A review by heyleigh05
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

 Ace of Spades is a thriller YA novel that follows Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, the only Black students at the white, upscale private school, Niveus Private Academy. They are in their final year of high school and they both have big plans for their futures, but those plans are threatened when they become the targets of an anonymous texter named Aces who spreads their private information to the entire school. It's easy to see how this book is described as Gossip Girl meets Get Out. They are clearly being targeted with racial violence and the anonymous messenger is a direct link to Gossip Girl. I can see why so many people enjoyed this novel. The writing is easy to follow and has this breezy quality, and you want to know what happens next so you keep reading to see how things resolve. However, I was left unsatisfied by Ace of Spades and the ending especially compounded this feeling.

Devon is not only one of two Black students, but he’s also gay. He is not out to his mother or to the people in his neighborhood for fear of their rejection and his personal safety. I really didn’t like the way that Devon was treated in this novel. Aces didn’t limit his humiliation to just his school life, but it went beyond and bled into his personal life outside of school, and that felt so unnecessary to me. It ended up threatening his safety in his own neighborhood and they targeted people who didn’t even attend Niveus Academy. Devon dealt with the worst of the worst in comparison to Chiamaka, who I feel didn’t have to go through the constant revelation of something even worse happening to her. This is not to minimize what she went through, however. She had to deal with voyeurism, assault, and being traumatized by a car crash. These are obviously traumatic things to happen to one person, now imagine Devon going through twice as much and some of it isn’t even connected to Niveus. Devon went through back to back traumatic events, and at a certain point it felt kind of gratuitous and I wondered what was the point of putting him through so much, especially when it didn’t result in any distinct character growth. 

Also, Devon is supposed to live in the hood, but he’s seemingly naive to the idea that he’s being targeted because he’s Black. Another character has to suggest it to him and give a crash course in critical race theory. Maybe this is my bias, but it seems so implausible to me that you’d live in the hood and not have the awareness of when you’re being racially profiled or targeted for racial violence. You don’t have to know what critical race theory is explicitly to understand how racialization acts on you and your community. This was a characterization flaw to me on the author's part.

This leads me to another issue I had which was Devon’s character arch. In the beginning he’s portrayed as quiet, under the radar, and not wanting to make any waves. I can understand this as you don’t want to share your personal life with strangers and he lives in a poor neighborhood where it's not safe to be out. However, I didn’t like how he maintained these traits in his interactions with Chiamaka. He let her bulldoze all over him and he didn’t really defend himself to put Chiamaka in her place. The most he would do if she insulted him was ignore her, cut his eyes at her, or just change the subject. Chiamaka’s characterization is very Regina George meets Blair Waldorf. She’s the HBIC, has rich parents, is clever, and always in control. Chiamaka would say these really uppity or tone-deaf things to Devon and he wouldn’t say anything to correct her and that bothered me because those would’ve been opportunities for both of them to develop as characters. (Spoiler Warning) Also, in the end we see that Devon and Chiamaka are best friends, but we didn’t get enough moments of them being friendly beforehand for me to believe that they truly are friends. (Spoiler end) Yes they are connected by the same traumatic experience, but it didn’t feel like they were becoming friends. They hardly shared their thoughts and feelings with each other, and didn’t tell each other about what was going on in their lives outside of school.

I was largely indifferent to Chiamaka’s character. Obviously, I empathize with her and Devon being the targets of racial violence, but as a person I was just indifferent. I know everybody loves a mean girl, and there’s this espacial desire for Black mean girls in popular culture. I don’t mind mean girl characters as long as they are developed and have purpose. In Chiamaka’s case there was some purpose for her Blair Waldorf-esque behavior. If you ask her she'll say it's a matter of self-preservation, that Black people have to be the best to get half as much. Her reasoning would be couched in awareness that she’s the only Black girl at an all white school, however, there were times when I felt like she was vying for these white people’s respect in earnest. To me it seemed like she also bought into the traditions and rules of this white supremacist institution without realizing it. Fighting to gain entry into or be exceptional in white spaces, even to just hold the record as the first, is still upholding white supremacy. Chiamaka was also too trusting of white people and these institutions to save them from Aces. She had this automatic trust in the schools teachers and related institutions to see reason and put a stop to their bullying, then she would be surprised when they didn’t. I guess it felt kind of at odds that she’d have these racial awareness moments, but also put unending trust in white people. Also, the author wrote in this totally random sapphic relationship with Chiamaka, but it felt rushed and inorganic. It felt kind of contrived and I didn’t believe her and Belle’s relationship.

This next thing is a bit of an aside, but it just got me thinking. Chiamaka is biracial; her mom is Black and Nigerian, and her father is a white Italian. Chiamaka has said that her father’s family would mock her and her mother for being Black and say racist things to their faces, and he wouldn’t say anything. As a result, her father stopped bringing them when he visits his family in Italy. I, for the life of me, cannot understand why you would want to stay with a no good white man who doesn’t defend or protect you from his racist family. Why would Chiamaka’s mother stay in a relationship where her husband doesn’t respect them enough to protect them? I wouldn’t want my child to experience that kind of harm or rejection. Not to mention, if you learn that your husband’s family is racist why would you want to stay with him? You can almost guarantee that if they’re racist to your face then they undoubtedly say stuff behind your back, and not bringing your family doesn't change the fact that your family is racist. Her father is just conceding to what his family wants, and that’s to isolate Chiamaka and her mother. Why would you stay with a man like that? This is the common strife in interracial relationships, and they’re often romanticized in a way that “loves conquers all”, but does your partner really love you if he can’t defend you and your child in front of his family? That’s just something that was weird to me because Chiamaka describes the situation like it's normal for her dad to lead separate lives and her mother be completely fine with it.

There were other narrative things about Ace of Spades that made the story kind of absurd. For one, I felt the plot points happened too conveniently. The characters are in a tough situation and something convenient would happen to get them out of it. This happened a lot towards the end. (Spoiler Warning) There’s a moment when Chiamaka and Devon get in front of the entire school at a school dance to reveal what's going on at Niveus, but things don’t go according to plan and they get attacked. But while this is happening protesters randomly come and distract the crowd and this gives them a moment to “escape”. While the ball is in chaos a fire suddenly breaks out. (Spoiler End) There's just a lot happening at the end and it all feels so random and contrived (much like Devon’s whole personal life like I mentioned earlier). Don’t even get me started on the ending…it’s awful. The epilogue is so unsatisfying, and it doesn’t address the plot points that were brought up. It doesn’t give us clarity on where the side characters end up, and it only vaguely suggests how our main characters ended up. It’s terrible. The ending made the whole experience unsatisfying because the reason I continued with the book was to see if things got better and I wanted to know how everything was resolved. Instead, we got really half-assed resolutions.

I could probably say more about this book but this review is long as it is. Giving this book 3 stars is generous, but since I finished I don’t want to be too hard on it although I don’t have many positive things to say about it. I can understand why this book is popular and why so many people like it. However, there were issues in this book that were hard to ignore.