Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

How can you play the game when the cards are stacked against you? A compelling, incendiary, and unputdownable thriller with a shocking twist, Faridah Àbíke-Íyímíde delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism with this compulsive debut. Hello, Niveus High. It's me. Who am I? That's not important. All you need to know is...I'm here to divide and conquer. - Aces Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students' dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can't escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn't afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they're planning much more than a high-school game...

Ace of Spades

kristin :)

I close my eyes, pretending it's already the future, and I'm somewhere else, living a completely different life.

Dreaming is dangerous, but I allow myself to this time.

this is so satisfying after all that has happened

We finally get outside and watch as Niveus goes up in flames. 

There are sirens in the back, firefighters rushing inside the collapsing building. It sounds awful, but a part of me wants to laugh.

Even the most powerful can be brought down. And we're all witnessing it.

The power I used to feel flood my body each morning when I'd walk into school and know I'd earned this position at the top. Now, I feel powerful because I've taken my voice back, stopped letting Jamie squash me into the image that he has of me. 

Of a weak girl he can push down and hurt without consequence.

I'm not going to let what he said hurt me. I won't give him that power over me. I'm Chiamaka fucking Adebayo - I don't need some prick telling me who I am and who I should be.

I hate that these systems, all this institutional shit, can get to me. I hate how they have the power to kill my future, kill me. They treat my black skin as a gun or a grenade or a knife that is dangerous and lethal, when really, it's them. The guys at the top powering everything.

If it isn't Niveus that does it, any one of them could get us.

The guys at the top are bombs and explosives, killing millions, getting away with it.

He was practically a stranger to me. A stranger I've made into a father in my mind.

This world, our world, the one with houses as crooked as the people in them. Broken people, broken by the way the world works. No jobs, no money; sell drugs, get money. That's what this world is, that's how it works.

I don't want it to be like that for me. I don't want to stay here.

If a tree drops in a forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? 

If a girl, all alone in a big fishbowl, screams, and no one is there, can you hear her? Does she even make a sound?

Later, when I'm in my room, as my brothers sleep and the world is quiet, I think about how nice it is to have someone who doesn't treat me like a burden. 

I get that. Dreaming can be dangerous. It's hard to dream in a neighborhood like ours. Ma always told me to dream, though, that the sky was the limit. I'm scared to dream 

 high in case I end up falling flat on my face. But I still do it. 

It hurts to dream, but I dream regardless.

the way they descibe rasicm is sooo good in this book

"Yeah, it is. I think anyone can be nice, but it's not about being nice. You can't escape a history like that and not be affected. Us Blacks, we start hating ourselves, and them whites start thinking they're all better than us. Even if they aren't thinking it constantly, it's in there somewhere."

Maybe what I thought was Jamie's love was never love at all. They say love and hate are the same, just at different ends of the blade.

i feel so so sorry for his mom and what she has to go through

I go to school, I put on the costume the rich kids wear and pretend for a few hours. I could act all high and mighty, I could think I'm the shit, lie to myself, but it doesn't change the fact that this is my reality.

Ma works three jobs for us. She does everything for us, And I do everything for her.

I knew something was familiar about him, but I feel like I would remember someone I kissed.

Maybe I don't know myself like I thought I did.

I imagine talking to him about Aces, this anonymous bully who hates me for no reason, and he'll know the answers because that's what dads are for. They are meant to know all the stuff you don't.

I know Scotty is a terrible person, so why am I so shocked? Why am I always shocked by people and their shitty behaviour?

this reminds me of the taylor swift interview

Even though I know I shouldn't care, it annoys me that when girls know what they want and how they're going to get it, they're seen as cocky. But guys who know what they want? They're confident and strong. 

Alesha Clifford

“Hi, I’m Chiamaka’s bank account, occasionally known as dad,”

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully. When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too. Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures. As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly? With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.

Souhaila

I hate that these systems, all this institutional shit, can get to me. I hate how they have the power to kill my future, kill me. They treat my Black skin like a gun or a grenade or a knife that is dangerous and lethal, when really it’s them. The guys at the top powering everything.

As long as it doesn't involve your personal life, who cares, right?🙃

Growing up, I realized quite quickly that people hate being called racist more than they hate racism itself.

