Describing this as a mixture of Gossip Girl and Get out drew me in, and it was spot on. With that being said, it was also completely original. These are the kind of YA books that I wish were released while I was still in high school, but am so glad that teenagers have today. One of the most important thrillers that I have ever read.

Ace of Spades was not enjoyable for me because I didn't like the main characters and they are people I'd never be friends with in real life.

Drug dealing, having sex, recording sex tapes, and murder? Yeah, no, I was not a fan of these two. It doesn't help that every time I read a book where the main character kills someone, I feel like an accomplice to the murder. It's like reading Native Son all over again (which was not a good experience for me).

Finally, I thought that the guy and girl on the cover were going to fall in love when I chose this audiobook on Netgalley. I was waaaaaaay wrong... That was pretty disappointing.

Anyway, not much else to say here. I kind of wish I hadn't spent so long listening to this audiobook. I hope you found this review helpful.

I was initially drawn to this story for the Gossip Girl vibes. I was such a fan of the twisted world of Gossip Girl. This book delivered and then some! Main characters, Devon Richards & Chiamaka Adebayo, are the only 2 black students in Niveus Academy, a prestigious high school known for getting students into top tier colleges. All is going well, until senior year when someone identifying as “Aces” begins sending incriminating texts airing students’ past crimes, scandals, and embarrassing moments. 😬 The MC’s quickly figure out they’re the main targets of these texts and their high school enrollment, as well as future college dreams are in jeopardy.

This book tackles many topics including systemic racism, homophobia, gaslighting, and classism. The author does a beautiful job weaving this story between the perspective of the 2 MCs while bringing such life to the overall high school environment. This book holds a powerful message and I encourage all to read it. Learn from it.

Ace of Spades is a dark YA academic story that "delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism."

Perspective trades between main characters Devon and Chiamaka, the only two Black students at Niveus Private Academy. The book opens with the announcement that both are senior prefects, in the running for class valedictorian. But then "Aces" starts to go after them each by sending the student body anonymous text messages about them, threatening to derail not only their senior year but their college prospects as well.

Author Àbíké-Íyímídé deftly shows how racism bleeds into everything. Classism, homophobia, and slut shaming rear their ugly heads too. This is a YA mystery with such depth.

It's rare that an epilogue truly adds something to my reading experience, but I loved this one. Àbíké-Íyímídé is clearly talented; I can't wait to see what she writes next.

(The audiobook narrators were great! I had to slow down the book in a few places to catch their words -- on the rare occasion, they bled together in the recording -- but otherwise listened at ~2.5-2.75 speed. I felt they appropriately set the tone.)

Such a great idea but the execution failed me extremely.. Deals with institutionalized racism in a unique way but over half of the book was extremely boring and petty.

In the Niveus academy, everyone reeks of money. It’s simply a school for rich white kids. But that was mostly okay for scholarship student Devon and the perfectionist Chiamaka. They’re black but that never got them any particular attention. Until everyone in school starts receiving messages of Devon’s private photos and soon later Chiamaka is targeted too. Aces seems to be exposing every secret of our main characters that they can get their hands. They have to team up eventually to catch and stop Aces. But soon it’s obvious that things are not as they seem and there are so many hidden secrets and lies.

I enjoyed reading this thriller, it was fast-paced and kept me guessing. The main characters were likable. Chiamaka was strong-willed and stops at nothing to get what she wants. While Devon was caring and kind. Also, this book is shelved as LGBT so if you want to know, Devon is gay and Chiamaka is bi. I found Devon’s part in particular well-handled.

This book had a powerful message, and discrimination against black students needs to be addressed because more often than not, the educators, too, are complicit or at least turning a blind eye. This needs to stop.

Also-the alternating of narrators was helpful .

𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘴… 𝘐’𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳. 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘺𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘰. ― Aces

🔖 𝘎𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘱 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘖𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘠𝘈 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘯 & 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘢, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺.

📌 I went into this book blindly, which I always recommend with thrillers, and I’m so glad I did. I was following along with the audiobook and physically reading it and woah did I enjoy this! The narrators add so much character to this story and I really enjoyed every moment.

