i love the description of gossip girl x get out; it doesn’t become incredibly clear where some of those influences come in until later in the book, and it has a slightly slow build, but once i hit around 50% things started to really get crazy. i just kept envisioning all the bad people with those creepy jordan peele smiles and it is….yikes. i think this is incredibly effective horror, because nothing unbelievable happens for the most part, and while there is violence, it’s not the scariest part….it’s chilling because of all those intricate aggressions we see through the entire book. 

and hearing the author’s note at the end saying she started this draft when she was 18??? WOW. i can only imagine how her voice is going to grow if this is where she’s starting so young. 

Ace of spades I knew going in was going to deal with topics of racism and I feel like you do that job well when you finish this book feeling heavy. 

This may be labeled as a YA book but I really do feel like it's theming and situations in the book are not for children and this is not to say that I don't think children should learn about racism, but more so that that the graphicness of this book's racism makes me feel like this may have not been properly labeled. 

This is not a criticism whatsoever this is rather me discussing about how heavy this book was and that it had no fear in going face-first into these issues. 

I picked up this book looking to support not just black authors but black stories and when I looked up black authors and black stories, this was very often brought up. 

I like a good thriller and a good mystery book and to be honest this book was a little bit of neither but it was still great. 

I wish I would have written out my thoughts before looking at some reviews because some of the criticisms I wouldn't have really thought about had I not looked into it. But actually a lot of black review writers did bring up some things that I think are worth either directing you to their videos about it or just mentioning it here. 

I will say that I read this book within 6 days and I actively would stay up reading this book. I would do everything in my power to think about this book and at work my hands would be shaking after reading a crazy part of the book for my entire shift until I can get home to read more. This is definitely the kind of book where you do not put it down, you pick it up and your grasp--  your gravitational pull to this world in these characters and what is going to be the outcome of all of this keeps you pulled forward and deeper into this novel. 

When it comes to the writing style I don't think it really stuck out in any particular way and I don't mean that in a negative connotation just simply that there was nothing groundbreaking on how it was written. I'm always a sucker for multi point of view books going chapter by chapter. It wasn't hard to keep up with certain things at all. 

I do think I have a bit of a problem with the pacing and the character development because I do think that both the book was very rushed at certain parts, and very slow at others. I do think that the main characters did take a little too long to connect the dots on why they were being targeted. I can understand being rich and kind of out of touch but both of our main characters were very aware of their differences between their peers. It just took them too long to start making good active choices and deal with this situation. 

And while there was some levels of character growth, I just feel like it wasn't necessarily the character's changing but the environment and situation changing around them. And on the pacing again I found the ending to just be very abrupt and a bit too convenient. I saw that I had less than 100 pages left of the book and I had become very worried about a good ending which I would have probably been okay with because I'm not desperate for good endings (as much as I wanted them each to have one). But the last 100 and last 50 pages felt very much like a quick Band-Aid. I really would have preferred the author have gone down a different route because I can see from this book, even as their debut book, that they have some great ideas and have some great writing and I wish it wasn't used for that kind of cheap ending and solution. 

Honestly there's a lot in this book that I wish had either been expanded on or touched on or done anything with. Scotty one of the characters is completely forgotten about by the later part of the book! And it's also never touched on on why certain characters were just left behind. No I don't think every character needed a full written out goodbye, but we really did not have a big cast of characters so not having all that be kind of handled made me a little upset. 

When it came to the thing about racism as a whole with the book, obviously I'm not the person who needs to be having this sort of discussion and I will once again say that there are several black review channels who I can refer to you who have reviews on this book but I will say that the topic of racism in this book is way more of a boogie man situation then actually addressing what can be done about it. Once again this is something that I don't think I'm the person who you need to be listening to when it comes to this topic and that we should be lifting up black voices especially about topics like racism, but I read one review that mentioned that a lot of the characters in this book who are racist feel very 'villain twisting their mustache' and I think that's a good way of putting it is that a lot of racism today is not necessarily so blatant and that the racism in this book is almost cartoonish. Severe racism and outward racism does happen in real life very often but it felt like through the entire book it there was no real advantage taken in showing how the systematic quiet racism works (especially in private institutions), it showed racist characters but it didn't show how systems still can get away with racism beyond the out spoken part. then again it's important to note that this is a YA and that there is going to be a lot more on the nose things and exaggerations for the sake of entertainment. 

I also agree with a lot of the criticisms against Chiamaka's character because Devon's story felt way more fleshed out and way more centered than Chiamakas did. 

There's one video in particularly that really touches on why they're two stories didn't exactly feel equal that I'll recommend but to sum it up basically that chiamaka's entire Arc was revolved around this white boy who she absolutely likes and the issues with him and the whole situation versus Devon's entire Arc deals with his place in that school, his neighborhood, community, his mom, and him being a scholarship kid rather than Chiamaka just being a rich kid who happens to be black. 