As a hijabi girl, it's funny how people hate my hijab for me. I'm the one wearing it, I'm the one choosing it but apparently they know better. They know that I'm forced to wear it and because they are oh so good, they try to "liberate" me by 

 me to take it off. How nice of them to give me a choice🙃 

I don’t straighten my hair because I hate it; I straighten it because everyone else hates it for me. 

The way this book is squeezing my heart... 

I have to stop myself from apologizing—because what would I even be sorry for? Existing too loud?

Ece Onmuş

Growing up, I realized quite quickly that people my hate being called racist more than they hate racism itself.

i read where sleeping girls lie before this one so i dived in with high expectations and IT. DID NOT. DISAPPOINT.

i think i found my new favorite author 🤩

Linara K.S

I NOW UNDERSTAND THE HYPE! 
let's get one thing straight: i miraculously guessed the plot twist and ending somehow. yes, I, who never sees anything coming made correct hypothesises. That's all. I just wanted to make that clear for my own future self :)
 actual review/gush 
what the heck. I never knew that a booktok rec could be this good? idk. Welp, 1/4 books is a good one ig. 
SO where do i begin... aha! 
We have two MC:
-Chiamaka (the most popular girl in her high-school)
-Devon (the most introverted and lowkey dude of the school) 
both are of black heritage and are the only black students in the school. They both are elected head prefects during their senior year and when everything seems to be going their way a mysterious and most unsettling threat appears in their path to success. 
 Aces. 
in a swirl of chaotic rumours and accusations our two main characters have to, 
1) withstand the undesired attention they get when private information/secrets comes out to the public.
2) find a way to take Aces down before they lose themselves and ruin their chances at an acceptance in an ivy league college
IN SHORT: 
-Dark academia vibes
-mystery
-homophobia and racism
-twisted characters
-heart-breaking truths
For me, this book was a solid book but wasn't as remarkable as when i'd turned the last page. Yes, i experienced the satisfactory feel of "what do i do now?" but it wasn't as prominent so as to attribute 5 stars to this book. Maybe it's because i wasn't invested in the characters. Don't get me wrong, i was invested in the plot but not the characters to be precise. So yeah, 4 stars. The complexities of race and hatred is mind-boggling to me, since I've only experienced it in subtle manners. However these two main characters had much more to deal with and i found myself utterly disgusted and grateful for not being in that kind of circumstance. (not that i wish this on anyone at ALL)
anyways i finally finished a book and it was a solid read. 
See you next time XOXO, 
-ACES

Kiran Aftab

this really was pretty little liars + gossip girl + get out but make it black and queer AND I ATE THAT SHIT UP. THIS WAS AMAZING. y’all better read this

Bria

This wasn't at all what I was expected but it's easily a fav.

kelsey

*2.5 stars

this was just lacking something. the plot was all very convenient feeling??? idk but i feel like i would’ve really enjoyed this when i was in high school

kitty 

THIS BOOK ... WOW. i was physically laughing, crying, shaking, and swearing at this book. the emotional rollercoaster chiamaka and devons stories took me through is undoubtedly one of the loopiest coasters i’ve been on. the relatable content and povs and experiences, the excellent concept with an ever better execution. i had so many theories and so many thoughts, some were right and some were wrong and the ending blew me away in ways i couldn’t even imagine. i had to put the book down so many times to take a breather, i had to remind myself this is fiction and that only a really good book could make me feel so many things. chi and devon deserved so much better, and they took shit into their own hands in the end. fuck the whites, the shit they pulled in this book was evil and sick and i was holding my stomach in physical and emotional pain reading about it. it all hits close to home as a bpoc, and yet it’s all still so unique to chiamaka and devon and their own identities. this book was a great commentary on so many real world instances and institutions and i appreciated every moment the corruption was called out and i cheered everytime the mask of evil was ripped away by the hands of those it had done harm for only being black. this book is truly get out meets gossip girl meets pretty little liars, but with black queer main characters. faridah really did what she needed to do on this one, i’m still in shock. i will forever scream about this to anyone who will listen, and trust me i already have! one of the juiciest, most poignant stories to hit the markets in a minute. 

