Devon nor Chiamaka make the attempt to research the school. If the search results were difficult to find or were deceitful, this could somewhat justify the secret camp all the white students attend over the Summer, and the secrets would only be revealed from within the institute.
The book implements different types of hardships both Devon and Chiamaka experience. However, Devon is bombarded with everything under the sun: a single parent – with one in prison – and poor living, bad neighbourhood which leads to drug dealing for financial purposes, and the views on homosexuality. For Chiamaka, her issues are primarily based on how she looks and getting the perfect boyfriend. It comes across as stereotypical with a young man stuck in a bad neighbourhood and turning to crime while a young woman has a bad hair day and no boyfriend. Nonetheless, it is entirely feasible for a human being to experience the risk of having no further education and the risk of homelessness, and another who wishes to have the perfect family life, even if this story includes a lack of distribution in hardship. That being said, the contrast in lifestyles only emphasise the racism explored in the book: Devon and Chiamaka are targeted due to the colour of their skin, nor for their background.
The book starts off slow, introducing both protagonists and their relationships with other students. They don’t know each other apart from the fact they attend the same school, which means for the readers, we learn their contrasting lifestyles and individuality. There is an arc in their attitude towards each other and over time the arc is natural. This also means seeing varied characters that later explain their opinions on Devon and Chiamaka. There are gender stereotypes, like when friendships between two men end, they end in violence or silence as they ignore each other. For women, they are always in a competition, trying to be the ‘top of the pack’ and making snide comments about each other. The only three friendships that are different are between Devon and Terrell, Chiamaka and Belle, and Devon and Chiamaka. The friendships grow naturally from their first encounters to throughout the story. This, therefore, reinforces the fact the entire school has has a script everyone follows – like a film. Although, the relationships are different because two of them become romantic, but the platonic stage is not forced and read as realistic. Once it’s revealed to Devon and Chiamaka that the texts are done by the school, action finally picks up.
A question I discovered is near the beginning, the board shows the Ace of Spades with the school’s mottos and this is picked up by Devon – who doesn’t understand why no one else considers the brief error weird. Then, it doesn’t occur to Devon that later on, the Ace of Spades are used by the masked students and he doesn’t put two and two together. I’m disappointed that for two very intelligent students, they react to the bullying like they’re high school students as opposed to reacting to the bullying like academic students with sights on esteemed colleges. They don’t inform the staff until later on, and don’t think to contact anyone outside the school until the end. That being said, this could demonstrate just how deceitful the school truly is: perhaps Devon and Chiamaka believe they are intelligent because their grades have been falsified to justify why they should stay on at Niveus, in preparation for this entire ordeal to play out and ultimately humiliate the two students in the hopes they would disappear. Nonetheless, Devon is later a Professor and Chiamaka is later a Doctor; therefore, they prove their intelligence in the real world.
The second question is at the ball, it’s established that the school is in on the Aces debacle, but it is not clear whether the ‘entire’ school includes the IT technician, for example. There are names absent from the list, but does the IT technician happily help Devon and Chiamaka because he wants to or because it’s part of the plan?
Rating: 3.5/5
I have so much to say. Let's start off with the plus's. It's been a really long time that a book has kept me from putting it down and I finishing it in a day. The book is very gripping and swallows you whole. The writing is good and the character development is amazing for one of the leads but okayish for the other.
Was it predictable? Not completely! A few things were very obvious but I think this also lines up with the agenda of the 'Opressor/s'.
Coming to why it wasn't a 5 star read, the book felt a little stretched out towards the end. The epilogue was 3 chapters. The last line was amazing, I have to accept that I didn't see that coming but a lot of what happend in the book felt implausible.
The next paragraph may be perceived as spoilers by some even though I am not revealing anything essential to the plot of the book, so please refrain from reading it if you don't want to.
One important thing that gets to me is how the teens in trouble will not go to the parents. I know that not all parents are supportive and even if they would be, they aren't vocal enough for the kid to believe or trust them but running with that narrative and letting kids deal with life threatening trauma by themselves sets a negative example and I don't think it should be endorsed.
