A review by logsbooklog
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

challenging 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? Yes

3.75

i ended up liking this a good bit. the writing is brisk and easy to get through and the story is gripping enough to see it through to the end. it’s a solid thriller although a lot of the twists are pretty obvious even from the start.
where i think this book falters is in the first 100 pages where the story is pretty cliche. the drama is very much tea but it’s tea that we’ve seen many times before in stories like pretty little liars. while it does ultimately serve to subvert these tropes, i feel like it could have had more creative setups for the payoff to be even better. 
i also think that by the end the book starts to struggle under the weight of its premise. the message is clear and it’s powerful, but the amount of necessary suspension of disbelief becomes too high towards the end. i ended up feeling like it was a little ridiculous just how few genuine people these kids had in their life.
it felt like every single character had to be tied into the overarching mystery when the book really needed some levity of even just 1 or 2 friends or partners who were outsiders. especially chiamaka, who by the end of the book seems to have no one at all compared to devon which results in the payoff feeling kind of uneven.

overall, i think this is a good time with a strong message about race, even if it falls short in a couple areas. i’d definitely recommend it especially for people who may not mind the problems i had as much.
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