Reviews with content warning for Violence - Ace of Spades

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

489 reviews

jameliaareadsalot's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The ending was a little meh but it was a great read I wasn’t bored for a second!🤭

Content Warnings

eidhlidhd's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

plot was solid and the symbolism/themes were woven in nicely. however i think i would have liked this more had i read it in high school (which tbf it is marketed as YA so i shouldn't be surprised), as i didn't mesh with the writing style that much. that said, i still really really enjoyed the characters.

but also goddamn the two main characters go through absolute hell and back (like legitimately. not to be taken lightly at all. several reviews have described the book as Black trauma p*rn soooooo yeah proceed at your own risk). and like, yes, i get that was probably done to really emphasize the gory, sinister nature of institutionalized racism but also neither chiamaka nor devon really saw any joy in the book? every possible horrible thing that could've happened to them did (apart from being flat-out ly*ched, and still chiamaka came very close). needless to say, they are most definitely traumatized for life after this book. which the book doesn't exactly address. and probably never intended to, given the time skip at the end. however, even during the book it is revealed that devon especially went through some horrific shit as a kid, and the PTSD/trauma response isn't really gone over aside from a brief subplot where he mentions not remembering middle school much due to the extreme violence he endured via being bullied.

overall, the book would've probably done better by being longer. i wished devon and chiamaka's friendship got more screentime, and i kinda wish devon got more closure with jack? maybe that was the point though. devon doesn't owe jack any more of his time, and there's no way in hell that they'd be friends again. i think the main thing i wish is that we got to see more of devon and jack's friendship before jack started distancing himself. because really all we were told is when devon mentions at the beginning that jack is the one person at school he'd call a friend since they'd known each other since they were kids and had a similar class background (both were scholarship kids at their private school). then devon reveals how jack has been treating him different since he came out at the end of middle school so we are led to believe (for at least the beginning part) that jack is just homophobic. then it turns out he was an active white supremacist and all of a sudden devon starts saying that jack was his best friend and talks about how much he loved him. which tbf maybe it was intentional that it took him this long to open up to the reader in his narration since most of his friendship with jack seemed to have developed during the period that was trauma blocked in devon's memory. i cared about jack because he reminded me of my family, but there wasn't much in the actual narrative to make me care about him/devon's friendship with him. so the confrontation at the end didn't hit as much as i think it was supposed to.

overall decent read, would recommend for the messages/themes.

Content Warnings

grayvie's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

leela_bird's review against another edition

3.5

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

a really fast paced and quick read. not the most intricate mystery i’ve ever read but engaging enough to keep me reading. the pretty little liars and gossip girl inspirations are very obvious so if you’re looking for something like that plus a little touch of mystery, would def recommend.

Content Warnings

matmatmatty's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Would recommend this one for sure. It's very Gossip Girl-esque - secrets at a private school, lots of rich kids doing bad things, but with an anti-racism message underneath.

I think at times the villain was a bit cartoonish but for this genre, it makes sense.

The point is that so many people and so many people with power are in on it, with this level of "who can you trust" going on. It makes sense that the teachers did nothing (even though, I know for a fact if a school found out that their Head Prefect was accused of stealing and murder and had inappropriate pictures shared everywhere, they would SHUT THAT DOWN - my source : I went to a posh private school)

Questions I still have that weren't completely answered:

Who stopped Devon's suicide attempt? Like I don't think they actually said
What happened with the original headmaster? Like was he in on it, or was he against it so they got rid of him?
Chi should have just gone to the police straight after the accident. Like I get that it would have been implicating her friend and everything but I feel like the smart thing is to tell the police and if it was real, get leniency for age. Kids, if this happens to you, tell the police straight away because hiding a crime is way worse than the actual crime.
It was implied that Chi was assaulted but then it feels like it was kind of dropped? Like what happened with that?
Not a question but I think it would have been good if the revelation of previous victims had been teased a bit more. Like when Terrell first mentioned that they the only black kids, he could start looking into if they're the first and maybe find some names but they lose the trail and then they can find the yearbooks and know they disappeared. Feel like that would have felt more like a conspiracy that way.

But honestly, really loved it. Not perfect but did what it was doing really well. Snaps all round.

Content Warnings