🔖 I haven’t seen Gossip Girl but I can definitely see the resemblance to Get Out. This story was just so good!! I don’t want to say too much but I really do recommend going into it blindly.

📌 As soon as I read about these two characters being prep I had a hunch I wasn’t going to relate with them. Did I? Absolutely not, but I still enjoyed both of them and reading about their lives. I just felt like these characters worked so well with the plot.

🔖 I didn’t realize how big racism would play in this story. I would personally consider racism the main antagonist and not Ace. I just loved the representation in this story and the way the author discussed it.

📌 I loved that the author gave us two strong Black LGBTQ+ main characters! I have never read anything like this and this will definitely be one that stays with me for awhile.

🔖 I just absolutely loved this story. The ending was so well done! I really loved how the author ended it. This is also her debut novel which is just crazy. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next. If Ace of Spades isn’t on your TBR then I highly recommend you add it!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRnFdjiL34i/?utm_medium=copy_link

This book was so good, I didn’t want to put it down! There’s so much to explore in Ace of Spades and it’s definitely a timely read. I felt so connected to the characters and found myself pretty emotional many times for Devon. The author’s note was the perfect finish.

This book is such a great twist on dark academia! Who doesn't love a badass lead character and some powerful messages with their suspense?! Ace of Spades had me thinking about it until I could listen again. I can't wait to see what Faridah Abike-Iyimide comes out with next...really enjoyed this one!

**Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review **

I haven't listened to an audiobook this amazing in a LONG time. The narrators did a WONDERFUL job playing the characters and telling this story.. Especially the one who voiced Devon. Wow, I'm so amazed by their performance and the way their voices sucked me into the story and this world. I felt so many emotions while listening and I loved every minute of it! I would highly recommend this story to EVERY reader.

Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo are the only two Black students at the exclusive Niveus Private Academy. When someone named Aces starts sending out gossip emails that seem to feature Devon and Chiamaka. These aren't just innocent pieces of gossip, these are things that could ruin lives. The two band together to figure out who is behind it. The two had previously run in separate circles, Chiamaka was popular and powerful with aspirations of going to Yale and Devon was more under the radar: a gay student with dreams of a following his passion of music. What they find raises issues of racism that run deep.

I loved this, it was fast-paced and fresh. I really felt for these 2 kids as they were trying to figure out who was trying to ruin their lives. I listened to the audiobook which had different narrators for Devon and Chiamaka's parts. It was awesome and I highly recommend it. This book made in an important commentary on both blatant and systemic racism. It is powerful and utterly modern. Check it out!


What to listen to while reading...
Official playlist by the author: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/60M...

This was genuinely a great YA mystery/thriller. I saw just about every twist coming, but the commentary around systemic racism in education was extremely well done. the author does a wonderful job in the first half of highlighting just how sinister daily microaggressions black students face in schools are before hammering you over the head during the big reveal in a way that was extremely upsetting (and effective!). I have some quibbles with the pacing, and have to suspend a lot of disbelief at how the ending was resolved, although chiamaka and devon deserve everything, especially a happy ending so i can't say i'm too upset about it. i loved faridah's author's note at the end, especially what she had to say about the origin of chiamaka's character and making space for people like her protagonists in the realm of gossip girl or PLL-like teen shows. Audio book was extremely well produced. Both of the narrator's were compelling and brought a lot to the characters.

This thriller was completely different from any one I’ve ever read before. I was NOT expecting anything like this book, the events that happened in this book at all! And that’s part of the reason I enjoyed so much.

It’s senior year and Devon & Chiamaka have joined the ranks of their school’s prefects. But soon after the year has started, an anonymous bully named Aces has started terrorizing the two students. They start trying to figure out why these things have been happening to them and even accuse each other. At first they can’t figure it out, but once things start falling into place, they realize this is way bigger than anything they expected.

I LOVED this. Normally when I see things that describe the book as something I like or something that sounds super out there. So when I saw that this was Get Out and Gossip Girl I was not exactly going into it with an open mind. But man, that’s EXACTLY what it was. And man, it was GOOD. I want to explain why, but SPOILERS.