5/5 stars

envee

kait

THAT ENDING?? PLS OMG THIS WAS SO SO GOOD GO READ THIS

Kaylee Ray

this was SO GOOD. the characters were beautifully written, the plot was paced so well, and the TWISTS! i loved everything about it, but especially the ending.

buny

I have so many things to say but the first and foremost one is that this book was just.. not good. Not enough, in my opinion 

The characters weren't well fleshed out and felt like caricatures of characters I've known before in their personalities. The pacing was slow and weird; the plot was messy and felt like had too much going on and nothing at the same time and to top it off, I was not at all satisfied with Devon and Chi's individual character arcs. The payoff after all that mess and build up was also just.. anticlimactic and I kept waiting for that moment where it would grip me and have me hooked throughout, as I had heard only praises abt this, but it just didn't happen. I think the core message of whatever it was aiming to say could've been handled better in the execution but I just did not like this half-baked mess. Just not a book that will stick with me. 

The author started writing this book when they were 18 and... it shows, babes😭😭 like what was that ending.... an accidental fire and Devon's tweet is what helps them after all that????? Like pls bfr and I'm not even gna talk abt that last bit like I'm just done w the stupidity and the vague explanation abt the Black girls and boys before like????? What happened with/to them?????? 

The ideas were interesting bc  Gossip Girl  meets  Get Out  LIKE? Come on!!!!! I just had to listen but it's not.. it's just not I'm sorry but I'm glad I had no expectations bc  then  it would've rly hurt

Isabella 

I liked this book, and I enjoyed it. It was interesting, and it got me guessing who ace was, but I feel like the execution was quite lacking.My issue on this book was how rushed it was towards the end, and everything happened so quickly. I would have loved more build up to make it more surprising, and there were things left unanswered which I wished was discussed. I loved how the author talked about different issues, (view spoiler)[and as the reveal and twists starts to unfold, I found myself speechless because of how frustrating it was to see how deeply rooted racism was. (hide spoiler)] That's one aspect I loved about this book on how it portrayed the issue. None of them really shocked me though because I already figured it would be something like that after a couple of chapters. Nevertheless, I still liked this book, and it is definitely a good read.

i truly believe everyone out there should read this book. it has so much representation and it deals with so many very important topics that definitely need to be talked about a lot more frequently. topics such as racism, queerness, bullying and violence, just to name a few. the two main characters are the only two black students at a private academy, and they are systematically being discriminated against and blackmailed by someone named aces. the book does a great job of portaying their struggles and what it means to be black and queer in a mostly white community. the writing style is sooo good and i can really just say the this book really was absolutely amazing. the author is very ambitious with all the topics dealt with in this book, but she also delivered on all fronts. i have said it at the beginning and i'll say it again: no matter who you are, i advise you to read this book, it is extremely eye-opening and the author does such an awesome job with it!

Bookworm

This was so fucked up i got full on body chills when i finished it. Like all the stuff that happened to them was just so disgusting and creepy. I love Devon and Chiamakas friendship and i wisshhh the epilogue was way longer than that.

matti horckmans

Tatiana

Ace of Spades: 4.5/5

Thank you, Feiwel Friends and NetGalley, for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review


  "The smell of bitch-ass liar is nauseating.

This book is incredible. Incredible and terrifying. I refuse to shut up about it.

Premise:
This YA thriller will have you on the edge of your seat. Previously described as Gossip Girl meets Get Out is 100% accurate, but it is also so much more. Devon and Chiamaka are complete opposites. Devon is gay and wants to blend in, while Chiamaka strives for popularity and is on top of Niveus Private Academy's social scene. The only thing the two have in common: is that they're the only two black students, but everything changes when an anonymous bully, who goes by the name Aces, exposes Devon and Chiamaka's secrets. The unlikely pair work together to find the identity of Aces and get pulled into a web of secrets, betrayal, and more.

Writing & Plot:
It isn't easy to believe this is a debut novel. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé killed it with this book. I read the entirety of it in one sitting because I could not put it down. This is the first book I truly felt the need to annotate because I tried to solve the mystery myself. Ace of Spades is uncomfortable, thrilling, and terrifying as it blatantly explores themes of racism, homophobia, police brutality, and more. It is told in the two perspectives of Chiamaka and Devon as they slowly find their way to each other and build an unlikely friendship while trying to fight their demons. Ace of Spades is 100% one of the best debut novels I have ever read.

