plot was solid and the symbolism/themes were woven in nicely. however i think i would have liked this more had i read it in high school (which tbf it is marketed as YA so i shouldn't be surprised), as i didn't mesh with the writing style that much. that said, i still really really enjoyed the characters.

but also goddamn the two main characters go through absolute hell and back (like legitimately. not to be taken lightly at all. several reviews have described the book as Black trauma p*rn soooooo yeah proceed at your own risk). and like, yes, i get that was probably done to really emphasize the gory, sinister nature of institutionalized racism but also neither chiamaka nor devon really saw any joy in the book? every possible horrible thing that could've happened to them did (apart from being flat-out ly*ched, and still chiamaka came very close). needless to say, they are most definitely traumatized for life after this book. which the book doesn't exactly address. and probably never intended to, given the time skip at the end. however, even during the book it is revealed that devon especially went through some horrific shit as a kid, and the PTSD/trauma response isn't really gone over aside from a brief subplot where he mentions not remembering middle school much due to the extreme violence he endured via being bullied.

overall, the book would've probably done better by being longer. i wished devon and chiamaka's friendship got more screentime, and i kinda wish devon got more closure with jack? maybe that was the point though. devon doesn't owe jack any more of his time, and there's no way in hell that they'd be friends again. i think the main thing i wish is that we got to see more of devon and jack's friendship before jack started distancing himself. because really all we were told is when devon mentions at the beginning that jack is the one person at school he'd call a friend since they'd known each other since they were kids and had a similar class background (both were scholarship kids at their private school). then devon reveals how jack has been treating him different since he came out at the end of middle school so we are led to believe (for at least the beginning part) that jack is just homophobic. then it turns out he was an active white supremacist and all of a sudden devon starts saying that jack was his best friend and talks about how much he loved him. which tbf maybe it was intentional that it took him this long to open up to the reader in his narration since most of his friendship with jack seemed to have developed during the period that was trauma blocked in devon's memory. i cared about jack because he reminded me of my family, but there wasn't much in the actual narrative to make me care about him/devon's friendship with him. so the confrontation at the end didn't hit as much as i think it was supposed to.

overall decent read, would recommend for the messages/themes.

HOLY CRAP THIS IS SO GOOD. 

Normally when media is touted as a “this meets that” I am highly sceptical because it rarely lives up to it. But this is legit Gossip Girl meets Get Out and it’s great. And by great I mean it’s rage inducing and heartbreaking, a bit of a thriller, but also heartwarming because despite the shitstorm that is the story, there is some love and joy for the main characters.

 

I have been so busy but I finally finished my second read of the month! I just read Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide, a book published by Square Fish, an imprint of Macmillan. This book has been on my radar for a couple of years--I didn't know much about it other than it was dark academia and had BIPOC and Queer representation. I didn't need more information than that to decide I wanted to read it. 

I'm so glad I finally did read it. What blows my mind is that the author, Faridah Abike-Iyimide is younger than me and was eighteen when she started writing this book. As an aspiring author, I'm both jealous and in awe. She's a British novelist who just graduated with her BA in English Literature and is now pursuing a Master's in Shakespeare Studies. 

Ace of Spadesis a young adult thriller branded as "Get Out" meets "Gossip Girl" but personally, I felt like it was more "Pretty Little Liars." The novel jumps between two perspectives: Chiamaka, a Blair-Waldorf-Wannabe who wants to do anything to stay on top; and Devon, a young man who wants to stay under the radar until he gets into Juliard. In their senior year, anonymous message blasts start delving out secrets these two are hiding and publicly humiliating them. For some reason, these blasts are only targeting Chi and Von, the only two Black students at their high school. They need to get to the bottom of this before reputations are ruined...or worse. 

For the most part, I thought this was a brilliant book! As aforementioned, I am in awe that the author was so young when she wrote it--but perhaps that's just because when I was eighteen, I was still in my angsty poetry phase. I thought the writing style really worked for this type of book and really captured the contrasts between Chiamaka's and Devon's personalities. While I didn't necessarily like Chi at first (she seemed spoiled and arrogant and unlikable), she definitley grew on me over time.

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 The mystery in itself was thrilling too. As someone who is not usually into mysteries, I knew it was good when I was starting to tally my own suspects for who could be behind the blasts. 

