If there’s one book you just couldn’t ignore a few years ago, it’s Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. This young adult novel had all the ingredients to become popular: set at a prestigious school with rich kids, mystery and really important social themes. However, I was quite ignorant towards new YA releases as I was feeling myself starting to stray away from this type of books. I don’t mix well with thrillers, and I started gravitating more towards new adult and adult fiction. It was only when the author got announced for a Dutch book event – which I already knew I wouldn’t attend because it was on my birthday and the line-up wasn’t that interesting – that this novel was put back on my radar. I had high hopes because of everything mentioned above, were these met?

Ace of Spades by Faridah Abíké-Iyímídé
Published by Feiwel & Friends on June 1, 2021
Pages: 422
ISBN: 9781250800817
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Young adult

A compelling, incendiary, and unputdownable thriller with a shocking twist, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism with this compulsive debut.

Hello, Niveus High. It’s me. Who am I? That’s not important. All you need to know is…I’m here to divide and conquer. – Aces

Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light.

Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public.

Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.

Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…

With deep, deep sadness I have to report that this book and I aren’t a match at all. I liked the concept, but the execution was not the best honestly. This story follows Devon and Chiamaka, two black teenagers at a very, very white prestigious school. Devon has one big dream: making it to Juilliard as a music student. Chiamaka is biracial, she’s Italian-Nigerian. She has one best friend and just exists in school. At the start of their final school year, things drastically change for both teens. An anonymous Aces keeps sending messages to the entire school with the purpose to tear Devon and Chiamaka down. Also, strange things keep happening to them. Are they able to conquer Aces or is this anonymous person ruining their school career and their so carefully planned future?

The biggest problem for me with this book were both Devon and Chiamaka. I don’t like the way they are portrayed. They are both black, which is necessary for the themes of this novel. However, we barely get to know anything about them. They are portrayed very stereotypical and somehow, I got the feeling that the author was trying to tick as many diversity boxes as possible here. At least one of the characters is queer and one is from a poor background. I’m rooting for diversity in my reading, but it has to feel natural to me. Here, it feels very forced. Why do the black kids always have to live in a poor neighbourhood? Just to name something. Furthermore, the characters are executed on the surface which makes it hard to connect to them and feel sympathy for them. I didn’t cheer them on and wasn’t even interested in following them because of their quite poor execution.

The writing is very accessible for the target audience. It’s this author’s debut, but it already shows potential. The POV switching was quite heavy, but this only provides more to the story itself. This way, we get a good glimpse of what the characters have to endure. However, the writing is not as indulging as I hoped for.

This is a story with a lot of potential and a lot of interesting topics. It handles some very important social themes such as racism, classism and social eugenics. I haven’t heard of the latter one, so this was interesting to me. I think – and hope – that this is not happening here in the Netherlands, but I can imagine it happening in the United States where this story is set. It occurred for the first time in 1965, shortly after racial segregation was ended by law. However, the author is from the United Kingdom, and this shows as the UK and US school system got mixed up. Class and head class prefects aren’t a thing in the US and many reviewers have pointed this out. For me, the decision to set this novel in the US is very logical, the themes make more sense now. These themes were the best part of the novel, the plot itself was – again – executed poorly. I missed depth and I already found out how this would end on chapter four. So, the reading joy was gone pretty quickly. This is absolutely me, I always have this issue when reading thrillers. I understand why the younger readers would enjoy this book though.

I believe I would have enjoyed Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé much more if I read it years ago instead of in 2024. This mystery novel has a lot of ingredients to be good and there’s definitely potential there. It addresses very important social themes which are still relevant today. However, I didn’t like the execution of both characters and plot. These were all so shallow and poorly executed that it was nearly impossible for me to cheer them on loudly. I think the YA mystery is a type of book I outgrow more and more. In my defence, I wasn’t fully aware that this was a mystery novel. But that’s my bad. The younger readers will definitely enjoy this though!