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

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75

I didn’t love or hate this book. It was fast-paced and engaging, but I felt that it was a little predictable… only because it was marketed as being similar to Get Out. And… yeah, it was, but with “dark academia” vibes. If I hadn’t watched Get Out or went in without knowing its similarities to the film, I probably would have enjoyed the twists far more than I did.

Ace of Spades was incredibly ambitious in what it wanted to tackle, but I felt that it wasn’t as well executed as it could have been. Perhaps this would have played out a lot better if it were a duology or something, but I think Àbíké-Íyímídé wanted to address too many topics in one book. Chiamaka’s biracial identity is one that I would have loved to learn more about (because it clearly impacted her), but isn’t really touched on. Similarly, Devon’s gay identity is one the author does dive into a fair bit, but it’s generally from a position of showing how Devon has to deal with homophobia more than anything else. There were really interesting points made about the incarceration of loved ones, socioeconomic status, etc. that clearly shaped the lives of the protagonists, but they weren’t fully developed.

The cast of characters were probably the strongest part of the book, with many of them being incredibly memorable. I wish Àbíké-Íyímídé developed the side characters more, because that might have helped address a lot of the “tackling too many topics at once” issue.

Again, I thought this book was pretty engaging. I think there was a lot left to be desired, but, at the core of it, Àbíké-Íyímídé draws attention to an ongoing issue in the academy of how Black students are (mis)treated.
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