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

dark mysterious tense slow-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? No

2.75

I wanted so badly to like this book, and I always feel weird trying to rate a book about a Black experience of racism, or at least a representation of that, when I am not Black myself, but critiquing this as fairly and honestly as I can, I don't think it's entirely well written. I understand the fact that racism can come from anywhere and anyone, and that no white person is not at least complicit in systemic racism, but some of the complete and sudden heel turns made by characters in this book for the sake of making them racist was sloppy, the plot didn't really make sense when you consider that the main idea of an evil school set out to ruin Black lives and practice social eugenics relies on said evil school bringing in Black students it otherwise did not need to, and plot points were regularly brought up and then completely left unanswered, like Devon finding out his father died as a death row I made and Dre being arrested on drug dealing charges.

The writer is very talented at prose, but unfortunately, this book did not have the consistency and skill to tell the story in a way that felt realistic enough. Racism does exist in both violent and sneaky ways, and both threaten lives, but Ace of Spades, to me, does not do a great job of selling the message. The evil you know is always scarier than the evil you do, and the book really would have been more successful if it had made and kept the villains as more of an intimate set of people - like Get Out did by having the villains be the main character's girlfriend's family - rather than a handful of them and also the whole school.
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