by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
4 Stars
“I didn’t invent this twisted system that pits us against each other and makes us do crappy things for status—but I do know how to play it.”
Ace of Spades in 7 words (because 7 is the perfect number): Queer. Mystery. Racism. Quick-read. Young Adult. Does this interest you at all? No? What if I told you it was described as a mix between Gossip Girl and Get Out? Yeah… I wasn’t able to resist either.
Summary: Chimaka is perfect — everyone says so and everyone thinks so. Devon is a nobody musician — no one thinks so and no one says so, because it’s true. The only thing the two have in common, besides going to the same school, is their skin color. Oh, and the fact they’re both being threatened and harassed by someone — or someONES — named ‘Aces’. When ‘Aces’ starts to reveal too many of their secrets… Chimaka and Devon team up to take them (singular… or is it?) down.
Things I liked: Diversity (black and queer main characters), the writing (super easy to follow and breeze through), the romance (there is both a man-loving-man relationship and a woman-loving-woman relationship and they’re both super cute), the plot twists (while I wasn’t surprised at many of them — I’m black and I’ve watched Gossip Girl AND Get Out — the few that did surprise me made me gape at a wall).
Things I disliked: Chimaka (super, super annoying — did I mention annoying?), the “Plot twists” (again, some of them were great but I predicted the majority), and the simplicity of figuring out the Aces ordeal.
Final rating: 4 stars
Quote: “When you grow up like this, whether it’s in your nature or not, sometimes survival overpowers doing the right thing.”
Reviewed by Jazleen
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