Now, is it perfect? No. I wish there were a bit more development at the end of the book. I still have some unanswered questions regarding specific characters, but the plot 100% makes up for it. 

Characters:
Gosh, I loved both Devon and Chiamaka. They are two of the most dynamic, evolved, and interesting characters I have ever read. Not one perspective was better than another. They equally shared incredible stories, which are difficult to pull off in dual perspective stories. I loved reading both points of view, and both have incredibly distinct voices that you can tell who is speaking at which time, even without prompts. 

The side characters as well were highly distinct from one another. Although their personalities were unique, I wish we got more backstory about each of them and a small piece in the epilogue regarding their outcome. Most of my unanswered questions revolve around these side characters and their legacy.

Conclusion:
Ace of Spades is genius. I usually do not gravitate towards mystery and thriller, but this book may have changed my mind. The twists and turns will catch you off guard and have you gasping out loud. I could not put this book down, and I believe it will be in my top 10 reads of 2021. I cannot recommend this book enough; it is incredible.

Ace of Spades is released to the U.S. on June 1st and the U.K on June 10th. Do not walk, RUN to your local bookstore to buy this book. I repeat. Do NOT walk. RUN.

trixie

holy shit i’m going to be thinking about this forever

Wawa

finished it in a day and god, i have no words for this book. an absolute 5 stars.

worst book ive read in 2023! and i think ive started the year reading this 

hanni

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully. All you need to know is . . . I’m here to divide and conquer. Like all great tyrants do. —Aces When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too. Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures. As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly? With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.

debre

Amazing sneak peek! What a way to make readers want more! Stoked to read the rest as the story really piqued my interest! The characters seem so real and complex, I am hooked!

Winona 

** spoiler alert **
           So, I've got mixed feelings about  Ace of Spades : I think that premise was really compelling, but the execution, particularly the writing and the pacing, caused the story to suffer overall. There just wasn't enough tension and I think that it is mostly due to the fact that Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé does a lot of telling instead of showing. We are told about what the thinly developed supporting cast of AoS are like, what the school is like, and what the characters are like, but because of that there isn't any sense of atmosphere. No sort of thrilling fear in the air. A covert threat that's just hanging over our character's heads. This does, in my opinion, improve about halfway through the story but that's already after the "big reveal" has occurred. When the threat is no longer intangible, but visible and with a name and face(s). 

Speaking of the "big reveal", I don't actually have a problem with Niveus basically being a White Supremacist school run by a cult of racist, rich white people. For me, it isn't really such a outlandish or cartoonish thing that could happen, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of historical, prestigious educational institutions in the West were like that. I want to a state school in London that was predominately white, and as one of the few POC (I'm not Black, just to clarify) I experienced a lot of racist bullying from both students and teachers. We even had someone with a twitter account who would "expose the secrets" of the student body, and was pretty nasty to the few Black and Brown students who were at our school. Granted, it took like a week for people to figure out who it was, but she went unpunished and even went on to become one of the school's Head Girls. So, no, I don't think the idea that a whole school could be behind the psychological warfare against two Black students is so unrealistic. Especially with the bizarre culture private schools tend to have, anyway.

What I do have a problem with, as I mentioned before, is that we never get to feel what Niveus was like before the bullying started. I think this book really would have benefited from setting up the ordinary aspect of Chiamaka's and Devon's school lives before Aces started to spread the texts. Like, just have them go to class, chill out with their "friends", talk to their teachers. Establish some sort of sense of normalcy and routine before the shit hits the fan. Shit hits the fan waaaaaay too fast in this book. I think part one could have been the mundane, but with foreshadowing that something just wasn't fully right at Niveus, but our protagonists - especially Chiamaka - are slightly too naive, or absorbed in fulfilling their dreams, to realise it until its too late. 

This lack of prior development of the school environment leads to the antagonists feeling like one dimensional, cartoon, moustache-twirling villains. Mr. Taylor is probably the most notorious example in the book: Devon often tells us that he is his favourite teacher, that he's extremely supportive of his music career, that Mr. Taylor goes above and beyond to nurture Devon's talent, but we literally see none of that. 