My one dislike of the book was the ending. That seems too vague--I'm trying not to give any spoilers away, but to put it a bit more specifically, it felt to me like there was too much unsolved. Maybe that is part of the point, the more I think about it, though. Maybe the author is trying to say that systemic issues can't be fixed overnight (which is a big theme of the book) but we need to do all we can to fix the system. Progress is slow, but we shouldn't stop moving forward. Still, I wish I could understand how we got from the last chapter to the epilogue. 

Overall, I'd give the book four stars--would've been five if the ending was more satisfying to me, but it may be to others! I highly recommend this book. 

That being said, there are a few content warnings! This book may be hard to read for some people as there are graphic descriptions of violence, racism, hints of sexual assault, bullying, classism, a portrayal of post-traumatic anxiety, and hints of murder. 

If you're still interested in reading the book, try also checking the author out on Instagram here.  

A whole secret racist society? Building someone up for three years just to tear them down at the last minute? Everyone is in on it, and again with the main characters not trusting their parents. It even included the trope of “we committed vehicular manslaughter and covered it up” and that turned into “guess what the person we hit is alive”.  
I felt bad for not always liking Chiamaka because at points her attitude was awful towards Devon and she herself seemed to have some internalized issues. Another trope that popped up and wasn’t touched again was Chiamaka possibly getting drugged at a party. Over all I was disappointed and was surprised none of the characters in the background were flushed out. It felt like it was all trauma and no resolution. 

If you liked pretty little liars you would like this. It was good and it held my attention but I called some of the twists very early on and that made it predictable to me. 
 It doesn’t live up to the “thriller” element that I was expecting 

Una novela debut estelar, me quito el sombrero ante la autora. 

Como alguien que pasó toda su vida escolar siendo un alumno becado me identifique con Devon en varios aspectos, incluyendo la relación con su mamá. Soy hijo único, pero igual tuve claro desde un inicio que debía hacer todo lo posible por mantner un buen promedio y sobresalir por cosas buenas; como siempre me dijo mi propia madre 

Es una cruda verdad que los problemas que enfrentan los protagonistas sigan tan presentes y que, parafraseando a Chiamaka, les molesta más que les digas que son racistas al racismo en sí mismo; y se puede decir lo mismo de la homophobia, del clasismo, de los juegos de poder enfermos de estos grupos de odio. Aún cuando se nota que muy en el fondo saben que lo que hacen está mal, es un pobre consuelo para cuando usan su poder y sus recursos para atacar a inocentes. Tristemente, cuando el virus del fanatismo llega a la cabeza no hay nada que pueda hacerse por esa persona sino huir, pues el fanatismo y la estupidez nunca afectan a los que lo tienen, sino a aquellos que les rodean. Y lo peor del caso es lo compenetrado que está el sistema de ello, este sistema que no sólo promueve y protege actos de odio irracional; los demanda para seguir funcionando. El mundo moderno está construido sobre la sangre de generación tras generación de inocentes para el beneficio de unos pocos que se creen con derecho a todo.

En esta lectura sólo hubo una cosa que me dejó con ganas de más: 

El arrepentimiento Belle se me hizo que llevaría a un arco de autorreflexión y luego de redención en el cual Chiamaka y Devon le dicen, tal cual, que no pueden perdonarla, no después de 4 años planeando destruirlos, y Belle aceptándolo.

Que haya sido un grupo de manifestantes quienes los salven al último tiene mayor peso porque es una comunidad que los acoge y protege, en lugar un individuo de una clase opresora que tuvo una crisis de conciencia. Eso, estuvo genial.

Lo que a mí gustaría haber visto es Belle recolectando información de Ases, delatando a la periodista y exponiendo a todos los integrantes en Niveus, y quizá algunos de otras escuelas como es que haya conocido por cualquier cosa. Pero que aún así Chiamaka le diga que no, no es suficiente por todo lo que le ha hecho. Incluso cuestionarla sobre su cambio de corazón.

¿Y si no se enamoraba de Chiamaka? ¿Se le opone a Ases porqué es lo correcto o porqué están agrediendo a alguien que quiere como pareja?

Lo recomendaria 10/10