Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé creates a dark academic story that stands out amongst the masses, she plays with certain tropes found in the Young Adult genre before veering away and turning reader’s on a new, much more satisfying path. When I looked at the cover of Ace of Spades I was sure I had this book figured out, even despite the stellar reviews, and I have never been so happy to be wrong about a book. The tropes are predictable, even the characters become cookie cutters of each other, different names, different settings, same story.

When you’ve read one book, you’ve read them all. I went through a time of avoiding the Young Adult genre. With the secrets getting more and more personal and with no sign of stopping, Devon and Chiamaka are determined to stop Aces at all costs. The promising start to their final year is cut short when anonymous messages from someone called Aces revealing personal secrets about them both to the entire school. This isn’t a surprise for Chiamaka who has been working for this since starting at Niveus, with her goal of being accepted at Yale to one day be a doctor but does surprise Devon who tries to get good grades and keep his head down until her gets into Julliard. It’s bigger than that,” (Àbíké-Íyímídé 166).Īt the prestigious Niveus Private Academy both Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, the only black students at the school, are chosen as senior class prefects.

They don’t all have white hoods or call us mean things… But racism isn’t just about that – it’s not about being nice or mean. “It sounds wild, I know, but racism is a spectrum and they all participate in it in some way.

Faridah àbíké íyímídé ace of spades