Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Description from Goodreads:

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.

Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.

As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?

With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.

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My Review:

This is a book that I needed to reflect on before writing my review. Honestly, my first thought of this book was that I thought the pacing was super slow and I did not find any of the characters to be likable. It wasn't until the last third of the book did the pacing picked up and it all came together. Now after sitting on this book for a little while I realized there was a lot more to this book.

First, I think this book had a very powerful message. It was easy to forget or not realize due to what seemed to me initially an outlandish almost theatrical plot. However, after thinking about it, this is something that could very well be happening right now or not so long in the distant future. I had to pause a lot and reevaluate my thoughts to make sure my privilege was not getting in the way of not only my experience reading this but my review as well. We see hatred similar to what is displayed in this book all of the time throughout history. We just write it off as a one-off crazy story that was made into a documentary or just something that happened in the past that couldn't possibly be happening now. This story broke my heart. There was this particular scene between Devon and Mr. Taylor. I am a bit upset at myself that I had even just for a second dismissed the plot and these characters.

Second, while I didn't fully grow to like the characters even towards the end, I did end up appreciating them and understanding them more. Chiamaka, I originally wasn't a fan of because of how strategic she was. She even admitted to using people to climb the social ladder. I enjoyed seeing her grow as she tried to find out who Aces were with Devon and how she changed with Belle. While Devon was not a bad character, I did find myself wanting to skim his chapters as I did not think they were as interesting as Chiamaka's. I do absolutely love though when they started interacting with each other as I felt their personalities balanced each other out in a good way and I enjoyed seeing them work together.

Overall, I like this book a lot. This is a story that will stick with me for a long time. I still think the pacing is a bit too slow but was definitely worth slugging through. I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for something different and is a bit suspenseful. I definitely see the Gossip Girl influence. I will definitely be reading more books by this author in the future.