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A review by melaniereadsbooks
Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Thank you to Peach Tree Teen and Netgalley for an arc of this book.
When Jack's mom gets arrested for shady dealings in Las Vegas, he invites his online (and also Aspec) friends to come help him take down the man that he swears got his mother sent to jail.
This book was unfortunately a disappointment. I know a lot of people read and reviewed before me and I was so scared because the concept of this is brilliant and the idea of 5 aspec MCs is a dream. I thought the plot was missing some things and the writing style didn't really grab me the way I wanted it to.
Now, there were some issues in the originally release netgalley arc that I heard have been changed and updated. I thought that the version I downloaded came after these changes and was supposed to be more up to date, but I didn't notice? There were still some problems with it. The whole hearing aid part is uncomfortable and least and ableist at best. There were a few discussions about being asexual which I think was one of the complaints I read about? They weren't super in-depth, which I thought was fine--but it did feel like every one of the friends were sex-repulsed. I would have liked for there to be mention that that is not representative of all ace people. Jack said he looked like "a prisoner of war" at one point after getting hit in the nose and that's..... bad. That is bad. I don't know how else to describe it.
I think without the problematic aspects of this book it would probably be 3 or 3.25 stars for me. The problems did take it down a bit for me. I would love to see more books with multiple aspec characters so one like this doesn't feel so heartbreaking if it ends up falling short.
When Jack's mom gets arrested for shady dealings in Las Vegas, he invites his online (and also Aspec) friends to come help him take down the man that he swears got his mother sent to jail.
This book was unfortunately a disappointment. I know a lot of people read and reviewed before me and I was so scared because the concept of this is brilliant and the idea of 5 aspec MCs is a dream. I thought the plot was missing some things and the writing style didn't really grab me the way I wanted it to.
Now, there were some issues in the originally release netgalley arc that I heard have been changed and updated. I thought that the version I downloaded came after these changes and was supposed to be more up to date, but I didn't notice? There were still some problems with it. The whole hearing aid part is uncomfortable and least and ableist at best. There were a few discussions about being asexual which I think was one of the complaints I read about? They weren't super in-depth, which I thought was fine--but it did feel like every one of the friends were sex-repulsed. I would have liked for there to be mention that that is not representative of all ace people. Jack said he looked like "a prisoner of war" at one point after getting hit in the nose and that's..... bad. That is bad. I don't know how else to describe it.
I think without the problematic aspects of this book it would probably be 3 or 3.25 stars for me. The problems did take it down a bit for me. I would love to see more books with multiple aspec characters so one like this doesn't feel so heartbreaking if it ends up falling short.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, and Abandonment
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Infidelity
Minor: Sexism, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail