Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

 

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Ace of Spades was one of this year's most highly anticipated YA books. The cover and the private school setting at the height of the dark academia trend put it on my radar. Plus thrillers are hot right now and with a comp to Get Out I wasn't sure was curious about the execution.

The story follows Devon and Chiamaka as they head into senior year as Niveus Private Academy where they are selected as head boy and girl. Soon after they start receiving threats and having secrets leaked by a mysterious entity called Aces.

Niveus Private Academy is described as an amalgam of British and American private school traditions while being set in a non descript area of the United States.  I understand the author wanted to appeal to an American audience but the story should've just been set in the UK.  For one she was writing based off her feelings attending a very white British university. Black identity in the UK has similarities to the US but it also very different. And I find in the US we're a little more open with these conversations about race in the media because Black people push for them. In the UK the media is still trying to pretend racism doesn't exist and media that reflects what Black Brits are feeling needs to have visibility. 

I couldn't picture the school or the surrounding areas at all. In the US unless you're living in one of those low income housing developments you usually can't walk between the rich neighborhoods and the poor ones. These elite private schools are purposely built in areas poor students would have to bus to. In addition the price it's part of their unattainability. 

This was compared to Gossip Girl but it never get me those vibes. Outside of name dropping a few designers this felt very generic private school. Part of the appeal of Gossip Girl is the look into that very very white exclusive world of old monied WASPs. And while there were side characters few were memorable and there was no one Blair/Serena dynamic in here. 

There was a lot of telling in this story and I would've liked to see more showing. The book emphasized the problem I have when the plot is racism vs racism being one of many factors. There was a narrow focus on micro and macroaggressions but little levity needed to balance this story out. There's so much more to the Black experience than just suffering at the hands of racists. It felt like the book was all about showing how anti-Black society is but lacked joy. And neither had any type of support system outside of that environment. So even though this is a story about two Black kids attempting to deconstruction very white institutions whiteness is very centered.

So much happened in this story but none of it had me on the edge of my seat. I wasn't really excited or surprised by the reveal of the identity of Aces. The motivation for Aces also didn't seem sustainable or make much sense but I don't want to get too much into spoilers. It just felt at times like we were constantly moving from one event to another without the chance to stop and feel the full effects.

The only bright spot was Devon's strong and engaging narrative voice. I was able to enjoy him a bit despite the character being heavily weighed down by having all the issues thrown at him like being poor with a dad in jail, having a single mother with multiple kids she was struggling to raise, having a drug dealing friend in addition to being a young gay boy struggling with his sexuality. It was a lot of negative stereotypes at once which at times had him feeling like a caricature.

Aces was spilling his deepest secrets. While in Chiamaka's case her issues were more about her struggles to fit in as a biracial girl and wanting to be the school's elite. So Aces drama was more manufactured to break down her manufactured perfect image. I would've liked to see more a relationship with her mother. Maybe even some family members on her mother's side of the family since it was stressed her father's side wanted nothing to do with her. Her parents seemed like relatively normal people but she was so closed off to them. 

There was a real lack of presence of the Black community in this story. The hood is just painted as a place of struggle without also acknowledging the good people who live in the community. And there are opportunities to infuse some joy and levity in this story but that never happened.

I did a blended read for this because I received a finished physical copy but also received an audiobook for review from Macmillan. The narration was good and made for a quick and easy read despite the page length. I liked that their were dual narrators and they didn't try to do male/female voices when it came time for dialogue because that can be distracting. Faridah shows promise as a writer and I would read her future work as long as it's not centered on whiteness.