I finally read Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. This novel came out in 2021, and I added it to my TBR on Goodreads immediately when I saw all of the hype on Booktok. Cut to four years later, and I was stumbling through Barnes and Noble with my birthday gift card, and I saw the book sitting in the YA section. Intrigued, I picked it up without even reading the summary and added it to my stack.
Here’s the mini plot of Ace of Spades. The book follows the only two black students at the elite Niveus Academy: Chiamaka Adebayo and Devon Richards. Richards is on scholarship, and comes from the less privileged side of town. His father is in jail, his mom works multiple jobs, and he lives a lonely life at school. Adebayo is like the resident IT girl at school. Everyone at school wants to be her and secretly hates her. She’s always surrounded by people, but she doesn’t have any real friends except for one. Or so we think.
Anyways, Adebayo and Richards are back for their senior year—the year for no mistakes. As the school year begins, an anonymous source, Aces, begins sending text messages to the entire school revealing Chiamaka and Devon’s secrets. As Devon loses his only friend at school, and Chiamaka loses her influence, they band together to defeat Aces.
***Spoilers Ahead***
Turns out, Aces isn’t just one person. Aces was created by the student body and faculty in the 60s to terrorize the black students at Niveus. Every summer, the white students attend a camp where they learn about social eugenics and the school’s ties to the Confederacy. We slowly see the racist and backwards thoughts of the students revealed. Chiamaka’s “best friend” starts treating her like an object he used for sex rather than a devoted friend. Devon’s favorite teacher discourages him from applying to college because he doesn’t think it’s for his kind. Devon and Chiamaka are being pushed out of the school, they worked endlessly to excel in.
The white nationalist ideas harbored by the characters in this novel mirror many of the ideas we’re seeing today especially in the US. In the novel, it took only one group to create this disgusting mindset amongst the students, alumni, and faculty. In real life, it’s taken one presidential administration to elevate the voices of white nationalists in the U.S. It only takes one group, one person to make people feel comfortable enough to voice their hateful and despicable sentiments.
I encourage you all to read Ace of Spades for the mystery, drama, and its parallels to the world today. The novel is a little unsettling, but it’s a necessary read for all especially younger adults in this political climate.
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