Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

38 reviews

dangselena's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Insane. Very Jordan Peele-esque. Slow start but picks up around 40 pages in and keeps the pace from there. So hard to put down! Hard to put into words but as a White passing Latina, this book quickly put me in my place in the best way possible. The author places the reader directly into the shoes of two Black teenagers and really envelopes you in their state of hypervigilance and terror. The story reveals very quickly how easy it is for any small misstep to ruin their lives instantly. I thought having the dual narration was particularly interesting because of the different experiences of the characters. While both characters are Black,

Chiamaka is half Italian and comes from a wealthy background while Devon is dark skinned and living in poverty. The author really managed to show how their backgrounds give them very different views of how to solve their problems. While they’re both experiencing anti-black racism, the characters are treated very differently by their aggresors because of their upbringing and even their gender and sexuality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Police brutality, Abandonment, Vomit, Blood, Grief, Homophobia, Violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Gore, Outing, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship

dalek_caan's review

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I feel like there is no feedback I can provide that can do this book the justice that it deserves other than to say go read it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole book through, and was really emotionally invested in the characters, the plot, and the overall messages of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Racism, Hate crime, Stalking, Death of parent, Child death, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Homophobia

katelynprice's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

I loved the premise of this book, but it was a bit too long. It was a slow burn and took a long time to build up to the action and resolution. I was also frustrated and yelling at the characters in my mind because I thought they would make smarter decisions at times. However, the overall plot was really good, and it was a gut-punch of a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Homophobia, Bullying, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Cursing and Sexual content

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, and Addiction

aurora4847's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Ace of Spades was such a good read, especially for a white college graduate during Black History Month. While the stakes seem so low in the beginning, the tension and mystery keep ramping up the further in you get. It feels almost like a paranormal thriller, but with the monster being systemic racism instead of a demon. The ordeals Chiamaka and Devon have to survive are truly horrifying, and terrifyingly realistic. While it may seem exaggerated for the sake of the story, it really isn't too far off what black students actually have to deal with in academia. Chiamaka and Devon's differing socioeconomic statuses adds another layer of complexity in how they handle and think about what they're enduring. Ace of Spades is practically required reading for any white person who's benefited from access to higher education, especially more elite private schools and universities, and actually gives a damn about how POC are treated in those spaces.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Outing, Homophobia, Classism, Stalking, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Police brutality

This book is about systemic racism and eugenics. The main characters are the victims of harassment that grows to assault, hate crimes, stalking, and abuse. They are repeatedly betrayed by trusted individuals.

jaduhluhdabooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Whew. This is America. The suspension and the expanse of this book is deep and felt. I don’t think Faridah is necessarily trying to hide this thriller is racialized and there’s an agenda of recognizing that race plays a pivotal role in survival, self preservation, and academia. The psychological expanse for Ya novel is surprising and something I hadn’t expected to see in this book. But I am happy to be surprised. The intersection of sexuality and race is real and the dimension of power is something I appreciated about the explicitly of this book. Some many times, people conflate Crenshaw’s definition of intersectionality to the limit of holding multiple identities. But it’s the power those intersecting identities enhance or diminish. We see this in the juxtaposition of Devon and Chiamaka’s characters. Devon is a low income, gay, Black boy, whereas, Chiamaka’s an upper class, educationally privileged, queer, biracial Black woman. While they both face the racial terrors of their academic environments, Chi has money, wealth, confidence that she bounces back from, while Von seeks suppression in alternative ways, struggles to provide for both himself and his family, battles homophobic beatings and commentary from the gangs in his neighborhood, and often goes without meals and moments. This is the most powerful thing about this book, it’s the demonstration of intersectionality, its power, and how even when a powerful Black person has capital, social and cultural, monetarily… anti-Blackness will always overpower. It’s raw. It’s timely. It’s STILL so relevant, if not more so now as we back trap in this currently society. Definitely recommend and I feel seen reading it and knowing works like this exist. While fictional, so allegorically current.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Violence, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Bullying

alexthegoat's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Couldn’t put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Racism, Death of parent, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Death, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, and Car accident

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

When I started the audio book, I did not expect it to go the way it did. Although as I went through, I knew what was coming but not to the degree that it came. Wow.

Definitely a psychological thriller, with similar vibes to ‘Get Out’ (although both are completely different stories focusing on different aspects of horrors related to racism). 

4 stars because there was a lot I wish was expanded upon, like a follow-up on characters such a Belle, Scotty, Andre and Jack.

Also, I absolutely love how on the author’s websites there is art depicting the major characters. I have a hard time visualizing things based on descriptions and that really helped! I only found it writing this review since I went searching for one of the character’s names. 

I really enjoyed the author’s note, which mentions how the book was written over the course of her college career which is very symbolic to the course of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Outing, Death of parent, Classism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, Racism, and Stalking

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Trafficking

Minor: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Vomit

kdailyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Classism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Racism, Violence, Car accident, Homophobia, Outing, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Slavery, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Review:

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé has been widely praised ever since it came out, so I had high expectations going into it. Although it looks like a rather thick book, the text is not very dense, and it is immensely readable; I read the entire thing in an afternoon. Àbíké-Íyímídé has a talent for sweeping the reader into her story and keeping them hooked. 

 

According to the author’s note, Àbíké-Íyímídé wrote Ace of Spades as a way to capture the alienating, terrifying, and disempowering feelings brought about by living in a society constructed around institutional racism, and in that respect the book succeeds spectacularly. The targeted attacks by Aces are creepy enough on their own, and even more horrifying when their motivation is racism rather than the typical motivations for thriller villains. I appreciate how the story showcases how the feeling that “you can’t trust anyone” takes on another dimension when it comes to living in a white supremacist society as a Black person. 

 

As much as I found to like about Ace of Spades, the book failed to avoid some of the trappings I associate with young adult literature. The two main characters are interesting (I found Devon to be more well-developed in his backstory than Chiamaka) but lack a certain amount of depth. The plot is predictable if you’ve been exposed to a good amount of books and movies, and the logistical requirements of the twist require a hefty amount of suspended disbelief. Additionally, I found the conclusion to be rather rushed and underwhelming; it fails to give the main characters agency in their ending, and then tries to make up for this with an epilogue. 

 

I think that Ace of Spades is terrific for a YA novel (and a debut, which the author started when she was eighteen!). It has undeniable storytelling and thematic strengths but can never quite transcend the limits of the YA genre.  

 

The Run-Down: 

You will probably like Ace of Spades if . . .

·      You like YA thrillers 

·      You like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl, but wish they had more diverse representation

 

You might not like Ace of Spades if . . . 

·      You dislike YA books

·      You want to read an original plot 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, Stalking, Classism, Bullying, Racism, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Infidelity and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

kathleenes's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Self harm, Bullying, Classism, Homophobia, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Outing, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, and Car accident