Also, I think I may have been reading (no pun intended) too much into this, but man, the symbolism in this book is A1. [SPOILERS!] The events that take place at the end were symbolic of all the people that are hiding in plain sight that are just like those in this book. Whether its your peers or those who are above or below you. [END SPOILER] It really brought to life those real life situations that people of color encounter all the time. I thought it was really creative how Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé wrote it.

The characters weren’t my favorite tho. I liked Devon, but Chaimaka was so oblivious. Maybe she was supposed to be written like that, but whatever the reason, I was not impressed. She was supposed to be in the running for valedictorian? I get she was going through some things, but geez, that should have at least listened more. As for everyone else, literally everyone else in this book was trash lol Like I’m laughing but I’m not even kidding. There were some that had no choice but to be trash, but for the most part, all the others didn’t care and were just trash in general. And I hated them lol

The mystery itself was why I didn’t give this 5 stars. It had the potential to be “thrilling,” but it just wasn’t. I don’t really know if that makes sense lol But I just couldn’t really feel that it was scary. It was 1000% the Gossip Girl vibes, you know where everyone was talking about each other? But I guess I wanted more Get Out lol Don’t get me wrong, the vibes from the mystery weren’t bad, but I didn’t feel like it gave its full potential.

This book had a lot of surprises and some interesting symbols and I really enjoyed it. I have seen this floating around on #BookTok and #Bookstagram, and I can finally answer for myself, to me this was indeed worth the hype.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide in exchange for an honest review. I really liked the writing in the book. I could tell the author was inspired by Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, but she put her own twist on it and made it much more relevant. I have highly recommended this book to my best friend who has a teen who is very unique and special. I remember how hard high school can be for anyone different, which I was, and this book does a wonderful job of addressing that. I believe this book is a great read for teens and adults alike.

Get Out meets Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars in this AMAZING YA debut.
♠️
Welcome to Nievus Private Academy, the best education money can buy where Chaimaka is a senior and finally made Head Prefect. This is going to be her year: the year where she continues to excel, get the boy of her dreams and go on to Yale to become a doctor. Devon is also hoping to have a great senior year composing original music in the hopes of getting accepted into Juilliard. However a mysterious & anonymous texter named Ace has other plans for both these students. Secrets begin to leak, photographs emerge and soon Chiamaka and Devon are running for their lives. It’s not safe for them at Nievus…it’s not safe anywhere. But who is Ace and why are they out to get them?
♠️
I’ve been seeing this book all over #booktok for the past month and finally was able to read it and 🤯 THE ENDING! Like I cannot say enough great things about this novel. This was an incredibly well written mystery that I will be thinking about for a long time. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s my favorite book of the month and top 10 of the year so far. Everyone grab this immediately! *Make sure to read the Author’s Note at the end as well.
CW: classism, racism, homophobia, violence, murder, mention of suicide

I haven't even seen Get Out yet but now I know I really need to - I see what all of the hype was about. This had me on the edge of my seat, horrified but unable to look away. I have a feeling that my experience reading this as a white person will be very different from a Black reader's experience, but the writing was excellent, the suspense was there, and the system was.... very thorough. I am glad I read it as an audiobook, especially for the way the narrator read the messages from Aces. I could hear the creepy little smile.

*I received an audio ARC via NetGalley from the publisher*

CW: racism and homophobia

Follows the only two Black teens, Chiamaka and Devon, at Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect when an anonymous texter, going by Aces starts texting their secrets to the whole school. Our two main characters have to find out who's out to get them and why before it's too late and not only are their school careers ruined but their lives.

So this is a dark academia with Black main characters that deals very heavily with racism. As a thriller it definitely delivered and kept me on the edge of my seat. I've seen it compared a little bit to Gossip Girl and PLL, I haven't read Gossip Girl but the PLL comparison doesn't really hold for me. I can sort of see the comparison with Chiamaka in the beginning but ultimately the topics it deals with are way too heavy and this isn't really a book where you love to hate the characters which is what PLL is to me. This is also way better written imo. Some wild stuff does happen in this book though so it does have that "can't put downable-ness" about it.

