Ace of Spades

Title: Ace Of Spades

Author: Faridah Abike-Iyimide

Publisher: Feiwel And Friends

Genre: YA Thriller

Every once in a while there in a book that is a #bookstagram favorite and also has a high goodreads rating (4.34) that you think is going to be a slam-dunk, but just doesn’t work out for you. Unfortunately, that was Ace of Spades for me. The story was a good idea, but it fell flat with the execution.

The premise of the story takes place in a private school academy involving Devon and Chiamaka who are selected to be part of the elite school’s Senior Perfects. <— Right off the bat I was sort of scratching my head at this one at little bit, but I went on because I figured I just didn’t have a lot of knowledge of private schools and academy’s.

Shortly after Devon & Chiamaka are given these titles an anonymous text message comes by someone who goes by Aces revealing secrets about them. Ace shows no signs of stopping and things quickly escalate. Can Devon & Chiamaka stop Ace before things become deadly? . . .

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The biggest thing that bothered me with this book is I found the dialogue incredibly unrealistic for teens. It also created a lot of telling in the story vs. showing for the reader. I didn’t find this story thrilling or surprising, but understand what the author was trying to do. The messages were important. Like I said the ideas were good. And I think the author’s writing is strong. Too be clear the messages are on racism and microaggressions. The synopsis really doesn’t give it away but perhaps the Black teens on the cover and the fact that this book as been everywhere this is a known thing.