Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

 Book Review:

Ace of Spades

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥/5🔥

Holy shit. This book. This book is so important. This book is heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking because it’s a magnifying of reality. It’s an allegory for the history of the world that has led us to this time and day. For the way Black bodies are treated as disposable. For the way Black minds are not valued. For the othering and lessening of people who have fought twice as hard for half as much and been told to be grateful. Are there schools doing this exact thing this explicitly? I don’t know, I hope not. But what happens to Chiamaka and Devon is what happens in all areas of life to BIPOC, has been happening for hundreds of year. 

If I had to give you a descriptive I’d say if you take the supernatural elements out of the film Get Out leaving all the evil and dropped it into a high school you’d have Ace of Spades. I hope Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé writes more books because her writing is vivid and brilliant and real and raw. 

My only complaint is that this book was not the B&N YA bookclub book during a time when we could have had groups in store. The conversations that could have taken place would have been important and difficult and necessary.

(Finished July 2, 2021)