The first 25% was OK then it got way too boring because stuff that could be done in a few chapters was made to drag out for the rest of the book.
0 stars
I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to the hype for me. It had good parts in it and some parts I liked, but there was a lot of the story that was a bit too predictable.
It is a lot like Gossip Girl and Get Out. It also reminded me of I Know What You Did Last Summer, which is where some of it being too predictable came from with the similarities there. It's a YA contemporary thriller with a private school with intrigue and everything. This does discuss and touch on some important topics like racism, prejudice, and such. There are also m/m and f/f relationships with the main characters in the story as well.
Also for trigger/content warnings, Profanity/Language, Sexual Content, Racism, Blackmail, Suicide, Death, and Violence.
If you're looking for a thriller and you liked Gossip Girl, Get Out, or I Know What You Did Last Summer then you might like to check this one out.
Book was great, i love the main characters and the queer rep. The second half was alot better than the first one and the book lost me a bit in the middle, but at the end of the day i really cared for what is happening to the characters and how things are going to end up. Im happy with the ending but i wish we had more of Devon and Chiamaka being happy with their partners and in work coz that part was very sweet.
A great thriller where the aggression is so insidious that you don't realise how tense you have become until you are a total ball of nerves. The paranoia that our main characters developed was really well written and believable. There are a few stories and films I am reminded of with this novel but I won't say as I think they will serve as spoilers. I actually won't say too much more because it's one of those stories that I think you are better off knowing very little about. A great and topical YA thriller with excellent character development.
CW:
An incredible debut mystery & thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. There were times where the author threw in a red herring, that literally pointed you at the truth, but it turns out that those were just parts of the truth.There were some storylines that I wish had been wrapped up. The author addresses racism, homophobia and classicism in a very different way. One for the HS shelves.
This book demonstrates the biggest issues in society. Two students are enrolled to a school because of the colour of their skin, and are led to believe that for the past two years, they were working towards getting into college with valedictorian and good grades/attendance under their belt. Devon and Chiamaka worked hard to get into Niveus Private Academy and found a passion, which would take them on further education to pursue relevant careers. Now in their final year and before they can focus on going to Julliard and Yale, text messages are sent around the school, tarnishing the status of the only two black students, whose plans are potentially shattered.
The setting for this story is generic, with the American standard wealthy, modern houses with white picket fences beside a rough neighbourhood filled with drug dealers and chipped paintwork on front doors. However, the school abides by UK terminology to suggest a prestigious institution and deliberate reputation; but unless the area follows a completely different rule from normal schools, its existence is not exactly realistic. It is revealed that the students' parents and grandparents attended this school and upheld a tradition one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, and enrolling only two black students every ten years, yet no one takes notice of the all-white school in a diverse town. Even Terrell demonstrates how easy it is to research the school in one search; neither Devon nor Chiamaka make the attempt to research the school. If the search results were difficult to find or were deceitful, this could somewhat justify the secret camp all the white students attend over the Summer, and the secrets would only be revealed from within the institute.
The book implements different types of hardships both Devon and Chiamaka experience. However, Devon is bombarded with everything under the sun: a single parent – with one in prison – and poor living, bad neighbourhood which leads to drug dealing for financial purposes, and the views on homosexuality. For Chiamaka, her issues are primarily based on how she looks and getting the perfect boyfriend. It comes across as stereotypical with a young man stuck in a bad neighbourhood and turning to crime while a young woman has a bad hair day and no boyfriend. Nonetheless, it is entirely feasible for a human being to experience the risk of having no further education and the risk of homelessness, and another who wishes to have the perfect family life, even if this story includes a lack of distribution in hardship. That being said, the contrast in lifestyles only emphasise the racism explored in the book: Devon and Chiamaka are targeted due to the colour of their skin, nor for their background.
