Reviews with content warning for Stalking - Ace of Spades

What a great book. The author (who wrote this in college 🤯) says she was inspired by gossip girl and that’s obvious. Any fans of the show would love this. It’s really well written. I love the Blair Waldorf esque main female character. The story tackles a ton of issues and points out both blantant and passive examples of racism. It took a little bit for me to get invested but I think that was because of the high school setting. I’m a grown adult so this was slightly less relatable. If I read this in high school it probably would have been 5 stars. Just a great social thriller. I’d recommend this to any gossip girl lovers, cult enthusiasts, or people who love a non conventional mystery.

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modernthymes's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was going to give this a 3.5 but the last 50-100 pages was so thrilling and the ending was great.

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behindherpages's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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ismildlypoetic's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

5 stars are typically reserved for books that changed my life or I hyperfixated on them

While I don't know if Ace of Spades fits those qualifications, its resemblance to media (that very much did have some core memories) and the importance of its message, plus the way it had me turning pages, I very much feel that this book deserves the 5 stars anyway.

For fans of Pretty Little Liars, this book gives that horrendous cyberbullying experience we're familiar with, plus the added twist of

Spoiler

systematic racism.

Spoiler

There were multiple times I wrote in my reading app that I was terrified to turn the page, knowing that whatever was coming wouldn't be good for our two title characters.

Now time for my infodump:

Spoiler

As for the characters, Devon, I loved. I loved him from the first page. I think he has a genuine care for people, even those who've wronged him. He shoots high, but he does what is right to get to them, and I truly admire that.
As for Chiamaka, my love-hate relationship with her was strong. There are very few people in this world she cared for besides herself, and she didn't give a shit who fell as long as she didn't fall with them. However, I am very happy she got a happy ending. And I hope she kept on her journey of self-growth in those sixteen years after Niveus burned.

Spoiler

I highly recommend this book, especially for those who see themselves, like me, relating to some of the other characters at Niveus. We could all use a lesson in seeing others from a different point of view.

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mkelly's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

this book is fucking chilling. an incredible and difficult read but so worth it. would rate higher than 5 stars if i could. cannot wait to read what àbíké-íyímídé writes next

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booktechnerd's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

5.0

The amount of stress and anxiety this book gave me was worth it in the end!

The first half of this book made me feel so uncomfortable because too many characters reminded me of people I knew in high school. I didn't trust any character and questioned everyone's motives until the very end. Reading this in high school would've made me extremely paranoid. I feel relieved that I'm an adult and my kids go to very diverse schools.

As for the overall story, I was grateful for the

Spoiler

protesters

, but it felt sort of anti-climactic. I wish that scene would've played out differently. It was a little too rushed, but the epilogue made up for it 1000%!

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micaelamariem's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.0

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.

Content Warnings

treereadingabook's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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