There are no scenes where Devon and Mr. Taylor discuss his music or his dreams; there are also no scenes where Devon and Mr. Taylor have any heartfelt, intimate conversations that one would expect from a teacher who is invested in their student. They only share a few sparse, superficial - even forgettable - lines of dialogue, before it is revealed that Mr. Taylor has been sabotaging Devon's chances of getting into Julliard all along. This reveal would have been so much more powerful if we had, as a reader, actually gotten to experience the manipulation that Devon was going through with Mr. Taylor. However, since Mr. Taylor was such an underdeveloped character, and was barely there, it didn't really surprise me that he turned out to be an evil racist, what surprised me is that Devon never saw it coming. Especially after he had  already  discovered that Aces was their school's racist cult - their version of the Ku Klux Klan. 

This is another problem I had: after the big reveal,  both  Chiamaka and Devon are far too trusting of complete strangers. Especially complete WHITE strangers. I just find it really hard to believe that anyone who discovers that their school is practising social eugenics (and at one point even killed a Black student) would go to white people for help. Especially white people who look like Hitler's ideal. I think at this point in the novel, because our main characters have already gone through so much traumatising shit they would probably be so much more suspicious. That scene, in my opinion, should never have been in the final draft. 

Moreover, I think going to the journalist actually made the part where Devon's tweet goes viral weaker and more unfathomable. I think the presence of twitter should have been there throughout the novel -- maybe Devon has a small following for his music on there? Or maybe Chiamaka has like a #girlbosstwitter that she re-appropriates once she becomes disillusioned with the lifestyle she desired so badly. Or maybe the two work together and form an anti-aces online presence which culminates in a massive organized protest at the school. I don't think that twitter is an unrealistic tool for organizing, I mean look at its involvement in the Arab Spring and various BLM protests, but it just was not used well - or even believably - in this story. One tweet suddenly getting 24, 000 likes overnight doesn't make sense. It feels like deus ex machina that suddenly a bunch of people turned up, saving Chiamaka's and Devon's lives, just at the right time. Realistically, the situation that Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé put her characters in was so far gone, and so dangerous, that they would have died. 

I definitely think that the ideas were there, but that there were just too many things going on at once when the book would have been served better by focusing on a few key events and really fleshing them out. It would have helped with the pacing (which started off really slow and then very rushed), depth, and overall characterisation. I do think Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé suffered from debut novel syndrome: where you try to do too many things at once without really developing any of those things. I think that problem is best reflected in Devon who goes through every trauma imaginable that a Black, Gay, working class teen from a single-parent family could go through. I'm not a OwnVoices reviewer, but I do think that the characters didn't really experience any joy throughout the novel. The epilogue was quite hasty and felt tacked on, and I would have liked to see Chiamaka and Devon experiencing joy, and finding new, meaningful friendships developed within the main story instead of just a flashforward. I think having Chiamaka being as mean as she was to Devon throughout most of the book, despite their mutual situation, was a failed opportunity to develop one really good friendship in this book. Especially one between two queer Black teens. 

Finally, I actually like the fact that the school got burnt down. I strongly believe that institutions that were established on racist, classist, misogynistic ideas etc cannot be reformed. The way to end white supremacy is to destroy the institutions of power that enable it, and I think Niveus burning down to the ground reflects this view quite well. 

To conclude, despite being somewhat disappointed with the novel, I think Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé deserves to be commended for what she achieved at such a young age. I look forward to reading her upcoming novel - especially now that she's older and has more experience with the publishing industry.

Teodora Nagy

This was so fucked up that I had to stop reading for some time before convincing myself to finish it. READ. IT.

Mythos

3/5 stars

I couldn't bring myself to finish this book. There are a few scenes that hit a bit too close to home in terms of racism, homophobia, and toxic relationships. The premise was interesting, and I loved the main characters as well. The character development was one of the few things that kept me from dnfing too soon. I didn't necessarily like the pacing, but it wasn't slow enough for me to get bored.

I don't know if I would recommend this book. If I did, it would be alongside a list of triggers. I know that a lot of people have triggers that make them finish a book immediately.

Victoria

Review soon! But overall, really liked this one.

Ace of Spades

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