I honestly don’t know what to say about this book, because I don’t want to give anything away! I often start my book reviews with a powerful or well-written or “sums up the book” quote, but all of the amazing quotes I highlighted while reading have the potential of giving away a clue or a hint or a nudge.
Ace of Spades is a twisty rollercoaster of a YA thriller, and I will be honest in saying I was pretty quickly sucked in and didn’t want to put it down. There were times I verbalized my shock or anger while reading, much to the amusement of my husband. This is what I had hoped One of Us Is Lying, which I ended up really disliking, would be. It’s dramatic but not over-the-top-don’t-want-to-keep-reading dramatic. It’s twisty in a way that made the reveal satisfying, even though there were parts of it I suspected from early on. I was invested in the characters, even though I found myself internally (and maybe verbally) yelling at them not to do the stupid thing they were about to do.
Plus, some heavy and important topics are dealt with. Crime and addiction and socio-economic disparity and racism all play important parts in the book, and all of these topics are all handled well.
It wasn’t a perfect book.
- At times it felt a bit more YA than a lot of YA books are…
- The coincidence on the final page felt a bit much, and since it was the very end it left a bad taste, if that makes sense …
- There were parts that felt a bit over-the-top to the point where it defied logic…
… but even with those, it’s really difficult to believe that this is Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s first novel. I’ll definitely be picking up her next one!
✅ for fans of dark academy books and twisty thrillers