I really liked how the book showed the intersection between being Black and being on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Devon is gay and Chiamaka is Bi and the book explores them discovering their sexualities in different ways. Devon gets the brunt of homphobic actions since he's targeted by Aces for being gay. Devon as a character is also definitely a more sympathetic one because of this as well him coming from a poorer area with a struggling single parent whereas Chiamaka comes across as a spoiled rich girl who's money is supposed to protect her from her Blackness, especially at the beginning. The book shows her growth in accepting who she is and realizing she doesn't have to nor should she change herself for the white gaze which was nice to see.

There were some aspects to the plot that felt too convenient in order to "add suspense" but they came off as annoying because it lead to the characters making decisions that you would have assumed they were too smart to make. Also the middle of the story did feel like it dragged on a bit, and because of that the ending felt a little rushed and like it went from 0 to 100 a little too quick. I did like the little epilogue though, and I still wanted to get to the end.

If you're looking for a YA thriller with well done social commentary this is it.

I’m always here for a good thriller, I love a good mystery and I’m cool with the “boarding school” plot. This is set at a private high school in America, but the school feels like a British boarding school. Chiamaka has worked hard to get to the top of the class and is awarded head prefect as the beginning of senior year, as she expected. Devon is a kid who has tried to stay under the radar, he isn’t popular, he just tries to get by – but he is also awarded as a prefect for his senior year, much to his surprise.

Soon after, Chiamaka and Devon are being targeted and rumors are spread about them – both of them have skeletons in their closet that are suddenly being leaked to the entire student body via text messages from someone named “Aces.”

The beginning started out slow, setting up these characters, their friends and families, so I was willing to give this time – I’ve seen other reviews mention it gets better the second half of the story, so I kept listening.

Dear reader, it did not get better.

For a thriller, never once was I “on the edge of my seat” so to speak. I was never really invested in this plot line or these characters – they felt one dimensional and continued to make stupid decisions, say later how they made a poor decision, and make the same stupid decision the next time. Rinse and repeat. The plot line was predictable, and I’m terrible at guessing mysteries, so I feel that says a lot. This story had potential, but it fell flat.

Things this story did have going for it: 1. Chiamaka and Devon are both Black students at an all white private academy – they talk about the struggles of being Black and expectations of Black people compared to white students. 2. Chiamaka is biracial and speaks about how her own family is racist against her. 3. LGBTQ+ rep! It was there and it was proud – this book has homophobia in it, which isn’t nice, but felt like real life sadly. I thought it was portrayed well.

Overall, I wish I DNF-ed this earlier on. I thought it would get better, so I kept going, but I was left disappointed with an unsatisfying conclusion.

5 Stars

If I could give this book a million stars, I would do it in a heartbeat. If you love dark thrillers, then this is the one for you. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is a master of words and I need the world to be obsessed as I am.

Ace of Spades is by far one of the best books I have read this year. Right from the start, you are sucked into a dark and twisted book. I was nervous when the tagline was "Gossip Girl + Get Out," but it's scarily accurate.

Devon and Chiamaka were brilliant characters, and I am sad their story is over. This is one of the instances where I wish the standalone was a series. This concept would make an AMAZING series. I cannot say any more because of spoilers. Just know that I would love for more books that followed Devon and Chiamaka.

If you love thrillers, then pick this one up. I promise it's one amazing book.

READ THIS BOOK!

First of all, I love both narrators for this book. They both did a wonderful job at portraying both characters. It made the book more exciting to read when the narrators are good.

I really loved that the author kept me intrigued throughout the whole book. I couldn't put it down, because I just needed to know what would happen. I just wanted to hug Devon and Chi so many times, because they didn't deserve this. They were both just trying to make their lives better and get through high school.

This book gave me so much anxiety sometimes like reading is supposed to be fun. I just wanted to throw the book at certain points, of course, I didn't. I still loved the gossip girl vibes, even when I had to stop reading to take a few breaths.

Trust No One.

Overall gave this book a 5/5 stars.

Everyone should read this.