The book starts off slow, introducing both protagonists and their relationships with other students. They don’t know each other apart from the fact they attend the same school, which means for the readers, we learn their contrasting lifestyles and individuality. There is an arc in their attitude towards each other and over time the arc is natural. This also means seeing varied characters that later explain their opinions on Devon and Chiamaka. There are gender stereotypes, like when friendships between two men end, they end in violence or silence as they ignore each other. For women, they are always in a competition, trying to be the ‘top of the pack’ and making snide comments about each other. The only three friendships that are different are between Devon and Terrell, Chiamaka and Belle, and Devon and Chiamaka. The friendships grow naturally from their first encounters to throughout the story. This, therefore, reinforces the fact the entire school has has a script everyone follows – like a film. Although, the relationships are different because two of them become romantic, but the platonic stage is not forced and read as realistic. Once it’s revealed to Devon and Chiamaka that the texts are done by the school, action finally picks up.
A question I discovered is near the beginning, the board shows the Ace of Spades with the school’s mottos and this is picked up by Devon – who doesn’t understand why no one else considers the brief error weird. Then, it doesn’t occur to Devon that later on, the Ace of Spades are used by the masked students and he doesn’t put two and two together. I’m disappointed that for two very intelligent students, they react to the bullying like they’re high school students as opposed to reacting to the bullying like academic students with sights on esteemed colleges. They don’t inform the staff until later on, and don’t think to contact anyone outside the school until the end. That being said, this could demonstrate just how deceitful the school truly is: perhaps Devon and Chiamaka believe they are intelligent because their grades have been falsified to justify why they should stay on at Niveus, in preparation for this entire ordeal to play out and ultimately humiliate the two students in the hopes they would disappear. Nonetheless, Devon is later a Professor and Chiamaka is later a Doctor; therefore, they prove their intelligence in the real world.
The second question is at the ball, it’s established that the school is in on the Aces debacle, but it is not clear whether the ‘entire’ school includes the IT technician, for example. There are names absent from the list, but does the IT technician happily help Devon and Chiamaka because he wants to or because it’s part of the plan?
Thank You NetGalley, Macmillan Audio & Faridah for this audio copy!
Summary- A private school called Niveus Academy filled with ivy legue students. The story is told in the POVs of Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo who are selected Senior Prefect and Head Prefect! Someone who goes by Aces begins sending anonymous texts to them, revealing their secrets.
Someone is out to get them. But Who?.
This was seriously a great book! I just loved the characters Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo! Like Chi I just LOVED HER! She isn't afraid to hold back what she is thinking. She is just awesome!
Devon is more laid back and very into music.
The book shows us what is happening in our world today and the author touched these serious topic issues..
I don’t straighten my hair because I hate it; I straighten it because everyone else hates it for me. They ask me, “What are you?” And I want to be sarcastic and tell them human, but I don’t. I tell them I’m Italian and Nigerian. They raise their eyebrows at the Italian part, like they are surprised whiteness can produce me. Some days, it really bothers me. And other days, it doesn’t.
I love having my hair like this. But I never go outside like this, ever. It’s too risky. I’d rather straighten than get prodded and stared at, stroked like an animal and questioned. Like Jamie looking at me yesterday as if I were some science experiment he’s intrigued by. I want to stand out for being the smartest and the best, not because my hair frizzes and fascinates.
I was not interested in the high school drama about relationships and leaked sex tapes, which made the start of this book a bit annoying to me, but the way Chiamaka and Devon deal with the constant, subtle microaggressions was haunting.
The entire book is filled with two black students struggling with the small slumbering evil of racism that is hidden everywhere, so for the ending to be something so highly specific and concrete felt a bit off to me.
If Aces is a very specific organisation, it can be shut down. Which kinda goes against the idea that racism is so woven into society that you cannot end it the way you can force a society to close down. The school is burned down, which means the end of Chiamaka and Devon’s problem. I think I’ve preferred it if the aces club was put on tv and shut down, but Nievus continued to exist. Yes, the racist club is gone, but the school is not immediately cleansed of its racism.
Regardless, this was a great read.
An excellent and powerful story, one that will make white readers cringe and think. Neither of those are bad things. I very much like the complexity, the way the tormentor(s) are gradually exposed, the developing trust between Chiamaka and Devon, and the ending.
Pretty over the top, but so is America. Just two points:
1. I started this yesterday and spent most of today reading it. I was (deliberately) spoiled and interested partly because of that.
