Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

329 reviews

treereadingabook's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Stalking, Outing, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Racial slurs and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicide attempt

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

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow. I really enjoyed this! It was fear and anxiety inducing, like a thriller should be! 

Ace of Spades is the story of Chiamaka and Devon, the only two Black students at an almost all white prestigious high school in America. Someone named Aces stars revealing the two student's secrets and more to the whole school. Aces is out to get Devon and Chiamaka, but who are they? and why?

My only complaint was that the "WHO DID IT?" was spoiled for me thanks to the marketing team and book listing on Amazon! I went to buy this book from Amazon (as it was on sale) and the synopsis on their website spoiled the big reveal for me.

I sometimes hate when the synopsis says, "this novel is X show and Y book/movie put together!", because there's either hardly a comparison or it's spot on and then the story is no longer a surprise. In this case, the examples were the film "Get Out" and the show "Gossip Girl". The comparisons were spot on and because of that, there were few surprises left to figure out on my own.

Overall, I really liked this novel, I'm giving this 4.5 stars out of 5, I'm knocking off .5 stars because I guessed some of the ending on my own. I'm also knocking a star off because Chiamaka was a jerk and unpleasant, and half the book was from her point of view so I couldn't avoid her annoying personality.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this for free on libbyapp.com

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Classism, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts

almirareads's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

I’m just gonna say…Ace of Spades is THAT BOOK! Following the mystery of who “Aces” is, there was NEVER a dull moment. Devon and Chiamaka are incredible narrators, filling in what the other left of, and who doesn’t love a platonic enemies to lovers trope?

This book is almost 400 pages and I’d have read it all in one day if I were able to beat sleep. My jaw was DROPPING every other page. Ace of Spades makes it a big point to talk about Black people assimilating to whiteness and why that cannot work out. 

You find yourself not trusting anybody in this book- now THAT’S a good mystery. Also points added for being a Black queer novel! Everybody say THANK YOU FARIDAH!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Blood, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Car accident

Moderate: Death of parent and Drug use

Minor: Sexual assault

deepcurvesahead's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Gaslighting, and Racism

Moderate: Infidelity, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, and Outing

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, Classism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Rape, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Murder, and Suicide attempt

deckleeditproof's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

That last sentence?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Stalking, Outing, and Classism

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicide

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

elizogs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

read this book for the first time in 2021

but it never fails to shock me at alllll. this book was so good because it touched on the real world impacts as well as making it a tad relatable. as well as the story not being typical -

aces not being one person but EVERYONE. (social eugenics) and it was so interesting and i love love loved the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, Blood, Car accident, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Homophobia, and Suicide

if u read this book please be cautious, there are many triggers!!

nicole_cries_alot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

1.75

A whole secret racist society? Building someone up for three years just to tear them down at the last minute? Everyone is in on it, and again with the main characters not trusting their parents. It even included the trope of “we committed vehicular manslaughter and covered it up” and that turned into “guess what the person we hit is alive”.  
I felt bad for not always liking Chiamaka because at points her attitude was awful towards Devon and she herself seemed to have some internalized issues. Another trope that popped up and wasn’t touched again was Chiamaka possibly getting drugged at a party. Over all I was disappointed and was surprised none of the characters in the background were flushed out. It felt like it was all trauma and no resolution. 

If you liked pretty little liars you would like this. It was good and it held my attention but I called some of the twists very early on and that made it predictable to me. 
 It doesn’t live up to the “thriller” element that I was expecting 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Classism, Bullying, Car accident, and Mental illness

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

There are some really important things discussed in this book, I just found it too long and not paced super well. The first half moves pretty slowly, and some of the events get repetitive, and then the second half feels like twist after twist with barely any time to unpack any of them. Add in the sexuality stuff and the incarceration storyline and it just tries to do too much. However, it was really sinister and a great illustration of the terrifying truths of white supremacy and institutionalized racism. It kept me reading to the end and did a good job of keeping me guessing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Stalking, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Car accident, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Racial slurs

This book contains highly disturbing depictions of institutionalized racism and racially motivated harassment and bullying