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

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

2.75

Sadly really disappointing for me, the main characters weren't likeable at all and felt underdeveloped. I did not see any kind of development in either of them, with Chiamaka remaining a spoiled rich girl with what seemed like very little self awareness all throughout the book and Devon having so many problems that you could probably write a whole separate book about them. 
Their relationships and interactions with other people did not feel believable and honestly just strange,
for example the reveal of Jamie being involved in Aces and the entire relationship between him and Chiamaka in general.
When it was revealed to Devon that
Mr Taylor was part of it as well
, I felt like I was in a bad and stereotypical horror movie, which was the case with most of the more tense scenes, resulting in me not being able to take practically anything in this book seriously. 
I would have also liked to see more of the supposedly best friendship between Devon and Andre and
I actually liked them much better than Devon and Terrell.

The reveal and ending felt super unrewarding and very sudden and there were a lot of small plots that just weren't resolved,
like who took the picture of Devon at the playground and who followed Chiamaka home.

I understand that this book deals a lot with systemic racism and I'm in no position to judge it on how this was executed. I'm merely talking about the characters and the plot itself, both lacking a significant amount of depth that could have needed at least 100 pages more exploration. 
Also, who signs their texts with their initial? 
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