Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

352 reviews

emviolet's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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. 
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knocou's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

Could not put down had to know what was going to happen. 
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merlinagarance's review against another edition

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

4.5

A very relevant read to Black History month for a white person like me. Chilling
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gildedspines's review against another edition

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

5.0

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venusdapoopiehead's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

it’s almost like chiamaka was made to be unlikeable on purpose, which is exactly what she is. she’s nothing but a privileged, people pleaser who kisses the ass of white people who don’t give a fuck about her, and by the time she came to her fucking senses it was almost too late. some of the shit that happened probably wouldn’t have happened had she learned some common fucking sense. i just couldn’t connect with her or even devon, and even though i felt immense sympathy for him, i still just didn’t really feel much of a connection. i cared more about just finding out what the mystery was than the characters, to me they just felt like cliches or tropes almost. think about it, there’s the introverted unpopular boy who’s different from everyone else and has a miserable life, suddenly getting thrusted into the spotlight, and then there’s the mean bitchy popular girl with a dark past/has a different side to her who gets knocked down a peg. i’ve seen these tropes before, so therefore it’s nothing new really. when it came to the plot i feel like the author was having way too much fun during the writing process and was like “you know what let’s just add a bunch of crazy shit to it”, like there was twist after twist after twist, like damn girl atleast gimme a moment to process the other shit i just found out about 😭 it was just slightly overwhelming for my liking.

nonetheless i liked the conversations about race and how society purposefully makes it so that black people don’t succeed, but again, i’m black, i know and have dealt with these kinds of things, so again it was nothing new. not much about this book surprised me or made me learn anything new.
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olijordan's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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? No

4.75

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


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haleysversion's review against another edition

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dark 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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skye_era_books's review against another edition

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

5.0

Holy fucking shit is literally all I have to say about this book. Why did it take me so long to read this? I’m pissed.

This was like Solitaire and Pretty Little Liars mixed if they
were way more serious, racially motivated, and was an entire fucking cult.
 
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rizky's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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readingoccasionally89's review against another edition

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

5.0

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