2. An emotional read, but really i felt tears in my eyes reading the last….six words? It surprised me how strongly i felt it.
EDIT: I want to leave this, but there were actually two chapters after what i was referring to above. Much more ambivalent about the actual ending
I agree with the comparisons of Get Out & Gossip Girl, but I would argue the book is also a cross between The Stepford Wives and The Truman Show. As the quote below from The Truman Show really works in tandem with Ace of Spades.
Why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world until now?
We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that. - The Truman Show
RGG: If you like Gossip Girl and Gets Out, this may be the book for you. Themes of socio-economic disparity, sexual identity, LGBT+ romance, are embedded but their importance seems diminished within the plot. Reading Interest: YA.
“Growing up, I realized quite quickly that people hate being called racist more than they hate racism itself.”
I completely understand all the hype surrounding Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídés debut novel Ace Of Spades. This fast-paced mystery YA thriller tackled racism, queer relationships & classicism and definitely had me reflecting and acknowledging my privilege as a white person. From the moment I picked it up, I could not put it down except for moments of pure disbelief and shock as the plot unfolded and the secret identity and motives of Aces was revealed. I really adored the characterisation and development of the two protagonists, especially as someone who generally dislikes multiple points of view. Whilst at times the writing itself did seem somewhat basic/flat, I felt the author accurately depicted teenage voices without cheesy pop culture references or awkward phrases that most authors rely on. I do wish the story was just slightly longer as the ending all happened so fast but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.*
4/5
*check trigger warnings before reading
I like the approach on racism and how at these private schools social eugenics could still be used today. It shows that racism is still a HUGE part of society today not just 50 years ago.
This story, told in alternating viewpoint of Chamika and Devon, is a look at a high power, elite school, and what it will go through to remain that way. The beginning of this book is very reminiscent of other dark academia books like Stags by MA Bennett. Things happen similarly, except there are no guns involved.
Chamika and Devon are the only two Black students at school. Chamika has wealthy immigrant parents, while Devon is from the poor side of town. Chamika has had it relatively easy to the casual observer, but only her and the reader know that she tries so hard to be perfect. She will not let anyone make her feel “less than” because of her skin color, or her “new money”. Devon is the smart gay nerd who barely survived his fist school, only to get a dream scholarship to this new one. But the nice school, doesn’t mean Devon’s life is nice. He still has to help mom pay the bills sometimes, watch out for the bullies, drug dealers, and even friends that will pound him into the ground with the least provocation.
While books like Stags make class or society distinctions that cause the dark episodes, Ace of Spades, all comes down to race. “Social Eugenics”. This is not a topic that I was ever taught about in school, but find that this book opened a window to explore more in-depth and real life cases of this practice. Of people purposely being held up to get shot down. This book gave the readers a lot to think about, both in current and future actions.
One thing the author really did well was set the story. They never come out and say where the school is, the reader just assumes. I assumed it was Chicago as I live in Illinois. However, the author purposely wrote so that anyone can see a place they recognize.
This book was an interesting and entertaining read. It brings forth conversations on actions of people and their consequences, and opens doors to find ways to fight practices like illustrated within the pages of the book.
TW: Racism, Sexism, homophobia
audio teen fiction (14 hours, full cast) - bullying, conspiracy, racism, tons of suspense and twists. Author is Nigerian-British who has felt very much alone as the only brown person during her university days, when she wrote this fantastic book--it is inspired by her experiences as well as her love of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars.
A terrifically-told story that kept me up for several nights reading--normally I fall asleep when I listen to audiobooks at night but this was exceptionally good and I willingly and purposely lost many, many hours of sleep! Loved how the author kept revealing layer after layer of complicated trouble! This one came in at the top of the 2022 Morris Award finalists (ALA's award for debut teen fiction) and I can see why it's the favorite to win. More, please!
Linkit
Virallinen kotisivu (English)
Wikipedia (English)
Interview (Guardian, 2020) (English)
Instagram (English)
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Gripping book. Students will love it . Fair bit of trigger stuff ( Girls are drugged and raped by a secret boys society called The Fishermen) so MATURE readers.