Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

20 reviews

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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brynalexa's review against another edition

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

3.75

The beginning of this novel was slower than I expected for a thriller (not my usual genre, neither is YA). I was frustrated when the two main characters hadn’t met a third of the way through the book. The story picked up toward the end. 

This story is very Pretty Little Liars meets Get Out and I fear that if you aren’t a fan of both of those, you might not get through the book. 

While the overall twist was quite predictable, the smaller twists and endings weren’t so it didn’t completely set me off. What did put me off a bit was the absolutely ridiculous choices the characters make…
YOU KNOW YOURE BEING WATCHED STOP DOING THINGS YOU DONT WANT SHARED!
Teenagers, am I right? 

Also, gay! 😍
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sweetrosegirl76's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Wow! It's a good book! I def recommend BIPOC proceed with caution and take breaks bc at least for me it was triggering and gave me anxiety bc I kept imagining the worst case scenario. tbh I think that's the point, to put yourself in the situation and feel it. The way this was escalating was insane yet not unbelievable nor surprising. The concept of "social eugenics" in racist institutions is not talked about enough, it's important we uncover, talk about the sometimes subtle way this manifests, and tbh run these institutions to the ground. The ending was satisfying but not enough, I wanted every racist to reckon with the consequences of their actions and I wanted them to have deal with the consequences and get justice, but the book is right, they're white they'll be fine.

Audio book narrator for Devon spoke VERY slow I had to listen to this book at like 1.90-1.95 speed. Sometimes I'd slow for Chiamaka's narrator. Sped up, they were both great but even at 1.5 which is my usual I felt like I was taking foreverrrrr
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daniellekat's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I wanted to like this more, but I think I'm just not the intended audience. Although exciting, the plot was somewhat predictable, and full of holes. So many characters were introduced for specific plot purposes only to be completely dropped later. And the characters that did stick around were one dimensional and lacked growth. The 
quick and neatly wrapped up
ending was lackluster and added to the book's strange pacing. This tackled some big and necessary themes, but ultimately missed the mark for me.
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ohyeahshebomb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

A high 3.5 stars

This book unfortunately took 7 months to read due to it starting off as a buddy read, but the first 1/3 of the book just agitated me (as a black woman) and just brought back the horrendous encounters I've had and those I'd heard stories of. The story didn't feel like a story. I'm glad I decided to pick it back up and follow through, I flew through the second half of the book within two days. 

A few things I think detracted from the book was the copious amounts of love interests/connections. Maybe I'm too far removed from high school, but it was just overkill to me. I also felt like the book could have benefited from more explanations. Specifically how we got to the protesters, Belle, Devon's father, and Dre, but I digress. I also wanted more of a climax, the book it's self dragged on for me but there the climax was so rush, you'd miss it if you blinked. 

I hope that the white people that pick this book up see the modern day implications of being Black. 

I look forward to reading Where Sleeping Girls Lie!!




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theuncannydani's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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gabyleyendo's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was absolutely not what I expected it to be. It was thrilling, infuriating, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I thought some of the author’s beliefs were maybe spelled out a little too much rather than being less obvious and allowing the reader to come to the same conclusion but because of the subject matter and the target audience, I understand why it’s written that way. Also, there were a few scenes that were written in a way that felt too over the top and unbelievable to me, but being a white woman, it could be that my limited personal experience with racism has created a blindspot that disallows me to see something like those scenes actually happening in real life. Despite the two critiques of this novel, I really enjoyed it. It was fast paced and interesting and I think teenagers will really enjoy it and adults could really learn from it. 
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sad_ferret's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sonoma's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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