My biggest personal grievance is a small spoiler but it's upsetting enough that I feel I need to say it. I really really hate the fact that

Chiamaka's queerness

was just whatever it was just kind of like being like a shrug of the moment when her entire Arc has been her desperation to protect her image and they're just acting like her getting with a girl would just be whatever when the whole beginning half of the book has to do with a kid getting outed and it basically ruining his whole life. As a lesbian it just really makes me feel even more grossed out that a huge thing is that a lot of people do not treat lesbian relationships or Sapphic relationships like they're serious or like they are still overtly queer. Which ties into a lot of lesbiphobia about how our existence is merely just a sexual thing and can always be tied back to pleasing men and to just being for fun and women being risque rather than queer love being serious and a committed thing just as much as gay men are. I think this is my biggest grievance with the book and there's a lot of things in the book that I have no right to comment on but at least that aspect of queerness I felt was very upsetting to see represented in that way and approached that way when we spent half the book dealing with Devon's queerness and navigating that. 

I also found that for some reason and this is more so a grievance towards story graph and towards the community as a whole because it was never really a trigger warning that was probably given but a big part of this book does involve a character being sexually assaulted and or like harassed and this is not even labeled as a minor trigger which I think is really weird because it's so prevalent. On that same coin I also think on the other side of it is that entire aspect of plot was being brought up multiple times but never actually went anywhere. We never really actually got closure on that Arc or that topic through the entire book besides just confirming more outwardly of what it was but it was never actually a full touch topic. I'm not advocating and I do not like reading content that involves sexual assault but having it in there without it having any prevalence towards the latter end of the book felt uncomfortable and unneeded if it wasn't going to be used. Obviously it does play a part in her popularity and her desperately trying to work her way to the top and being the most wanted girl the whole school, but having these specific characters do it to her it just maybe I just wish that there was more on consequences of this rather than it being brought up as just simply a way to shame her. The entire book she was shamed for that and it's never really giving meaningful justice enclosure for that specific thing happening to her. Maybe I just really don't like sexual assault in my books at all or any sort of illusion towards that because I can understand readers connect with the fact that a lot of black girls are sexualized and used by white men but it just was mentioned for the point of that at best rather than having it written with the intent of having it taken care of by the end of the book. Looking at what people are saying online it seems like Jamie didn't actually assault her but it shouldn't take me reading people saying that it looks that way but it wasn't??? I do not like having a book where that's not properly handled immediately having your characters have to sit here debating if a character got raped or not is not a fun thing. Yes these topics are good for literary discussion and real life complications of teenage girls, but I don't know I think this is just my personal biggest no to a book and this book strung people along being confused if it was or wasn't. 

I definitely think any other criticisms to this book are not for me to say but I will have all of the videos that I recommend for listening to Black reviewers on the topics in my YouTube video on this book. 

Talking about the things I did like, it was extremely captivating and emotionally moving. At the beginning of the book you don't know what's going on. It did a great job of revealing information that answers one question, but opens up 30 more questions. I loved feeling a bit turned around upside down of what was actually happening. 

Some people didn't like a major plot twist in the book but I actually really liked it because it was not what I saw coming at all! And as you see with me, I love being wrong about where a book is going and I love not getting it; as long as it makes sense and isn't just a pull one over the reader. 

And like I said before I like the story didn't hold back on the topics it's touching. I like that it unapologetically talked about racism unapologetically talked about black identity in an academic setting. 

I really like both of our protagonists, you actively want them to come out on top even when it feels like there's no way they can, and the people around them who aren't White are also amazing characters who I wish were given more time. 

Ace of spades gets its positive review form me for having not only good feeling and draw to it, but I do think there's a lot to like in this book, and for debut book I am absolutely blown away. This author would definitely be on my scope of future TBRs. 

This book could do with a little more revision and a little more page count. Even with all my criticisms and echoes of criticisms, I'm still giving this book about four stars. I say half a star is lost just due to my frustrations with the certain pacing and the ending, and then another half star I feel is lost due to my criticisms and criticisms that black reviewers have brought up about the characterization and how certain parts of the book and characters are approached. 

There was a lot in this book that was just left on said untied up and I really like the book I just wish it was completed through and through. It really reads like a great third draft. But I think it has a few more drafts in it before I think it could be the best book it could be.

A very relevant read to Black History month for a white person like me. Chilling

Reading this book was truely hard. I kept thinking it cannot get anymore fucked than this and I have never lost hope so quickly than in this book. 

It's not a grand happy ending but I am relieved the characters find some peace and love at the end of the road. I do not think the author could have explained how deep systemic racism can run in a more simplistic plot. It does not get better and it IS that fucked